CALHOUN, Ga. - Farmers spend plenty of time looking to the skies - sometimes for rain, sometimes for divine intervention.
But for the next 30 years, when Brian Grogan turns his eyes to the clouds, he also will see paychecks.
On Monday, Atlanta-based Hannah Solar invited the public to get a view of 400 solar panels installed at the Grogan family farm. It is one of the state's largest-scale agriculture solar projects.
As the sun baked the shoulders and burned the brows of roughly 20 or so onlookers, it also was making enough electricity to power Grogan's six chicken houses, his cattle operation and his home.
"These panels will provide more than enough energy for this farm from this point going forward," said Pete Marte, Hannah Solar CEO.
In fact, Grogan's panels push all the electricity directly into the North Georgia Electric Membership Corp. grid and then into the Tennessee Valley Authority system, Marte said.
Grogan gets paid for that electricity at 12 cents per kilowatt-hour more than retail power rates. That's because the solar energy is considered "carbon-neutral" and not harmful to the environment, Marte said.
"Instead of having a power bill, they are going to be getting a check," Marte said.
But the innovation comes with a hefty start-up cost.
The state-of-the-art solar panels represent a $560,000 investment, Marte said.
Grogan received 35 percent of the cost from a Georgia Energy Finance Authority grant, which is money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. He received another 30 percent of the cost from a federal grant.
Grogan said he wanted to install the solar panels for at least four years because he recognized it would be a pro-environment move, but he couldn't have done it without the federal money.
"We are trying to be good stewards of what we've been blessed with... I knew this would be a good way to do that," Grogan said. "I couldn't have done it without the grants."
Unveiling the panels brought out U.S. Rep. Phil Gingrey, R-Marietta, who said he learned a lot during the tour but stopped short of saying the panels represented good energy policy.
"This is kind of like a pilot project, as I see it," Rep. Gingrey said. "Before you get to a large scale, you need to make sure it works. ... But you can't have grants and tax credits forever and say that this is a success."
He also admitted that taxpayers also heavily subsidize two new nuclear reactors being installed at Plant Vogtle in Augusta, Ga., and said those are projects he supports.
Though solar energy is cheaper than it once was, it still is more affordable to get electricity through less environmentally friendly means, said Lauren "Bubba" McDonald, chairman of the Georgia Public Service Commission, who attended Monday's event.
"Solar is more expensive than coal generation," McDonald said.
But he said the solar industry has made "great strides" in reducing costs in recent years and he was hopeful the state would allow 6.4 megawatts of solar energy generation in the coming year.
Still, Grogan and Marte said farmers, in particular, should look at solar energy as a way to offset costs and be kind to the environment.
"I've had several folks ask me about the panels," Grogan said. "I encourage them to look into it and see if it works for them. And it will work for most people."
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