Category Archives: Pollution

Solar: jobs, leadership, grid, independence, and health

Peak power when you need it: solar. Somebody has been studying it, and addressing problems local decisionmakers right here in south Georgia have been raising.

Solar Power Generation in the US: Too expensive, or a bargain? by Richard Perez, ASRC, University at Albany, Ken Zweibel, GW Solar Institute, George Washington University, Thomas E. Hoff, Clean Power Research. That’s Albany, New York, but it applies even more to Albany, Georgia and Lowndes County, Georgia, since we’re so much farther south, with much more sun.

Let’s cut to the chase:

The fuel of heat waves is the sun; a heat wave cannot take place without a massive local solar energy influx. The bottom part of Figure 2 illustrates an example of a heat wave in the southeastern US in the spring of 2010 and the top part of the figure shows the cloud cover at the same time: the qualitative agreement between solar availability and the regional heat wave is striking. Quantitative evidence has also shown that the mean availability of solar generation during the largest heat wave driven rolling blackouts in the US was nearly 90% ideal (Letendre et al. 2006). One of the most convincing examples, however, is the August 2003 Northeast blackout that lasted several days and cost nearly $8 billion region wide (Perez et al., 2004). The blackout was indirectly caused by high demand, fueled by a regional heat wave3. As little as 500 MW of distributed PV region wide would have kept every single cascading failure from feeding into one another and precipitating the outage. The analysis of a similar subcontinental scale blackout in the Western US a few years before that led to nearly identical conclusions (Perez et al., 1997).

In essence, the peak load driver, the sun via heat waves and A/C demand, is also the fuel powering solar electric technologies. Because of this natural synergy, the solar technologies deliver hard wired peak shaving capability for the locations/regions with the appropriate demand mix peak loads driven by commercial/industrial A/C that is to say, much of America. This capability remains significant up to 30% capacity penetration (Perez et al., 2010), representing a deployment potential of nearly 375 GW in the US.

The sun supplies solar power when you need it: at the same time the sun drives heat waves.

The paper identifies the problem I’ve encountered talking to local policy makers, especially ones associated with power companies: Continue reading →

Incinerator forces Harrisburg to sell off parking lots

After defaulting on its incinerator bonds, Harrisburg, PA, gets even more desperate and starts selling off pieces of itself.

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.

-jsq

Energy as a National Security Challenge —Col. Dan Nolan @ Solar Summit

In his morning keynote at the sold-out Southern Solar Summit, Col. Dan Nolan (U.S. Army ret.) asked the musical question:
“When did our Marines become Birkenstock-wearing tree huggers?”
This was after some Marines asked for solar power so they wouldn’t have to haul fuel in long convoys, which were among the most dangerous missions. Most of that fuel was going into very inefficient generators to run very inefficient air conditioners in tents in the desert. Dealing with that got the military thinking about energy security: assured access to mission-critical energy.

Looking up, he asked:

“What is it we as a nation need to understand about our own energy security?”
He identified America’s strategic center of gravity as its economy. It’s very resilient but has vulnerabilities open to attack. So how do we secure those vulnerabilities?

The main vulnerabilities are: Continue reading →

Harrisburg defaulted on incinerator bonds

Last year Harrisburg, PA defaulted on bonds it issued to build an incinerator, according to Aaron Smith in CNNMoney, Harrisburg, Pa., defaulting on its bonds:
The capital city Pennsylvania is broke and will be skipping this month’s multi-million dollar bond payment.

On Sept. 15, Harrisburg, Pa., was scheduled to make a $3.29 million payment on the bonds it issued to build a trash plant. But, the cash-strapped city doesn’t have the dough.

“The city’s budget is in deficit,” said Chuck Ardo, spokesman for Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson. “We’re looking for ways to trim the budget just to keep services going.”

“Now the chickens have come home to roost,” the mayor said in a statement released Wednesday.

You remember, “Officials here decided seven years ago to borrow $125 million to rebuild and expand the city’s enormous trash incinerator….”

Well, that could never happen here, could it?

-jsq

This is what a mayor with vision sounds like

Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio speaks at 44:25 about
…the nexus between sustainability and job creation. Every now and then, perhaps once in a generation, there presents itself a moment, an opportunity, for those cities that are willing to seize it, to truly benefit the region for generations to come.
Here’s the video: Continue reading →

San Antonio promises to shut down a coal plant

We could do something like this. We’ve already made a start with Wiregrass Solar.

San Antonio, the Clean-Energy City? Look out Austin, SA Mayor Julian Castro promises to shut-down a coal plant by 2018.

At an event this afternoon at UT-San Antonio, Mayor Julian Castro announced a suite of green energy projects that he said would position San Antonio as the nation’s “recognized leader in clean energy technology” and help fulfill his aggressive environmental goals.

Most notably, Castro and leaders from CPS Energy, the city-owned utility, pledged to shut down one of its coal-fired power plants 15 years ahead of schedule. By 2018, the city would mothball the 871-megawatt J.T. Deely Power Plant — a bold move in a growing state that’s seemingly addicted to coal.

