Georgia community solar expansion stalls despite bipartisan support

Republican lawmakers sponsored bills in 2025 that would make it easier for communities to generate solar energy.

Despite having the entire 2026 legislative session to pass it, the bills never made it to a vote in their chambers.

The Georgia Homegrown Solar Act of 2025 was introduced in both chambers of the Georgia legislature by Republican lawmakers. Both bills received support from both Republicans and Democrats, but neither saw any traction.

The law would have expanded community solar, which would allow residents, renters and businesses to subscribe to local solar projects to reduce the price of their electricity bill. If the bill had passed, consumers of electricity in Georgia would have been able to choose for a portion of their energy to come directly from solar power.

“Basically a good way to think of it, it’s in the name. It’s basically like a localized solar array that multiple residential customers, homeowners, renters, whoever it may be can buy into. (22:51) So they’re sharing energy, and they’re also getting those on bill credits as well,” said Adrien Webber, the director of the Georgia Sierra Club.

Georgia Power currently serves nearly 3 million customers in Georgia as of December 2024, and the company does offer a community solar program for residential customers. However, the program is not intended to save customers money and is only available to allow customers to support solar energy.

The program costs $24 per 1 kilowatt block per month of solar usage for residential customers, which is almost $9 more than the average price per kilowatt in 2024.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy published an article saying that Georgia Power’s current program is “unpopular, inefficient, and increases bills,” while most programs nationwide save 5-20% on average.

“I mean, Georgia power, you know, they influence all of our statewide energy policy, obviously, but they don’t have the entire state. Like people have EMCs, people have co-op power,” Webber said.

However, Webber said the areas where community solar could be really successful are in dense, urban areas, which is where Georgia Power mostly services.

As of now, the expansion is on hold, but Webber said the Sierra Club will continue to advocate for this legislation.

“This is where Sierra Club comes in. We meet with Republicans, we meet with Democrats, Independents, whoever it is, whoever these decision makers are, and we just try and really present the facts to them,” he said.