Hannah Solar picked the shortest day of the year — and an overcast day at that — to officially flip the switch on what it’s billing as “the largest office building array in Atlanta.”
Still, according to gauge reading around noon today, the 149-kilowatt photovoltaic project atop the Peachtree 25th Building was plugging along at 20 or 21 kilowatts. That’s more than a lot of other local commercial projects on a sunny day.
With serious questions arising now about the fate of one of the few Georgia programs designed to help spur clean energy, however, fewer projects of this size might be seen in 2011.
Hannah Solar CEO Pete Marte (center) and Georgia Public Service Commissioner Chuck Eaton (right) speak with other attendees on the roof of the Peachtree 25th building. Photo by Ken Edelstein.
“We wanted to figure out a way to lower the cost of operations, and we wanted to figure out a way to conserve resources,” Jonathan D. Rodbell of Atlanta Property Group, the building owner, said during a celebration on the roof of the 40-year-old, 10-story building, much of which is now covered by the array’s 663 panels.
Rodbell describes Peachtree 25th, which is on the seam between Buckhead and Midtown, as a “Class B-plus” office building that is attempting to distinguish itself as a space that innovates on behalf of its tenants. The solar project is one of several steps the building has taken to prepare for LEED certification.
“We think [the solar system] is an advantage, because over time it will control costs,” Rodbell said.
Two factors that helped to make such a large project financially attractive were a 30 percent federal “1603″ renewable energy grant offered through President Obama’s stimulus package and a 35 percent renewable energy property tax credit offered by the state of Georgia. That reduced the return on investment for the owner to something like four years, about a third of the break-even point without those two incentives, according to Hannah Solar CEO Pete Marte.
Marte says the incentives have been crucial to kickstarting the state’s transition to clean energy, which traditionally has enjoyed fewer subsidies than coal, oil and nuclear energy. One of the two incentive programs got a second wind last week when the federal grants were included in the huge tax cut bill signed into law by President Obama.
But the state tax rebates may be in serious trouble. Two years ago, lawmakers only funded the rebates for three years, capping all rebates combined at $2.5 million annually. Even before the boom that solar projects have enjoyed over the last two years, that cap was paltry compared to similar programs in other states.
With both residential and commercial solar projects becoming more popular, the $2.5 million for 2010 was spoken for by April. To be fair to owners whose projects happened to be scheduled for completion late in the year, state officials opted to allow 2010 projects to qualify for 2011 credits. And in August, when the 2011 credits were spoken for, projects began to qualify for 2012 grants.
As a result, amid all their celebrations of growth — and of projects like Peachtree 25th’s — industry leaders now fear that the credit will run out early next year. They’re likely to push for additional funding for the solar credit in the 2011 state legislative session, which begins next month. But that’s an uphill task because the state already is facing a billion-dollar-plus budget shortfall.
“If we don’t see that money for the tax rebate,” Marte said, “it’s going to be brutal.”
Despite that prospect and the clouds, of course, Marte was beaming like a proud solar papa.
For more details on the project, check out the Hannah Solar site.
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