So what are they going to use for energy? Continue reading →

“I’m obviously here on one issue.” —Karen Noll @ VLCIA 14 June 2011

Karen Noll asked the VLCIA board to put a no-biomass clause in any purchase agreement regarding the proposed biomass site.

She began with these words:

I’m Karen Noll. I hope some of you already have seen my writing and have read my letters to you in the past. I’m obviously here on one issue. I hope that in the future I can be talking to you about other issues. But right now I’m talking to you about biomass. And we celebrated that it was dead and it was gone and now it’s not. Because we really don’t know … what the plan is.
By “we” I’m guessing she meant WACE. Some of us who are not members of WACE warned that it ain’t over until it’s over, and it only took a week to discover that VLCIA already knew Sterling Planet wanted to buy the proposed biomass site.

Karen Noll made a pitch based partly on saving taxpayer money. In addressing health concerns, she handed the board a letter from local doctor Craig Bishop. She handed the board a petition with “at least 700 signatures” and she said for each signature there was probably at least one more that didn’t sign. Some of what she said appeared to be drawn from a letter that is appended in this post after the video.

Here’s Part 1 of 2: Continue reading →

U.S. drug war afflicts Latin America and rebounds on U.S.

The war on drugs causes violence, poverty, and illiteracy in Latin America that drives illegal immigration into the U.S., for the profit of Monsanto, military contractors, and private prison companies. Does that seem right to you?

Neal Peirce wrote a syndicated column 22 May 2011, Misguided U.S. drug policies afflict Mexico, Central America:

The war on drugs in Mexico, partially funded by hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. government assistance, has not only failed to curb the trade but intensified horrific violence, corruption and human rights abuses, writes Neal Peirce.

For most Americans, the recent news of popular demonstrations in Mexico was probably a small diversion from the daily tide of bloody global reports from such faraway hot spots as Pakistan, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and Bahrain.

Why worry, most of us likely concluded, if thousands of Mexicans are marching in the streets, protesting the horrific violence and high death toll in their nation’s raging drug war? Isn’t that their problem?

It’s true, the news reports focus less on the American role, more on growing anger with the government of President Felipe Calderón and the meager returns from the massive police and military crackdown on the drug trade he inaugurated in 2006.

Since then, more than 37,000 Mexicans have been murdered, often tortured and brutalized before their deaths, as cartels battle for control of drug smuggling routes and brazenly assassinate anyone, official or average citizen, they think is in their way.

The hard lesson is that the war on drug dealers, decreed by Calderón and partially funded by hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. government assistance, has not only failed to curb the trade but intensified horrific violence, corruption and human-rights abuses.

So what can be done? Continue reading →

Got trash? Need disposal? Good luck.

So, as David Rodock reported this morning in the VDT solid waste management was a discussion topic for Lowndes County Commissioners, even though it wasn’t on yesterday’s work session agenda.

Interesting that a meeting was held after the work session. I was at the work session, camera in hand, and you can see what transpired there with talk of the jail , the possibility of Sunday alcohol package sales, oh and the animal shelter all during the County Manager’s Reports.

Nothing has been said (in public) about solid waste disposal since the public meetings where the pubic was told by Chairman Rod Casey and County Manager Pritchard that the county staff had “examined every option” and there was nothing that the public could possibly suggest that hadn’t already been considered.

The proposed plan (VDT Article August 29, 2008 Lowndes County’s proposed solid waste plan in effect Jan 1) was basically curbside collection (where no vendor could meet the proposed price cap suggested by the county) and what we ended up with was pay for drop off permits (VDT Article May 13, 2009 Solid waste disposal permits now available).

Joe Pritchard remembers those meetings like this (Update 25 Sept 2013 to add reference, “Commissioners want Lowndes out of the trash business” by David Rodock in the VDT 24 May 2011):

“I went through eight public meetings, better described as floggings, where the public just vented every ounce of frustration they ever had relating to solid waste over that time period,” said Joe Pritchard, county manager. “That was not a pleasant process. Yes, we need to come up with a way of notifying the public, but I’m here to tell you, that public meetings is not it.”

So, the problem (disposing of garbage costs money) still exists and the county has known that for years. Yet, here we are on the cusp of a crisis again and Commissioner Raines says

“My mind’s made up and I’m willing to call an emergency meeting tonight if we need to”

Why hasn’t the county been soliciting input during these two years that they knew the system was out of balance? Why must everything be a crisis?

-Gretchen

VSU Faculty Senate passes anti-biomass resolution

Karen Noll reported on WACE’s facebook page that the VSU Faculty Senate passed a resolution Thursday 19 May 2011 that biomass will not be considered renewable for VSU’s climate commitment goal.

Why? Because leading medical associations have identified woody biomass incineration as increasing risks of “a variety of illnesses, some life-threatening”, because biomass incineration produces more CO2, NOX, and fine particulates than existing coal plants, and because it “may lead to unsustainable forestry practices and a net increase in global greenhouse gas emissions”.

Who proposed this? Continue reading →