Dive Brief:

• Georgia Power's unregulated solar installation company, Georgia Power Energy Services, has installed only five systems since the venture was launched last year, pointing to a slow startup, steep learning curve and economics in the state which do not encourage residential rooftop PV, Greentech Media reports. 
• Greentech Media reports residential solar in the state as a whole is also lagging, with less than 300 systems in Georgia Power's territory, and only 80 of those were interconnected last year.
• A major reason is likely the utility's lack of a retail net-metering program, Greentech noted. Currently, Georgia Power offers only a solar buy-back program offering the avoided cost of electricity.

Dive Insight:

The Southeast has long struggled to keep pace with the rooftop solar demand, with only a few states establishing policies friendly to distributed solar. Greentech Media compares two states, South Carolina and Georgia over their respective rooftop solar policies and growth. 

Neighboring South Carolina has seen strong demand for rooftop solar, with installer Sunrun setting up more than 1,800 systems in the last year. So what makes Georgia so different from the Palmetto State?

“Other than football, folks in Georgia and South Carolina are fairly similar,” The Alliance for Solar Choice spokesman Tyson Grinstead told GTM. “Clearly, folks who live in the South want solar. The biggest impediment to solar growth comes from utilities trying to stifle competition.”

Greentech examines several possible issues, including that Georgia Power may not want to, or may not be good at, selling rooftop systems. And a lack of financing options clearly detailed on the company's site may also be playing a part. But ultimately, a lack of retail net metering is probably the biggest issue—the shortest payback period is 13 years, which for some homeowners is too long.

“Certainly there’s an interest and desire to have renewable energy in the Southeast, but at this point, it really is being completely dominated by utility-scale,” Southern Co. COO Kim Greene, which owns Georgia Power, said last week at Edison Electric Institute's convention in Chicago

Georgia Power provides customer information through its “Is solar right for me?” website and non-rate based sales and installation services through its unregulated Georgia Power Energy Services business unit. Customers take a survey and in return can take that data to any solar installer, including one from the website’s list of dozens of nationally certified providers, or they can use the unregulated Georgia Power Energy Services division to install their system.

Sunrun, the third largest U.S. solar installer, in April added an office and warehouse in Columbia, South Carolina. The company employs 130 people in the state and has added over 1,000 solar customers in South Carolina since last year.