Dr. Sidney Smith has long promoted solar power.
His Tybee home was the first Georgia residence to hook to the grid. His Georgia Skin and Cancer Clinic on the southside was the first commercial building to do so. Along with a business partner and friend, Dr. Pat Godbey of Brunswick, he started the state’s first solar farm in Bulloch County.
Now he’s taking his solar into uncharted territory. On Wednesday, he announced a deal he’d cut with the owners of the Driftaway Cafe on Skidaway Road.
The doctors’ newly formed company, Lower Rates for Customers LLC, bought and installed a pole-mounted solar array in the cafe’s parking lot. It’s expected to produce about 10 percent of the restaurant’s electricity. Cafe owners and operators Michele and Robyn Quattlebaum have agreed to buy that electricity from Smith’s company for 1 percent less than Georgia Power’s rate.
And Smith is waiting to receive a cease-and-desist letter from Georgia Power.
“This is a test case for generating power and selling it on private land,” Smith said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the cafe Wednesday. “Georgia Power doesn’t think we can do that.”
Georgia’s Territorial Electric Service Act regulates who can provide power and where. Smith holds it shouldn’t apply to power generated on private property for use at that property.
“We put the solar system on private land,” Smith said. “We’re selling power to a private individual. Our system is not connected to Georgia Power at all. The power right here never gets to the grid. This goes right into his breaker panel. When he’s pulling power he pulls ours first.”
Attorney Steve O’Day, who represents Smith, said what the doctor is doing is a first in Georgia but is commonplace elsewhere in the country.
“A company has money and wants to make an investment and comes in and builds solar on a rooftop, say of a Walmart,” he said. “It sells that electricity to Walmart through a power purchase agreement. But, so far, the utilities in Georgia have been able to stonewall it from happening here.”
Georgia Power spokeswoman Lynn Wallace first said Smith’s new arrangement sounded like it violated the Territorial Act. But then she hedged, saying the company needs more details.
“We are in favor of what’s in the best interest of all our customers,” Wallace said. “Thus far we’ve not seen the specifics of Dr. Smith’s plan. We welcome the opportunity to discuss it further with him.”
Smith anticipates a fight, even naming the company with a lawsuit in mind.
“Just in case I get sued by Georgia Power it’d be Georgia Power vs. Lower Rates for Customers,” he said.
SOURCE: http://savannahnow.com/exchange/2012-01-29/solar-deal-challenges-georgia-power#.Tyhr6PlQE4k
His Tybee home was the first Georgia residence to hook to the grid. His Georgia Skin and Cancer Clinic on the southside was the first commercial building to do so. Along with a business partner and friend, Dr. Pat Godbey of Brunswick, he started the state’s first solar farm in Bulloch County.
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| Dr. Sidney Smith’s latest solar venture is |
| supplying power to Driftaway Café. |
Now he’s taking his solar into uncharted territory. On Wednesday, he announced a deal he’d cut with the owners of the Driftaway Cafe on Skidaway Road.
The doctors’ newly formed company, Lower Rates for Customers LLC, bought and installed a pole-mounted solar array in the cafe’s parking lot. It’s expected to produce about 10 percent of the restaurant’s electricity. Cafe owners and operators Michele and Robyn Quattlebaum have agreed to buy that electricity from Smith’s company for 1 percent less than Georgia Power’s rate.
And Smith is waiting to receive a cease-and-desist letter from Georgia Power.
“This is a test case for generating power and selling it on private land,” Smith said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the cafe Wednesday. “Georgia Power doesn’t think we can do that.”
Georgia’s Territorial Electric Service Act regulates who can provide power and where. Smith holds it shouldn’t apply to power generated on private property for use at that property.
“We put the solar system on private land,” Smith said. “We’re selling power to a private individual. Our system is not connected to Georgia Power at all. The power right here never gets to the grid. This goes right into his breaker panel. When he’s pulling power he pulls ours first.”
Attorney Steve O’Day, who represents Smith, said what the doctor is doing is a first in Georgia but is commonplace elsewhere in the country.
“A company has money and wants to make an investment and comes in and builds solar on a rooftop, say of a Walmart,” he said. “It sells that electricity to Walmart through a power purchase agreement. But, so far, the utilities in Georgia have been able to stonewall it from happening here.”
Georgia Power spokeswoman Lynn Wallace first said Smith’s new arrangement sounded like it violated the Territorial Act. But then she hedged, saying the company needs more details.
“We are in favor of what’s in the best interest of all our customers,” Wallace said. “Thus far we’ve not seen the specifics of Dr. Smith’s plan. We welcome the opportunity to discuss it further with him.”
Smith anticipates a fight, even naming the company with a lawsuit in mind.
“Just in case I get sued by Georgia Power it’d be Georgia Power vs. Lower Rates for Customers,” he said.
SOURCE: http://savannahnow.com/exchange/2012-01-29/solar-deal-challenges-georgia-power#.Tyhr6PlQE4k
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