Creative thinking could help offset the growing impact of solar farms in rural Georgia, a state environmental regulator told a state Senate study committee Wednesday at a hearing in Moultrie.

Jim Cooley, director of district operations for the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), outlined a series of alternatives for siting solar farms in locations other than productive farmland.

Cooley’s list included solar projects on rooftops and at industrial parks, brownfields, closed landfills, closed coal-burning power plants, and reclaimed surface mines.

For example, Georgia Power is currently installing solar panels at Plant McIntosh in Rincon, Cooley said.

“This is a really good idea for reuse,” he said. “You’re already at the power plant.”

While solar farms are eating up far less productive farmland in Georgia than residential encroachment, the number of large solar farms cropping up across the state has raised concerns. The Houston County Commission this month rejected a proposed 4,000-acre solar farm near the state-owned Oakey Woods Wildlife Management Area, citing environmental issues.

The study committee was formed this year to look for steps the state could take to preserve Georgia’s farmland.

Cooley said a particularly creative way solar project developers could help offset the impact of solar farms is to co-locate them with farms, a concept known as “agrovoltaics.” Solar panels could be built on pastureland to shade livestock or on farmland to shade crops, he said.

“It’s a different way of looking at farming and solar as a symbiotic relationship,” he said. “This might be a way to supplement income on a farm to keep the farm going.”

Cooley said the EPD isn’t currently tracking the number of solar farms in Georgia or the acreage they take up, which surprised the study committee members.

“We need to know how many solar acres we’ve got and how many are coming down the line,” said Sen. Russ Goodman, R-Cogdell. “It’s hard to make policy if you don’t have accurate information.”

Capitol Beat is a nonprofit news service operated by the Georgia Press Educational Foundation that provides coverage of state government to newspapers throughout Georgia. For more information visit capitol-beat.org.