Dalton Utilities eyes state’s largest solar power system

Published 9:01 am Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Dalton Utilities could soon host what executives say will be the largest solar power-generating system in Georgia.

Surveys to lay out the system are scheduled to start next week on the utility’s land application system (LAS) property along the Conasauga River. Installation of the solar panels is expected to start in early February, and commercial operation is scheduled to begin towards the end of March.

The project is slated to have about 700 kilowatts of generating capacity and will cost about $5 million.

The project is a partnership between Dalton Utilities and a private partner, which Dalton Utilities officials declined to name. They said an official announcement, which will include the name of the partner, should be released in early February.

Dalton Utilities President and CEO Don Cope said all of the costs of the project will be borne by the partner.

Cope told board members Monday that Dalton Utilities and its corporate customers will be able to market the fact they produce and use “green” energy, something that is increasingly important in today’s market.

“We will be marketing the fact that we have it in our power supply,” Cope said. “Everybody that is on our system gets the benefits of us having solar energy.”

Cope said Dalton Utilities can also apply the energy produced by the system to any “renewable” energy requirements that might be imposed by the federal government.

“That’s coming, we think,” Cope said. “And we will already have it in our stack.”

Dalton Utilities is also looking at placing a solar generating system on the roof of its headquarters on V.D. Parrott Jr. Parkway.

Cope also told board members Dalton Utilities will be part of a coalition of utilities and manufacturers that will support a move to remove the state sales tax from energy used in manufacturing and mining.

When the Special Council on Tax Reform and Fairness for Georgians met in Dalton in October, several carpet company executives said neighboring states do not tax energy used in manufacturing and that gives plants in those states a big cost savings. According to those executives, sales taxes on energy cost plants in Whitfield County alone $10 million a year.

The special council called for exempting industry, mining and manufacturing from those taxes in its tax reform plan earlier this month. The General Assembly must give the plan an up-or-down vote.

Last week, Rep. Roger Williams, R-Dalton, said he is working on a separate bill that would exempt energy from sales taxes and he plans to introduce it this week.

Board members elected Tom Pendley chairman, Frank Robertson vice chairman and Cathy Holmes secretary. The board also recognized outgoing chairman Smith Foster, who is stepping down from the board because his term has expired, and Todd Reigel, co-owner of Paradigm Printing, who is joining the board.