Gillis, Elliott bring new industry to Coffee County

Sunbelt Power Solutions, a new and exciting industry, is coming to Coffee County. JoAnne Lewis of the Douglas-Coffee County Chamber of Commerce made the announcement Friday at the city’s annual outdoor expo. Sunbelt Power Solutions is set to open a manufacturing plant in Coffee County, manufacturing mobile solar units that will be shipped throughout the South. A prototype was displayed at the expo.

Sunbelt Power Solutions is the brainchild of Dwayne Gillis, who has been working in solar panels for years and is working now to bring power to those who need it the most. He and his business partner, Bill Elliott, a retired banker, former long-time Douglas resident and leader of the company’s marketing, are working together to set up the company and begin production. For a while, it was a waiting game for the two as they waited for the right economic opportunity. Now that the costs are ideal, production is set to begin in six to eight weeks.

The mobile solar units are to be sold in states across the South, including Alabama, Georgia, and namely South Carolina, where a contract for solar power can bring the company 20 cents per kilowatt. There will be many clients for the company because of the financial benefits of solar power, but the most important clients, as Bill Elliot pointed out, will be farmers. Agriculture is the leading industry in the South, and under the current USDA farm bill farmers will receive 25 percent for investing in solar energy. The manufacturing plant will be bringing jobs to our area and much a much needed financial boost for the agriculture industry throughout the South.