The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported yesterday on East Decatur Station’s recently installed one of the largest solar panel systems in metro Atlanta, which carried a $900,000 price tag. The panels are projected to off-set the development’s energy prices by 20%.

Of course, with all things solar these days, there are plenty of government incentives to bring the price down for the property owner.  According to the ABC article, East Decatur Station will receive a grant through the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority for 35% of installation costs and additional 30% Federal grant.  (The article doesn’t specify whether that’s off the installation costs or the cost of the panels themselves.)

While his highways flooded, Federal Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood managed to stay dry yesterday inside the 5 Points MARTA station, where he announced the distribution of $100 million in nationwide “clean-transport” grants distributed across 43 local transit agencies.

MARTA came out a big “winner” in this disbursement, getting over $10 million of the total money to build Georgia’s largest solar-panel installation at the Larado Bus Facility, just east of Decatur.

A bit more detail from Streetsblog…

Georgia: Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority, $10,800,000. Laredo Bus Facility Solar Canopies: Provide shade structures with integrated, grid tied photovoltaic cells to be erected on the bus storage lot at the Laredo Bus Maintenance Facility. PV canopies will produce power and reduce temperatures underneath canopies. MARTA anticipates that the power produced by these photovoltaic panels will be sold to Georgia Power under their Distributed Generation Contract Program. The largest PV installation in Georgia.

Thanks to Ridgelandistan for the Streetsblog link!