Actually SW of Macon, near Fort Valley, GA where the Blue Bird school bus factory is located, NOT Macon proper.
Southwest of Macon (in Peach County, near Fort Valley / eastern outskirts of Fort Valley).The plant will be at the ~1,474-acre Middle Georgia Megasite along Georgia Highway 96 (north side), roughly 5 miles west of I-75, on the eastern outskirts of Fort Valley in Peach County. It is described as a short drive from Macon and about 20 minutes from Perry (where the announcement rally was held).Key details from reports and local development sources:
Site coordinates are listed around 32.5669, -83.8492.
It is west of I-75, with frontage on GA-96; access is near I-75 Exit 142 and other nearby exits.
Fort Valley itself is roughly 25–30 miles southwest of Macon (driving distance ~27 miles).
The project involves a regional partnership of Peach, Macon-Bibb, and Houston counties via the Mid-Georgia Gateway Joint Development Authority. The site is in Peach County, but economic benefits are expected to extend across Middle Georgia.
ADDENDUM - FWIW, there’s a REALLY nice BUC-EEs at the Warner Robbins exit there ;-)
I would wager that part of the appeal to Audi and the German gummint is the huge solar farm about 20 minutes south of that location, visible along I-75.
The most prominent large solar farm right along I-75 south of Atlanta is the Houston Solar Project (also called SR Perry) in Houston County, near Elko/Perry.Key details on the Houston Solar Project
Size: 68 MW (about 225,000 panels), covering roughly 700–705 acres.
Location: Off Firetower Road in south Houston County (near Elko, just outside Perry). It sits perpendicular to I-75 and is highly visible from the highway.
Operator/developer: Silicon Ranch, in partnership with Green Power EMC. It supplies power shared across many Georgia EMCs (enough for roughly 11,000 homes).
Notable features: It uses agrivoltaics—hundreds to over 1,000 sheep graze under and around the panels for vegetation management (a “regenerative energy” approach). There’s also a digital billboard promoting the project along I-75.
Optics matter to Audi.
Irony - the area draws significant power from the nearby Plant Vogtle NUKE plant ;-)
I would wager that part of the appeal to Audi and the German gummint is the huge solar farm about 20 minutes south of that location, visible along I-75.
The most prominent large solar farm right along I-75 south of Atlanta is the Houston Solar Project (also called SR Perry) in Houston County, near Elko/Perry.Key details on the Houston Solar Project
Size: 68 MW (about 225,000 panels), covering roughly 700–705 acres.
Location: Off Firetower Road in south Houston County (near Elko, just outside Perry). It sits perpendicular to I-75 and is highly visible from the highway.
Operator/developer: Silicon Ranch, in partnership with Green Power EMC. It supplies power shared across many Georgia EMCs (enough for roughly 11,000 homes).
Notable features: It uses agrivoltaics—hundreds to over 1,000 sheep graze under and around the panels for vegetation management (a “regenerative energy” approach). There’s also a digital billboard promoting the project along I-75.
Optics matter to Audi.
Irony - the area draws significant power from the nearby Plant Vogtle NUKE plant ;-)
When I saw Fort Valley mentioned, my first reaction was “Oh! That’s near a Buc-ee’s!”
I’m not too far from the one near Calhoun. We have going to Buc-ee’s down to a science.