Solar Baxley City Hall

Baxley City Hall has solar panels, in Appling County, home to nuclear Plant Hatch. Why? The solar installation will generate most during the most expensive electrical power times of the day; it will pay for itself in ten years, and it’s lower power bills from then on. Baxley City Council approved the project unanimously in December, to be paid for out of reserves with no financing, and the solar system is already installed and working. Any local city or county hereabouts could do the same thing.

Renee O’Quinn wrote for the Baxley News-Banner 19 December 2012, City approves installation of solar panels at City Hall,

The Baxley City Council held discussions about the installation of solar panels at City Hall at the regular meeting held Dec. 11. Mayor Rigdon presented pictures of a building with solar panels and stated that he and the city manager have been meeting with representatives of Hannah Solar about potential savings to power bills if they went with solar panels.

Mayor Steve Rigdon stated this is a direction I would like to go in. The total cost $112,533.00, and will pay for itself in ten years based on Kilowatt hours used and basically have a very little utility bill.

Mayor Pro Tem Dr. Esco Hall, Jr. made a motion to proceed with installing the solar panels at City Hall and to pay for it out of reserves. This motion was seconded by Councilman Kenneth Waithe and approved unanimously.

Manager Jeff Baxley explained that Hannah Solar is interested in a public/private partnership with the City and lease five acres of land. They would use this land to harvest power to sell megawatt back to Georgia Power.

The council also approved for Attorney Alex Johnson to negotiate the proposed lease terms with Hannah Solar.

Renee O’Quinn wrote for the Baxley News-Banner 10 April 2013, Baxley City Hall going green with Solar Power,

As cities, businesses and farms are looking for more ways to save money on their power bills and are coming up with ways to generate more revenue going solar is becoming more popular. Why solar power? It reduces environmental impact, is reliable, low maintenance and provides long-term solutions for energy.

At a December Baxley City Council meeting the Council voted unanimously to go with sustainable energy and have solar panels installed at City Hall to offset the cost of the power bill. For weeks now Hannah Solar has been working on installing the solar panels on the roof of City Hall. The solar power will only be used to offset the power bill; not to sell it.

It should be online and generating power by April 10. The cost of the solar panel project is $112,533.00, and will be paid for with reserves, (not financed), when the contract is complete. Based on the Kilowatt-hours generated, the project will pay for itself in ten years. There 180 panels equal to 250 watts of power per panel. It will not store energy. On sunny days it will generate energy and on cloudy days it will not. The solar panels will require routine cleaning with a squeegee.

As the sunlight hits the panels it creates direct current (DC) electricity. Inverters are necessary and four were installed at City Hall. The inverters convert the direct current to alternate current (AC) which is used to power City Hall, or solar to the power company. Monitoring of the solar production can also be accessed online.

Future solar power projects for the City of Baxley may include the Public Works building or the airport.

We have an airport with lots of space that can’t be used for anything else….

-jsq