SolarWorld is rounding out nearly 18 MW of solar-panel deliveries to enable Atlanta-based Hannah Solar develop solar projects in several state regions and dozens of projects, many on agricultural lands.

Hannah Solar focuses on developing projects that make productive new uses of sites through Georgia Power’s Advanced Solar Initiative to drive the state’s solar generating capacity from about 20 MW to nearly 1 GW in just five years. Hannah Solar will install about 12.5 MW of SolarWorld solar panels this year. Under the program, Hannah Solar’s customers typically can look forward to watching their fuel-, noise- and emission-free systems pay for themselves in about six years, then produce 13 cents for each kWh produced for 20 years. In addition, many customers are using solar to offset their energy consumption as well.

“Farmers think of these projects as cash crops in which they no longer have to worry about the weather to generate an attractive return on their investment and a hedge against the ups and downs of their crops,” said Pete Marte, president, chief executive and founder of Hannah Solar, which he named after his daughter upon its founding in 2007.

About 80% of the Hannah Solar projects have been sited on farmlands, helping to boost the economies of proportionately more severely recession-affected rural areas of the state. As a result, many potential partners who are multi-generational farmers prefer purchasing durable goods from U.S. producers such as SolarWorld, Marte said.