Category Archives: Georgia Power

SB 401 revived in SB 459: lets you generate and sell solar power

SB 401 got tabled in the Natural Resources Committee. 46 other states already let people generate solar power and sell it to a third party.
Yet in only four states — Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Kentucky Mdash; are third party power purchase agreements disallowed, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
But Georgia Power convinced that committee that it would raise rates for everybody else. Which is pretty rich coming from the same gapower that is already charging customers Construction Work in Progress for its nuke boondoggle. So SB 401 sponsor Sen. Buddy Carter found another way.

Mary Landers wrote for the Savannah Morning News Friday, Solar bill jolted back to life:

To revive his bill, Carter tacked it onto to one already sent to the Regulated Industries Committee — SB 459, which would allow consumers to opt-out of smart meters like the ones Georgia Power is currently installing in Savannah. The committee held a hearing on the bill Thursday, ultimately tabling it, and saying they wanted more information about how power purchase agreements work in other states.

Carter was elated.

“It’s out there now and people are aware of it,” he said. It’s getting media attention. I feel good about it.”

Help him feel even better about it. Contact the committee chair and tell him we want solar cogeneration:
Senator William Ligon
404-656-0045
william.ligon@senate.ga.gov
Oh, regarding the meter opt-out in the main body of the bill, why let gapower charge people for that? You can mention to Sen. Ligon that people should be able to opt out for free.

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PS: Owed to Bob Ingram.

Can you imagine the power company coming and cutting our power off? —Dr. Sidney Smith 2012 02 17

Dr. Smith speculated that Georgia Power might try to stop solar installations like the one he just opened in Richmond Hill last Friday.
But can you imagine the power company coming and cutting our power off and telling Dr. [inaudible] he has to pay more money? I don’t think that’s going to happen.
Does Georgia Power really want to be seen opposing Lower Rates for Customers?

Maybe so, since Georgia Power opposes SB 401, which would facilitate exactly what Dr. Smith is doing. You can help pass SB 401. Call your state senator, or sign the petition.

Here’s the video:


Can you imagine the power company coming and cutting our power off? —Dr. Sidney Smith 2012 02 17
South Eastern Pathology Associates,
Selling Power, Lower Rates for Customers LLC (LRCLLC),
Richmond Hill, Bryan County, Georgia, 17 February 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Our goal is simply to make power available to all people at the lowest rates….
He remarked this was their second installation. The first was at the Driftaway Cafe. They have another planned. A fourth one was supposed to be at a nearby orphanage, but Georgia Power wouldn’t allow it.

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Does Georgia Power own the sunshine?

While opening a solar site in Richmond Hill last Friday, Dr. Sidney Smith said Georgia Power thinks it owns your sunshine:
It’s a personal freedom issue and a personal rights issue. And also it’s an issue of our future generations.

But I know that we’re going to come out on top…. The reason we’re going to come out on top. You’re going to choose a higher power bill, or a lower power bill? Now, I know you’re going to say I want a lower power bill.

Here’s the video:


Does Georgia Power own the sunshine?
South Eastern Pathology Associates,
Selling Power, Lower Rates for Customers LLC (LRCLLC),
Richmond Hill, Bryan County, Georgia, 17 February 2012.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

As Dr. Smith told the AP a few days later:

We have a property rights issue: Who owns the sunshine, and does a property owner get to do anything he wants with it?” Smith said. “Georgia Power says he can use it to grow grass, get a sunburn, but he’s not allowed to change it to electricity. That’s not correct.”
And it goes beyond just generating your own power for lower rates for yourself as a customer. Why not be able to sell it to somebody else who wants it, too?
This is just the first step. In a way and a process that we’re ultimately going to be able to sell power out of Bryan County back to Atlanta, bringing dollars back from Atlanta to Bryan County.
And Lowndes County can do the same. Atlanta wants our water? Sell them sunshine instead!

SB 401 can help with that. If you want it to pass, you can sign the petition or call your state senator.

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Georgia Power opposes SB 401 and Lower Rates for Customers

Is anyone surprised that Georgia Power has come out in opposition to Georgia SB 401, which will let you generate solar power and sell it to whomever you like? If you do want to do that, you can call your state senator today.

Errin Haines wrote for AP 18 Feb 2012, Georgia Power balks at Senate solar power proposal,

“The power company ought to be doing this, but they don’t want to buy it from anybody that produces it,” said state Sen. Buddy Carter, the bill’s main sponsor.

