HB 507: Georgia Homegrown Solar Act of 2025; enact

Currently, Georgia customers who cannot install solar panels on their own property, such as renters or people with shaded roofs, have limited options to benefit from solar energy. This bill, called the Georgia Homegrown Solar Act of 2025, would add a new part to Georgia's electrical service law creating a community solar program. Customers could buy subscriptions in off-site solar facilities and receive monthly bill credits based on their share of the electricity generated. The bill directs the Public Service Commission to set up the program by January 1, 2027, requires electric utilities to accept interconnection applications for these facilities on a nondiscriminatory basis starting July 1, 2025, and creates an Interconnection Working Group to recommend technical rules by mid-2026. It also requires utilities to give customers free electronic access to their own meter usage data, and to share that data with authorized third parties. The law would take effect July 1, 2025.

• Creates a new legal category called a 'community solar facility' and lets community solar organizations sell subscriptions to customers for bill credits.
• Requires electric utilities to credit subscribers' bills based on the utility's retail rate, with rollover of unused credits for up to a year.
• Caps how much of a facility's output any single subscriber can own (40 percent) and limits facility size to generally 5 megawatts.
• Requires the Public Service Commission to set up the community solar program by January 1, 2027 and an Interconnection Working Group by January 1, 2026.
• Requires utilities to accept interconnection requests for community solar facilities without discrimination starting July 1, 2025, and to publish a standard interconnection agreement by October 1, 2026.
• Requires utilities to give customers free, electronic access to their own meter usage data and to share it with third parties the customer authorizes.

Customers of Georgia's largest electric utility (Georgia Power, since electric membership corporations and municipal utilities are excluded), community solar organizations that build and manage these projects, the Public Service Commission, and companies offering conservation or clean energy technologies like solar, battery storage, and smart thermostats.

Georgians who cannot put solar panels on their own homes, such as renters or people with shaded roofs, could subscribe to a shared solar project and see credits on their electric bill. Utilities would face new interconnection deadlines and data-sharing duties, and the Public Service Commission would gain new rulemaking responsibilities.

• Section 1, new Code Section 46-3-82 defines key terms including 'community solar facility,' 'subscriber,' and 'bill credit,' setting eligibility rules like the 40 percent single-subscriber ownership cap.
• New Code Section 46-3-83 requires subscriptions to produce real bill savings (capped at 90 percent of a subscriber's expected annual bill) and bars credit checks or sign-up and exit fees.
• New Code Section 46-3-84 requires the commission to establish the community solar program by January 1, 2027, including rules on bill credits, excess credit rollover, and utility fees on community solar organizations capped at 1 percent of bill credit value.
• New Code Section 46-3-85 requires nondiscriminatory interconnection starting July 1, 2025, creation of an Interconnection Working Group by January 1, 2026 (reporting by July 1, 2026), and a standard interconnection agreement by October 1, 2026.
• New Code Section 46-3-86 requires utilities to file a customer data access program by January 1, 2027, giving customers free electronic access to their meter usage data in 15 minute intervals for at least 24 months.
• Section 2 sets the effective date as July 1, 2025.
• Section 3 repeals conflicting laws.

1. 2025-02-20House Second Readers (Cámara de Representantes)
2. 2025-02-19House First Readers (Cámara de Representantes)
3. 2025-02-18House Hopper (Cámara de Representantes)

• Beth Camp (R, HD-135)Patrocinador principal
• Alan Powell (R, HD-033)
• Ron Stephens (R, HD-164)
• Karla Drenner (D, HD-085)
• Eric Gisler (D, HD-121)

• community solar
• renewable energy
• electric utility regulation
• utility bill credits
• solar energy access