Chuck Eaton, Georgia Public Service Commissioner,
moderating a panel of Georgia’s Policy Makers at
Southern Solar Summit
said
Solar is great for diversity, independence, research, and business.He said that until recently he had discounted solar, but now he had seen it. Continue reading
Jennifer DeCesaro of the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE)
said she liked showing a map of U.S. insolation
outside the U.S. southwest because
then she could point out that
Spain has not as good resources and a larger solar market,
while Germany, the world leader in deployed solar,
has solar resources like the state of Alaska.
So the U.S. has plenty of solar energy everywhere.
She made a few other comparisons between U.S. and Germany. U.S.: 30% investment tax credit. Germany: National Feed-in Tariff.
She talked about SunShot: the Apollo mission of our time. It aims to reduce solar costs by 75% by the end of the decade, making solar cost-competitive with fossil fuels without subsidy.
Actual panels cost about the same in U.S. and Germany, but the rest Continue reading
What would be the benefits?…including the creation and maintainance of a Public Transit System in the City of Valdosta and Greater Valdosta-Lowndes County.
This project will provide mobility options for all travelers; improve access to employment; and help mitigate congestion and maximize the use of existing infrastructure by promoting high-occupancy travel.And that’s the entire description for this project. Nothing about promoting sprawl. Would actually promote dense close-in development. Can’t be very important, then, right?
Not when the sprawl plans for Val Del Road and Cat Creek Road add up to $6 million, or almost enough for the entire bus system.
Last time the transit system was being considered by the county,
I was asked by a prominent local politican, “would you ride it?”
Not every day.
But more often than I would drive on the $10 million five lane New Bethel Road.
If you’re interested in a potential bus system, here is a lot more information about it.
Here’s what Lowndes County submitted for T-SPLOST funding, extracted from the 171 page PDF.
Representing a San Francisco venture capital firm,
MP2 Capital,
Jeff Glavan said he’s looking for
medium to large scale projects that can actually get built,
with partners in each geographic market, since development is very local.
MP2 also does projects with municipalities that can’t take tax credits because they are tax exempt. MP2 funds instead.
It’s not just all about large systems…. There’s a market for 1 to 5 megawatt systems.
The three things they look at are credit, commercial terms, and economic terms. Commercial terms are what hold up most projects. MP2 likes to be involved in negotiating a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) to avoid terms like host may need to repair roof which could involve removing the solar system for some undefined amount of time.
MP2 is actively looking for solar partners.
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Kalland said transparency is key.
Other speakers had said you could have too much transparency, but Kalland pointed out that it was only through a hearing that North Carolina found out a major power company was going to use up its solar energy credits years ahead of schedule, and without transparency there couldn’t be real competition because the customers wouldn’t know who had which prices.
What else does it take to make a state competitive in solar? Kalland discussed this table (reformatted here from the copy of his presentation he gave me):
He said a lot more, but that’s a very interesting table to consider not only for a state, but for a region, like south Georgia, or a small metro area, like Valdosta MSA.Foundational Steps to Focus on Solar
Installed Capacity Manufacturing Interconnection Standards
Base Resources (economic or voices)
Early Adopters
Military or Large Federal
High Tech Firms
Corporate GreensUniversity Partnership Opportunities
Existing presence of businesses in multiple fields (diversification)
I know some people will react with: “but VSU is not a research university!” Nope, but this could be a way to add some research capacity to VSU.
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They’ve done it in North Carolina:
Solar is hands down the most popular energy source across NC, across parties, ages, genders, etc. Coal and nuclear are the politically charged energy sources, and neither got a majority. Number 2 was offshore wind with 83% and number 3 was onshore wind with 82% support. Here’s the NCSEA press release. Here’s the survey.91% of voters support using solar power to meet our growing needs for energy and electricity
How did they do this? Continue reading
About incentives, he asked:
He recommends taking advantages of our strengths in this region. We may not have a lot of demand yet, but we have two solar manufacturers in Georgia, and increasing interest in incentives by the state.“Why not Georgia?”
Overall solar works, and is an economic development engine. But the question is what are the commitments you are willing to make, in understanding your strengths, and picking one or two goals.He cited TVA as an example of an organization that has done that and is moving ahead.
He recommended making a business case for solar in Georgia. Many of the other speakers are busily doing various pieces of that.
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Here’s where:
Residential Green Energy Signup.
You get a separate line item on your bill for whichever one you buy.
- Standard Green Energy Option: $3.50 (plus tax) a month per 100 kWh block.
This option delivers Green-e Energy certified renewable energy that is generated entirely by biomass.- Premium Green Energy with Solar Option: $5.00 (plus tax) a month per 100 kWh block.
This option delivers Green-e Energy certified renewable energy that contains a mix of at least 50% solar and 50% biomass energy.
Some people claim that there’s no way to do this because it’s just electrons once it gets on the wire. Sure, and money is just dollars once you spend it. But contracts can determine where those dollars go, and in exchange for what:
Due to the way electricity is transmitted and distributed, energy purchased or produced from renewable energy resources may not be specifically delivered to you. However, the renewable energy you purchase will be added to the power grid and will displace incremental power that would have otherwise been produced from traditional generating resources.So as Jaime Hockin advised, if you want to show you want renewable energy, and you are a Georgia Power customer, sign up and Georgia Power will hear you!
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learn it live is making the official video record.
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William Alden wrote in huffpo 15 June 2011, Harrisburg’s ‘Bad Deal’: City Forced To Pursue Parking System Lease Despite Fears:
The finances of Harrisburg, Pa., are so desperate that local officials are considering a deal they fear will ultimately make the city more miserable.
A state-appointed panel, charged with crafting a financial recovery plan for the city, announced this week that Harrisburg must pursue the sale of public assets to help resolve its fiscal crisis. The nearly-bankrupt state capital, weighed down by debt more than four times the size of its budget, “is not in control of its own destiny,” the state team said in a report.
Three years ago, confronted with a similar budget shortfall, the city considered leasing parking garages and meters in exchange for quick infusion of cash, but that deal was never approved. Last month, the offer resurfaced when New York-based developer LambdaStar expressed renewed interest. Some city leaders harbor a growing fear that Harrisburg will be forced into a deal that will bleed its coffers over the course of decades, after it surrenders valuable assets to a profit-driven company with the power to raise rates on a captive base of customers.
But those misgivings may not matter, as a budget crisis chokes Harrisburg into submission.
“This is a situation where Wall Street will get paid, and the little guys on Main Street, taxpayers, are going to get stuck holding the bag,” Harrisburg City Council Member Brad Koplinski said.
Couldn’t happen here, right? Our local governments would never hastily approve bonds that could force raising taxes or default, would they? Oh, right: they already did.
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