Solar energy is expanding in South Carolina, and Myrtle Beach is now at the center of the growth with a Santee Cooper project - the Grand Strand Solar Station - that is the state's largest solar power installation.
The 1,300 solar panels will be installed on top of buildings and on the ground next to the Myrtle Beach Service Center, Warehouse and Technical Services Office off Mr. Joe White Avenue, and will produce about 311 kilowatts per hour in optimal conditions. The Grand Strand Solar Station should generate enough electricity for about 30 typical homes a year and will increase the amount of solar power generated in the state by 50 percent, according to Santee Cooper.
Supporters of solar energy and experts said the project is a good step for South Carolina, but several said the state still lags behind others in the region.
All of the power generated by the solar panels will go into the electrical grid and will be generally available to all customers, said Mollie Gore, a spokeswoman for Santee Cooper.
"It's a good opportunity for us to demonstrate on a fairly large scale the opportunities and some of the limitations of solar energy," she said.
One of the key concerns with solar power is the cost, Gore said.
A $475,000 grant from the South Carolina Energy Office and about $500,000 from Santee Cooper's Green Power revenues made the $1.3 million project possible, she said. Santee Cooper general funds were used for the rest of the costs. Santee Cooper's Green Power program lets customers buy renewable energy at an added cost on their monthly bill, and all of the money goes directly into green energy generation, like the solar project, or demonstration projects.
The project also will serve to educate the public, and there will be landscaping, a walking path and informational signs around the solar panels installed on the ground.
"It's good to be able to bring this project to reality while we wait and see what develops in the world of solar power," she said.
Santee Cooper chose Myrtle Beach for the project because the space was large enough and the north-south facing buildings provided a good spot for the solar panels.
For Sunstore Solar Energy Solutions, which is installing the solar panels, it is the biggest project on one site that the business has completed, and both owner Bruce Wood and his son Michael Wood, the project superintendent, said it was exciting to participate as solar energy professionals.
"It's paving the way for the future," Bruce Wood said. "The industry is beginning to apply mass production techniques. It's driving the cost down, and that's going to make it more competitive financially."
The South Carolina Energy Office, which awarded a grant for the project, has been working to advance solar energy for the past decade, said Erika Myers, the agency's manager of renewable energy programs.
"We thought this would be an excellent way to showcase solar in South Carolina and provide education, especially to children, with the solar park," she said.
This solar station is a symbol of the growth in solar energy generation that is starting in the state, Myers said. The solar station is three times larger than any other solar project in the state but is small in comparison to projects in other states in the region that are generating many megawatts of solar power.
"We haven't really gotten to that level yet," she said.
Myers said one of the barriers to larger projects has been the lack of a state tax credit to provide an incentive.
The price of solar energy has dropped about 50 percent in the past two years, she said, and advances in the next five to 10 years should make it increasingly price competitive. She said the solar power will cost about five to six times as much as conventional sources.
"What we're hoping to see is, as early adopters do these types of projects, it will bring down the cost for everyone," Myers said.
Michael Koman, the director of the Office of Sustainability at the University of South Carolina, said that cost is the most significant factor limiting the growth of solar energy. Other forms of renewable energy, like geothermal energy or wind energy, are much more affordable.
"It's probably still too cost prohibitive to see a large or rapid growth any time soon," he said. "Until some significant legislation, probably federal, we won't see a large rapid growth."
But, Koman adds, there is plenty of desire to put up solar panels, but residents and businesses need some help to do it.
"The biggest impact is just the fact that [the project is] opening doors and hopefully setting new precedents, not only for utility customers, but for the state of South Carolina," he said.
Stephen Smith, the executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a nonprofit organization that works to develop clean energy solutions in the Southeast, said the organization is happy to see Santee Cooper expand solar power.
"This is an exciting opportunity for South Carolina to display solar, and we certainly applaud it, but we would also argue that the utility, the state legislature ... have the key to unlock solar power in the state of South Carolina," he said.
In some parts of the country, solar power has dropped in price and is now almost comparable to other forms of generating power, but in South Carolina, and the Southeast, utility rates are lower, so that gap between solar and traditional power is wider.
"We believe over the coming years that gap will continue to narrow," he said. "South Carolina should be really aggressively pursuing to grow solar [energy]."
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