Darien water treatment plant gets solar panels

A McIntosh County water treatment plant is going green and saving hundreds of dollars in utility bills.

The city of Darien's wastewater treatment plant outfitted the facility with solar panels. The city was able to invest more than $1 million on renovations and upgrades to the wastewater collection system, lift stations and treatment plant.

The facility is more than 27 years old, and city officials say it was due for an upgrade.

"It's probably saving us more than $400 a month in costs that solar power is going back to the Georgia grid, which we are selling back to Georgia Power, and we are selling it at a higher rate than we are paying and they just credit our bill," said Frank Field, of the city of Darien.

"That offsets the amount of energy the water treatment uses to do its processing also saves a great deal of water and pollution that would go into the air," said Julian Smith, owner of SolarSmith.

WTOC's meteorologist Pat Prokop, who is big advocate of solar energy, attended the big event.

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