The state’s main electricity provider, Georgia Power, is opposing the legislation, pointing to the state’s Electric Service Act. Created nearly four decades ago, the law established assigned territories for the power company, along with 42 electric membership cooperatives and 52 cities with municipal systems, all competing for customers.

Spokeswoman Christy Ihrig said in a statement that the proposed bill would illegally infringe on the company’s territory and that the introduction of a new supplier could drive up rates for customers because utilities would be required to hike costs. She added the company is supportive of solar power and is working to provide solar as an option to customers.

Ah, the old territoriality law! “Competing” through assigned territories. Does that seem right to you?

You know, it’s not illegal if the legislature changes the law….

If you want lower rates for customers, call your state senator today. Around here, that would be Senator Tim Golden, tim.golden@senate.ga.gov

Capitol Office:
121-A State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334
Phone: (404) 656-7580
Fax: (404) 463-4226
District Office:
110 Beacon Hill
Valdosta, GA 31602
Phone: (229) 293-0202 (O)
(229) 241-1284 (H)
(229) 241-7732 (F)

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Stop Georgia Power from stopping you from affording solar

Why can’t you do this?
Say you own a coffee shop. You’d like to install solar panels on your roof but can’t afford them. A company offers to install and lease you the equipment, provided you sign a long-term contract. The company will sell you energy at a cheaper rate than you already pay Georgia Power. No longer would you be so susceptible to spikes in electricity prices. Nor would your money be helping to support burning coal or nuclear power.
Georgia law says you can’t do that.

That’s why SB 401 is in the Georgia Senate. It’s

a common-sense measure that would put people to work, create a new sector in Georgia’s economy, and promote clean energy. In addition, the legislation would help shield people from increases in electricity rates, which, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, have risen nearly 50 percent over the last seven years.
Why would Georgia Power not like that? Continue reading

Georgia Power doubles solar capacity in Dalton, GA

Dalton, the place that had a solar plant bigger and earlier than Valdosta’s. Did Mayor Fretti’s brag about this location being competitive go out with him? Crawford Powell is still a County Commissioner. The Industrial Authority is still supposed to be bringing in industry. The Chamber of Commerce is still supposed to be promoting jobs. If Dublin and Dalton do this, it seems like Valdosta and Lowndes County could….

Dave Williams wrote for the Atlanta Business Chronicle Thursday, Georgia Power tees up next phase of solar plant,

Georgia Power Co. will begin construction soon on a project that will double the generating capacity of the utility’s solar plant in Dalton, Ga., the company announced Thursday.

The first phase of the plant went on line last March and is operating with a capacity of 350 kilowatts.

Construction of the second phase, due to be completed in about two months, will bring the plant up to 700 kilowatts, on its way to a full capacity of 1 megawatt of electricity. One megawatt of solar photovoltaic panels produces enough energy to power about 135 homes.

Let’s see some local leadership!

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Solar surging in Savannah

Near Savannah a couple of doctors are pioneering ways for everyone to profit from solar now. Yesterday, the Driftaway Cafe started serving up with solar.

WJCL and WTGS wrote yesterday, Solar Power Surges in Savannah

A ground breaking project is underway in the coastal empire that harnesses the power of the sun and hopes to pave the way for the future of clean energy. One main part of this project is for everyone to be able to supply their own power.

Clean, sustainable energy has been a hot topic for some time now, especially, energy that doesn’t send our money overseas.

“We need to develop every available source of American energy,” says President Obama.

The problem is that until now alternate sources have been out of reach or too expensive for most of us.

“It’s very important we learn how to harness our own power and how we structure that today is important for future generations,” says Dr. Sidney Smith, co-owner of Lower rates for Customers.

“Lower Rates for Customers” is hoping to do just that. The plan is to make solar power the way of the future and affordable for everyone. They have an all encompassing plan that can have anyone generating their own electricity within 45 days, even if you don’t have the land to put up solar panels.

“We provide you with the place, the hook up, the technology and Georgia power will send you a check to supplement your power bill,” says Dr. Pat Godbey, co-owner of Tabby Power.

Business like the Driftaway Cafe jumped on the chance to get involved.

“Their financial model for the future just struck a nerve with me and I wanted to be a part of it,” says Driftaway owner, Robyn Quattlebaum.

Cheaper, cleaner, and accessible: that’s good business sense!

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Southern Company has 3 biggest CO2 plants in U.S.

