Solar in Georgia, by the numbers

What do the Georgia utility figures mean for a solar quote?

EIA-861 lists 58 utilities serving homes in Georgia in 2024, across 4,815,459 residential accounts. The three largest, Georgia Power Company, Jackson Electric Member Corporation and Cobb Electric Membership Corporation, served 60.1% of those homes. By ownership: investor-owned utilities 50.9%, electric cooperatives 41.5%, municipal utilities 4.4% and small utilities EIA counts as a group 2.9%.

All 4,815,459 Georgia residential accounts bought energy from the utility that delivers it; EIA counted none on a competitive supplier. So a Georgia utility’s own tariff sets both the price you avoid and the credit for what you export.

Georgia Power Company, the largest, served 2,452,488 Georgia homes (50.9%). Its full-service residential customers paid 15.49¢ per kWh, above the Georgia average of 14.08¢, and used 989 kWh a month on average. 11,208 of its customers ran net-metered rooftop solar, 0.46% of its homes against 0.39% statewide.

Among the 50 Georgia utilities with at least 5,000 residential customers and a full-service price, the price ran from 10.07¢ at Dalton Utilities to 16.94¢ at Three Notch Electric Member Corporation.

At the Georgia average of 12,888 kWh a year, that 6.87¢ gap is worth about $885 a year (our arithmetic), so the same system offsets more money in one territory than the other.

Price a quote on your own utility’s rate, not the 14.08¢ Georgia average.

Rooftop solar is concentrated: Georgia Power Company alone accounts for 11,208 net-metered residential systems, about 60% of the 18,612 counted in Georgia, and 39 Georgia utilities reported any at all. The highest adoption among the larger utilities was at Walton Electric Member Corporation, where 0.51% of homes had a system.

What does power cost in Georgia, and why does it matter?

Residential electricity in Georgia averaged 14.08¢ per kilowatt-hour in 2024, the 17th-lowest of 51 and below the national 16.48¢. Retail power in Georgia is cheaper than in 34 of the other 50 jurisdictions. Each kilowatt-hour a system avoids is worth less, which lengthens payback.

The average Georgia household bill was $151.25 a month ($1,815 a year), the 13th-highest of 51, against $142.26 nationally. That $1,815 is the ceiling on what solar could save a typical Georgia home, before fixed monthly charges.

Only 1.8% of Georgia homes were on a time-varying rate in 2024 (11.1% nationally), so a flat rate is the likely starting point. 93.0% of Georgia residential meters were smart meters (83.8% nationally), and a time-varying rate needs one. How time-of-use changes solar.

How many Georgia homes have solar?

Georgia had 18,612 rooftop systems on net metering in 2024, across 4,815,501 residential accounts: 0.39% of homes, the 8th-lowest of 51. Georgia is one of the least developed rooftop markets in the country. Expect few local installers and a permit office with little solar experience, and allow time for both.

The Georgia market counted 7,150 more systems in 2024 than in 2023 and has grown 79.7% a year over five years, the highest of 51. Where growth has turned nationally.

What does the Georgia trend mean for a savings estimate?

Over the same years the Georgia residential price went from 11.65¢ to 14.08¢ per kWh, up 21%, and the average system from 5.4 kW to 6.9 kW. With Georgia prices up 21% across ten years, a savings estimate that assumes steep yearly rate rises is assuming more than this record shows.

How big is a typical Georgia system?

The average Georgia system was 6.92 kW in 2024, the 17th-lowest of 51, against 6.74 kW nationally. Georgia homes used 12,888 kilowatt-hours a year each, the 9th-highest of 51.

A Georgia home using 12,888 kWh is an average, not a design input: size from your own twelve months of bills and usable roof with cost by system size and the system size calculator.

Who owns the systems in Georgia?

In Georgia, 2.2% of systems were third-party owned in 2024: leased, or on a power purchase agreement (PPA), rather than owned by the household. That is the 14th-lowest of 38, against 29.1% nationally.

Nearly every Georgia system is owned by the household. A lease or power purchase agreement would be unusual here, which is a reason to read one closely. Whoever owns a Georgia system claims any tax credit on it: Section 48E explained.

Do Georgia homes add batteries?

In Georgia, 2.12% of solar systems were paired with a battery in 2024 (395 systems), the 19th-highest of 47. Georgia’s share is well under half the national 5.86%.

On reliability, the average Georgia customer went 1,208 minutes without power in 2024 counting major storms, and 211 minutes without them. The median state saw 297. Outages in every state.

Whether a battery pays in Georgia turns on your utility’s export credit and your own outage history: what a home battery does.

How do you check a solar company’s license in Georgia?

We hold records for 63 Georgia solar companies but could check none of them against a register: the state’s register was not publicly searchable when we tried, from June to August 2026. That is a gap in access, not evidence about the companies.

Ask which license a company holds and confirm it with the issuing authority by phone or in writing. How to verify a solar license.

Where do the Georgia numbers come from?

The Georgia figures are HyreSolar calculations from the Form EIA-861 annual files: 18,612 net-metered residential systems counted against 4,815,501 residential accounts, sizes as means, and 58 utility-level rows for the utility table, matched to net-metering records by EIA utility number.

The method and limits cover all 51; the Georgia row is in the data as a CSV.

No Georgia figure here is an estimate for one home: your roof, usage, utility tariff and tax position decide that.