With much fanfare and celebrationGeorgia Power, the state’s largest electricity provider, just marked a major milestone: Two new nuclear reactors near Augusta are now generating enough energy to power a million homes, without using fossil fuels or emitting planet-warming carbon dioxide.
The new Plant Vogtle nuclear reactors are the first built in the United States in decades. They entered service years later than originally promised and at twice their original budget, after more than a decade of construction and financial delays.
At the launch event in May, a parade of utility executives and elected officials celebrated the project as a triumph of persistence — and as a major step forward for clean energy.
Chris Smith, the chief implementation officer for Hyundai’s new electric vehicle plant near Savannah, also applauded the effort.
“I am very pleased to be here to support another positive step toward clean energy in Georgia,” Smith told the crowd. “Hyundai is committed to contributing to the sustainable future of society and aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045.”
Smith said the carbon-free power from Plant Vogtle will help the car company meet its climate goal. But it doesn’t quite achieve it.
As part of its target, Hyundai has pledged to use 100 percent renewable energy from the start of mass production at the Georgia plant, which is expected later this year. Even with the new reactors at Plant Vogtle, less than half of Georgia Power’s electricity is carbon-free, according to the utility’s data.
While Georgia Power’s next long-term plan isn’t due until next year, the current plans put forth by the utility and approved by the state’s Public Service Commission won’t significantly change that relationship in the near future; for example, the utility has expanded solar power but also added and operated gas turbines that are delaying coal plant retirements. That left Hyundai to make up the difference on its own. The company recently signed an agreement to offset its Georgia energy consumption with power from a solar farm in Texas.
Voluntary clean energy targets like Hyundai’s are increasingly common among corporations and government entities – as are gaps between their ambitions and the clean energy provided by utilities and their regulators.
As climate change increases, this story is playing out repeatedly in Georgia and across the country. Key deadlines for clean energy targets are looming — many of them cite 2025 or 2030 as their first targets — and companies and local governments cannot meet those goals on their own. They need support from electric utilities and regulators in the form of pro-renewable energy policies and investments, as well as more carbon-free energy, support that some say is not coming fast enough.
“Your schedule for operation is not dependent on your utility’s programs,” says Katie Southworth, who leads policy work in the US Southeast for the Clean Energy Buyers Association, which represents more than 400 members who want to go carbon-free. “You must have energy Day One.”
Georgia Power’s parent corporation, Atlanta-based Southern Company, has announced that it aims to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. At the company’s annual meeting in May, CEO Chris Womack touted its progress: “More than 80 percent of the resource additions planned across our system, totaling nearly 10,000 megawatts from 2023 to 2030, are resources that have no does not emit carbon,” he said.
But Southern Company subsidiaries like Georgia Power are still adding new gas plants and delaying coal retirements, committing to continued carbon emissions for years into the future.
Georgia Power and Southern Company both declined interviews for this story. Georgia Power pointed to its programs to expand clean energy, and Southern says it is committed to its own net zero target.
Still, this and other utilities’ pace of change has companies and governments worried about meeting their own clean energy targets. Some bypass public service commissions and utilities by looking for alternative sources of energy outside, as in the Hyundai example. Others are entering the world of state energy regulation, aiming to change utilities’ plans.
The city of Decatur, Georgia’s energy and sustainability manager, David Nifong, said the city is adding solar panels and improving energy efficiency as it aims to reach 100 percent citywide clean energy by 2050. But, he said, Decatur can’t do it alone. The city needs help from Georgia Power, which provides electricity to 2.7 million customers in 155 of the state’s 159 counties, including all of Decatur.
“Our clean energy plan says this explicitly. We won’t be able to meet our clean energy goals without the utility,” he said.
So Decatur joined forces with other local governments across the state to intervene before the state’s Public Service Commission, which has final say over Georgia Power’s pricing and energy sources. They opposed utility company proposals to add fossil fuel generation and instead pushed for expanded use of renewable energy, as well as more affordable energy for residents.
Major corporations with a presence in Georgia, such as Microsoft, are citing their own fast-approaching clean energy deadlines as they aim to sway the state’s Public Service Commission, or PSC, as well.
Even the US Department of Defense, which is trying to achieve carbon-free energy by 2035, has harsh words at PSC hearings earlier this yearcriticizes Georgia Power’s updated Integrated Resource Plan, or IRP, which outlines the utility’s long-range plans for generating electricity.
“I am frustrated that we are probably your biggest customer and nothing in this IRP addresses any of that we needs, which are substantial,” said defense attorney John McNutt.
Southworth of the Clean Energy Buyers Association said large customers are willing to pay for the addition of clean energy. “Our members are very motivated to bring solutions to utility commissions and utilities,” she said.
There are small signs of progress on these efforts: Georgia Power has pledged to develop a new clean energy program that Nifong has pushed for in Decatur and the other local governments, which will help customers install renewable energy, paired with batteries that Georgia Power can use. boost the power grid when demand rises. The company’s latest IRP, approved by the Public Service Commission in April, also adds battery storage to existing solar arrays at two Air Force bases.
Still, as the death toll from blistering heat rises and extreme weather increases, critics say the utility program is moving too slowly — expanding carbon emissions that climate experts say the planet can’t afford.
“We need utilities to match our ambition,” Southworth said.
