Chairman Don Parsons Announces Georgia House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Ad Hoc Committee on Community Solar; Beth Camp Named Chair
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Atlanta - March 18, 2024 – At the March 14, 2024 meeting of the House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee, Chairman Don Parsons (R-Marietta) announced the creation of the Ad Hoc Committee on Community Solar. Representative Beth Camp (R-Concord) was subsequently named as the chair at the same meeting.
“It has been an honor to serve in the State House as the chair of the Intragovernmental Coordination Committee, and I am thankful for the opportunity to now also serve as the chair of the Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Ad Hoc Committee on Community Solar,” said Rep. Camp. “Community solar is rapidly growing across the country, and after I introduced House Bill 1152, The Georgia Homegrown Solar Act, we saw the need to further the discussion on this important topic. We will spend time over the interim studying this issue to perfect legislation for consideration during the 2025 legislative session.”
Georgia SEIA President Pete Corbett said, “Rep. Camp has been a tremendous lead sponsor and advocate for community solar in Georgia. Her dedication to providing more affordable clean energy is needed in what appears to be an energy shortage in the near future. We are very appreciative of Chairman Don Parsons’ leadership and vision in exploring one of the best opportunities we have to lower energy rates, meet the energy shortage head-on, and continue Georgia’s top position as the best place to do business in America. Community solar can bring instant savings to our citizens and create more low-cost energy solutions for businesses.”
Community solar hearings are expected to commence during the summer and fall before the 2025 legislative session begins. Georgia SEIA will continue to engage and update stakeholders.
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Amid explosive demand, America is running out of power
By Evan Halper - Washington, D.C. (photo by AP Arvin Temkar) - Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate around the country, leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the nation’s creaking power grid.
In Georgia, demand for industrial power is surging to record highs, with the projection of new electricity use for the next decade now 17 times what it was only recently. Arizona Public Service, the largest utility in that state, is also struggling to keep up, projecting it will be out of transmission capacity before the end of the decade absent major upgrades.
“When you look at the numbers, it is staggering,” said Jason Shaw, chairman of the Georgia Public Service Commission, which regulates electricity. “It makes you scratch your head and wonder how we ended up in this situation. How were the projections that far off? This has created a challenge like we have never seen before.”
Georgia House: Rep. Beth Camp Named Chair of the Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Ad Hoc Committee on Community Solar
ATLANTA, Georgia, March 14, 2024 -- The Georgia House issued the following news release: State Representative Beth Camp (R-Concord) was recently named as the chair of the House Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Ad Hoc Committee on Community Solar. She was appointed to this position by Energy, Utilitiesand Telecommunications Committee Chairman Don Parsons (R-Marietta).
"It has been an honor to serve in the State House as the chair of the Intragovernmental Coordination Committee, and I am thankful for the opportunity to now also serve as the chair of the Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Ad Hoc Committee on Community Solar," said Rep. Camp. "Community solar is rapidly growing across the country, and after I introduced House Bill 1152, The Georgia Homegrown Solar Act, we saw the need to further the discussion on this important topic. We will spend time over the interim studying this issue to perfect legislation for consideration during the 2025 legislative session."
The Community Solar Ad Hoc Committee was created following Chair Camp's introduction of House Bill 1152, or the Georgia Homegrown Solar Act of 2024, during this year's legislative session. HB 1152 would allow customers of an electric utility to aggregate demand from multiple locations and subscribe to certain off-site solar facilities, provide nondiscriminatory interconnection of these facilities, provide consumer protections for customers and allow customers to access their own meter usage and provide the usage data to authorized third parties.
Information on public meetings of the Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Ad Hoc Committee on Community Solar will be posted online here (https://www.legis.ga.gov/schedule/house).