Cobb EMC board of directors announced approval for the cooperative to execute a 25-year power purchase agreement with Southern Power, a Southern Company subsidiary, to purchase 101 megawatts (MW) of solar energy from a 131-MW photovoltaic (PV) solar project to be constructed in Taylor County, Georgia. "We're always looking for practical ways to diversify our energy mix and expand our renewable energy portfolio while still keeping costs as low as possible for our members," said Chip Nelson, president and CEO of Cobb EMC. "Cobb EMC has been at the forefront of adding solar projects to our energy portfolio. In 2014, we started receiving the full capacity output from the Azalea solar facility in Washington County, and with the addition of this project, Cobb EMC will be receiving approximately 10 percent of our capacity portfolio mix from solar and about 5 percent of the energy needed to serve our members."

The solar facility in Taylor County will be the largest single-site project in Georgia and among the largest east of the Mississippi River. This solar facility, of which Cobb will receive 77 percent of its output, will be constructed in Taylor County on a 911-acre site, which is equivalent of 826 football fields for perspective. The other portions of its output will be purchased by Flint Energies and Sawnee EMC, two other Georgia Electric Cooperatives. The facility is expected to consist of approximately 1.6 million thin-film PV solar modules mounted on single-axis tracking tables.

Construction of the project is scheduled to begin in September, and the project is expected to achieve commercial operation in the fourth quarter of 2016.

Cobb EMC is a not-for-profit electric cooperative, serving more than 175,000 residential and commercial members in Fulton, Cobb, Bartow, Cherokee and Paulding counties. Cobb EMC's distribution system consists of 9,101 miles of line over 432 square miles. With more than 192,000 meters served, Cobb EMC is one of the largest of Georgia's 41 EMCs and among the largest of the nation's 900 EMCs. CobbEMC.com