David Ibala wrote for the AJC 11 January 2012, Study: Southern Company plants are 3 biggest greenhouse gas emitters
Two Southern Company coal-fired electric generating plants near Atlanta are the biggest contributors to global greenhouse gases in the United States, and a third Southern plant in Alabama is the third-biggest emitter, an analysis of environmental data found Wednesday.

The nation’s No. 1 producer of carbon dioxide — the heat-trapping gas that is held chiefly responsible in models of global warming — is Plant Scherer in Juliette, about 65 miles southeast of downtown Atlanta, according to the Associated Press analysis of data reported to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for 2010.

That’s the plant that supplies most of our power in south Georgia, whether you get it through Georgia Power or Colquitt EMC.
The No. 2 producer is Plant Bowen, just west of Cartersville, about 50 miles northwest of central Atlanta, and the third-largest is Plant Miller in Quinton, Ala., about 165 miles west of Atlanta near Birmingham, the AP said.
The story also notes (as a picture caption):
Georgia Power recently installed pollution-control equipment, called baghouses, to curb mercury pollution at Plant Scherer. EPA rules that will regulate mercury likely will lead to the utility to install additional baghouses at other coal-fired plants
Hm, that’s exactly what Southern Company said it was incompetent to do. Apparently it figured out to do what other power companies already knew how to do.

Anyway, pumping out CO2 from coal plants is what Southern Company is doing instead of solar and wind.

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Farmers and other people own most of Germany’s reneable energy production

Power companies aren’t the only possible owners of solar power farms, and centralized isn’t the only power distribution model. In Germany, most renewable energy production is owned by people, not power companies.

Matthew McDermott wrote for Treehugger 6 January 2011, Over Half of Germany’s Renewable Energy Owned By Citizens & Farmers, Not Utility Companies

Germany’s promotion of renewable energy rightly gets singled out for its effectiveness, most often by me as an example of how to do things well versus the fits and starts method of promotion common in the US. Over at Wind-Works, Paul Gipe points out another interesting facet of the German renewable energy saga: 51% of all renewable energy in Germany is owned by individual citizens or farms, totaling $100 billion worth of private investment in clean energy.

Breaking that down into solar power and wind power, 50% of Germany’s solar PV is owned by individuals and farms, while 54% of its wind power is held by the same groups.

Not only is that more distributed, but it also may be a faster way to get solar deployed:
In total there’s roughly 17 GW of solar PV installed in Germany—versus roughly 3.6 GW in the US (based on SEIA’s figures for new installations though the third quarter of 2011 plus the 2.6 GW installed going into the year).

Remember, Germany now produces slightly over 20% of all its electricity from renewable sources.

Nothing prevents Georgia Power or Colquitt Electric or any of the other power companies operating in Georgia from leading the solar pack. For example, power companies concerned that solar doesn’t produce at night could still deploy solar peak load generation, thus dispensing with natural gas peak load generation.

While the power companies are not leading, private organizations such as Tabby Solar, founded by a pair of doctors, are forging ahead anyway.

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Solar energy trust to help fund Bulloch County’s budget

This story is very interesting in light of Georgia’s territoriality agreement which (I am not a lawyer) basically says not just anybody can sell electric power to municipalities.

Mary Carr Mayle wrote for SavannahNow 27 September 2011, Solar firm establishes energy trust

Two area doctors, co-owners of the Tabby Power Solar Co. in Bulloch County, have formed the Georgia Energy Trust Fund to direct part of their company’s proceeds to the county.

And, while it will take more than a few generations – some 350 years, in fact – Savannah dermatologist Dr. Sidney P. Smith and Brunswick pathologist Dr. Pat Godbey hope the trust fund will eventually generate enough money to pay all of Bulloch County’s budget and create a prototype other rural Georgia counties can follow.

Initially, the doctors are donating 1.5 percent of the gross receipts from their six-acre solar farm in Pembroke to the trust, which will invest in state bonds for the county. The county will then receive half of the earned interest, with the other half reinvested for the county.

Interesting angle, that: they’re not directly selling the power to the county; they’re using some of their income to buy bonds for the county. And they’re inviting others to do the same:
Other county solar installations, both private and public, will be able to contribute to the fund, he said.
Will Georgia Power (or somebody) sue? We’ll see!

And they didn’t wait for North Carolina or New Jersey to do it first:

Smith believes the Georgia Energy Trust is the first trust fund of its kind in the country.

“It will lead to financial independence in the counties in which it is enacted.”

Sounds like a plan to me!

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