News

North Georgia car dealership building electric chargers and solar panels in a new partnership - Now Habersham

Now Habersham · last updated

North Georgia car dealership building electric chargers and solar panels in a new partnership - Now Habersham

Georgia’s largest Ford dealership is partnering with an electric infrastructure energy company to build several new electric vehicle chargers and solar panels.

Akins Ford in Winder, Ga., will install 19 total charging stations to decrease the dealership’s carbon footprint. Charge Enterprises will be overseeing the projects.

Its CEO, Paul Williams, said the clean energy project was originally just chargers but quickly expanded.

“They asked us to do a feasibility project for them, which has now turned into a full-blown project to install about 450 kW of rooftop solar that will generate power for the next 30 years,” Williams said.

Akins Ford is the largest dealership by volume in the state of Georgia. The addition of chargers and solar panels are expected to offset 455 metric tons of carbon dioxide.

Williams said the two projects are designed to support each other.

“We can charge six vehicles simultaneously,” he said. “So there’ll be six parking spaces and they’ll be covered with solar panels above. And that’s where we’ve got a convergence of both projects.”

Six chargers at the dealership will be for public use, while the remaining 13 will be for service and maintenance.

This article appears on Now Habersham in partnership with GPB News

Related Knowledge Center: ENERGY BASICS: solar

State of Play

Declining costs and government encouragement have resulted in a rapid increase in solar energy production in the United States over the past 10 years, although solar’s share remains small: 1.6 percent of all electricity generation in 2018. That rapid growth is projected to continue.

More informationabout ENERGY BASICS: solar