At the regular MGCAC meeting on June 11, 2020, the Executive Board approved a model solar ordinance for counties and municipalities throughout the Middle Georgia region. With the hard work of the coalition’s Air Quality Advisory Committee, MGCAC was able to produce a template that can be adopted by local governments who are looking to ease restrictions on solar power permitting.
The MGCAC ordinance uses language templates developed by the Emory University School of Law, Georgia Institute of Technology, and University of Georgia in response to the rapid development of solar energy throughout the state. Additional information about these efforts can be found on Georgia Tech’s website. This strategy also promotes consistency and uniformity in solar developments throughout the region, which is a benefit to the growing solar power industry in Georgia.
Throughout the remainder of 2020, individual local governments will be adopting versions of this model ordinance. An editable Word document with the model ordinance text can be found on the MGCAC Resources webpage.