Flint customers getting solar power

All Flint Energies customers are now getting a portion of their power from the sun.

Officials on Thursday celebrated the opening of the 911-acre Sandhills Solar Facility in Taylor County. It will produce 146 megawatts of electricity to be distributed among five electric membership corporations, including Flint. Flint serves a 17-county area that includes Houston, Peach, Crawford and Taylor counties, as well as a small portion of Bibb.

Officials at the ribbon-cutting ceremony said it’s the largest solar facility east of the Mississippi River. It’s the largest of four that Southern Power owns in Taylor County, with the four together totaling nearly 300 megawatts of output.

“Taylor County is the cutting edge,” said Buzz Miller, CEO of Southern Power. “The energy business, the electricity business, is being transformed every day and Taylor County is one of the leaders in the transformation.”

The area of Taylor County where the solar fields are located, along Ga. 96 west of Butler, is considered ideal for solar because it’s relatively flat with few trees.

During the peak of construction 1,000 people were employed building the facility. The ongoing employment to operate the four Southern Power facilities is eight people.

State Rep. Patty Bentley, whose district includes Taylor County, said the solar explosion in the area has been a boost.

“This is a big deal for Taylor County and the state of Georgia because this project has brought about so many jobs,” she said.

Jimmy Autry, spokesman for Flint, said Flint is buying 15 megawatts of the power generated by Sandhills. At its peak in the summer, Flint requires about 400 megawatts to power all of its customers. The solar power will go into the overall distribution grid, not just to a certain area, so all customers will be using it, he said.

However, unlike other forms of electricity production that provide a constant output, the Sandhills facility will only be producing power during daylight hours.

The 1.6 million panels in the facility are on a tilting axis that allows the panels to follow the sun through the day to gain maximum output.

This story was originally published November 17, 2016 at 2:48 PM with the headline "Flint customers getting solar power."