The programme has a ceiling
Enrolment in RNR-Instantaneous Netting runs first come, first served until the cumulative generating capacity of all renewable sources equals 0.2 percent of the company annual peak demand in the previous year.
A capacity cap expressed as a share of peak demand is not a fixed number of homes, and it moves as peak demand moves, but it is still a limit and the queue against it is real.
Georgia has also seen rapidly rising electricity demand in recent years, which affects both sides of that calculation in ways that are hard to predict from outside.
The practical point is not to speculate about the maths. It is to ask Georgia Power directly what the current remaining programme capacity is before you plan a timeline around it.
What a queue means for your project
When an incentive is uncapped, the sequence of a project barely matters: you install, you apply, you receive. When it is capped, the date your application is complete and accepted becomes a material fact.
Ask your installer how long they expect the application and approval process to take from signature, and ask them to commit to that in writing rather than describing it in general terms.
Ask what happens if the programme reaches its cap while your application is pending. Whether an application in the queue is protected, and on what basis, is exactly the sort of thing that is cheap to establish now and expensive to discover later.
And ask what the project looks like without the programme, because that is the downside case. A quote that has no answer for it is a quote that has assumed away its own main risk.
Coastal considerations while you are asking questions
Savannah is a coastal city and salt air is hard on outdoor metal over the twenty-five year horizon a solar system is sold on. Racking, fasteners and enclosures all sit outside for that whole period.
Ask what the racking and fastener materials are, what corrosion rating they carry, and whether the manufacturer warranty has any exclusion or reduced term for coastal or marine installations.
Ask about wind rating too, and about how the array is attached. A coastal Georgia roof faces conditions that an inland design does not, and the attachment detail is where that difference is either handled or ignored.
Savannah also has substantial historic districts with design review. If your property falls within one, ask early what approvals apply and how long they take, because that sits in front of everything else in the schedule.
Costing it out against a capped programme
The 30 percent federal Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025, so a cash or loan purchase in Savannah receives no federal tax credit, and Georgia has no state solar tax credit.
Section 48E survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under leases and power purchase agreements, so ask what a provider claims and what reaches you in the rate.
What exists is instantaneous netting, subject to the programme cap: full retail value for electricity you consume as it is generated, and the Solar Avoided Cost Rate for exports.
Ask Georgia Power what programme capacity remains, ask your installer to commit to an application timeline in writing, and ask for the projection with the self-consumption share stated. Then you know both what you are buying and what could stop you.