Members of Tri-County Electric will have access to solar energy without installing solar panels

A Middle Georgia member-owned electric cooperative will give its members the ability to have solar energy without installing panels on their property.

Gray-based Tri-County Electric Membership Corp. plans to build a 1-megawatt solar array in Eatonton on 10 acres adjacent to the cooperative's district office, according to a news release. It will have more than 4,200 panels and generate 2.1 million kilowatt-hours per year when completed. The site is expected to begin energy production in May 2016.

Tri-County EMC has more than 21,025 accounts in Baldwin, Bibb, Jasper, Jones, Morgan, Putnam, Twiggs and Wilkinson counties.

Cooperative members will have access to solar energy for their homes or businesses through a solar program called ourSolar. Members will be able to purchase up to four 1.22-kwh blocks of solar capacity from the array, with each block producing about 160-250 kwh per month, the release said. The energy produced each month by the panels, like all solar arrays, will depend on the sun's angle, the number of cloudy days and the time of year. The energy generated by the block will be credited against the normal usage on that month's electric bill. Each block will cost $25 per month, and there are no contracts and no minimum term to participate.

For the project, Tri-County is partnering with Southern Wholesale Energy, which will own the array, and United Renewable Energy, which will install and maintain it. All of the energy from the solar array will be purchased by Tri-County EMC through a 25-year purchase power agreement.

To contact writer Linda S. Morris, call 744-4223 or follow her on Twitter@MidGaBiz.

This story was originally published April 7, 2016 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Members of Tri-County Electric will have access to solar energy without installing solar panels ."