Through a financial agreement called a Solar Energy Procurement Agreement, also known as a Power Purchase Agreement, Fulton County is able to have solar panels on county buildings at no upfront cost to the county. A third party installs, owns, and operates the panels, and Fulton County pays for the electricity produced as if we were paying an electric utility. The best part? On average, the price we pay for solar is less than the price we pay for regular electricity.
In 2020 Fulton County entered into a contract with local solar provider Cherry Street Energy to have solar panels installed on seven county buildings. Since those projects came online in 2021, we’ve saved almost $150,000 on electricity bills.
Fulton County is now is the process of adding 46 more buildings, which are estimated to save $2.4M over the 20-year term. The 46 additional buildings will produce about 6.8M kWh each year, equivalent to approximately 560 homes. This is also equivalent to 3.3M pounds of avoided emissions.
The graphs below show the solar generation at each building for the past year and the solar generation for all buildings for the past few years. Fulton County’s goal is to have 25% of its electricity generated by solar panels by 2030.