Ground mount commercial solar in Georgia answers a question that rooftop solar cannot: what do you do when the building is not the right place for the array? For Swainsboro Supply Company in Swainsboro, Georgia, the answer was 117 kW of photovoltaics on the ground rather than on a roof.
It is also one of the few projects on this site where the customer has put a number on the outcome in his own words, which makes it more useful than most case studies of its size.
The problem: a good load, and a roof that was not the answer
A building supply operation runs the kind of load solar suits — daytime hours, lighting, conditioning, shop and yard equipment, and a bill that arrives every month whether trade is good or not.
Putting an array on a commercial roof is only the cheaper option when the roof deserves it. Three things routinely rule a roof out: remaining roof life shorter than the 25-year-plus life of the array, a structure that will not carry the additional load without reinforcement, and a building orientation that wastes a meaningful share of the available production. When any of those apply and there is open ground near the service entrance, a ground mount is the better structure.
Why the ground rather than the roof here
We have not published a site-specific reason for the structure choice, because the roof survey and structural assessment for this project are not in our publishable record. The three drivers above are the ones that decide it on most commercial sites. Confirm the specifics with OneWorld Solar before restating them as fact.
The solution: 117 kW on fixed-tilt ground mount racking
117 kW
Ground mount array
Swainsboro, Georgia.
$1,800
Reported monthly bill saving
Client-reported figure; the period it covers is not documented.
Nearly none
Maintenance issues reported
In the customer's own words.
The array was delivered as a commercial solar EPC project — design, engineering, the utility interconnection package, foundations and racking, electrical work, and commissioning. A ground mount adds site work that a roof mount does not have (foundations, trenching, a conductor run back to the service) and removes work that a roof mount does (membrane penetrations, uplift calculations, roof-warranty coordination, working at height).
The trade is usually worth it when land is available. Fixing tilt and azimuth properly rather than inheriting the building's heading raises output per installed watt, and rows you can walk between are cheaper to inspect and clean for the next twenty-five years than an array you need a lift to reach.
The results
"We have had nearly no maintenance issues, and the savings on our monthly power bill are about $1,800. It has been a great financial decision for the company."
— Dal Durden, President, Swainsboro Supply Company
That is about $1,800 a month off the power bill, in the customer's own words. Two honest caveats belong with it: the period the figure covers is not documented in our records, and savings on any site depend on that site's rate structure, consumption and the incentives the owner actually qualified for. Treat it as a real reported outcome for one Georgia business, not as a projection for yours.
The maintenance point deserves as much attention as the savings. A fixed-tilt array has no moving parts, and "nearly no maintenance issues" is what a well-engineered system should look like years after the crews leave.
Why this matters for similar Georgia businesses
If you run a single commercial or light industrial site with a daytime load and some open ground, this is the closest reference project we have.
- The same engineering thinking scales up in solar for manufacturing facilities, and much further in the 1.267 MW Samsonite and TUMI rooftop and battery project.
- What a system like this costs is broken down in commercial solar cost per kW in Georgia.
- Section 179 solar depreciation and the 30% federal solar tax credit are what move the net cost. Your accountant validates what you can claim.
- Start from your own bill with the commercial solar savings calculator, or see the rest of our commercial solar installation work in Georgia.