Category Archives: Renewable Energy

Solar tipping point within a few years

Why is anyone still building fossil fuel (or nuclear for that matter) power plants when solar is within a few years of being cheaper? In other words, by the time those other plants can be built, solar is very likely to be more cost-effective?

Marcia Goodrich wrote for physorg yesterday, Affordable solar: It’s closer than you think,

It’s a matter of economics. A new analysis by [Michigan Technical University Associate Professor Joshua] Pearce and his colleagues at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, shows that solar photovoltaic systems are very close to achieving the tipping point: they can make electricity that’s as cheap—sometimes cheaper—as what consumers pay their utilities.

Here’s why. First, the price of solar panels has plummeted. “Since 2009, the cost has dropped 70 percent,” says Pearce. But more than that, the assumptions used in previous studies have not given solar an even break.

“Historically, when comparing the economics of solar and conventional energy, people have been very conservative,” says Pearce.

It’s not just that the cost of equipment keeps dropping; older panels remain more efficient than most previous estimates:
For example, most analyses assume that the productivity of solar panels will drop at an annual rate of 1 percent or more, a huge overestimation, according to Pearce. “If you buy a top-of-the-line solar panel, it’s much less, between 0.1 and 0.2 percent.”
There’s more in the news article, and in the journal article it references, A review of solar photovoltaic levelized cost of electricity, K. Brankera, M.J.M. Pathaka, J.M. Pearce, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Volume 15, Issue 9, pages 4470-4482. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2011.07.104

-jsq

After the VLCIA meeting: brain storming sessions —Dr. Noll

Dr. Noll sent this postscript to What can we do as a community to better cooperate? -jsq
I was approached after the meeting and informed that the Industrial Authority intends to invite communal leaders like myself to brain storming sessions in the future, although I do not know yet the design for such a forum, nor have I received any invitations as of today. Still, if there is one thing that has again become clear in the context of the consolidation issue, our community desperately needs structures that a) allow for more transparency and b) forums in which we can take advantage of the creative energy that exist in our community, INSTEAD of trying to shut people out, to hide information from them, or to push through divisive agendas.

It is my hope that the leaders of the Industrial Authority, as well as the City Council, the Lowndes County Commission, and the Chamber of Commerce for that matter, understand the opportunity we have: to turn a weakness (as exposed by the way we handled biomass, and are currently handling the consolidation issue) into a strength … via communication and cooperation … as is appropriate for a true community.

-Michael.

What can we do as a community to better cooperate? —Dr. Noll

Update 3:45 PM 3 November 2011: Better transcript and pictures. See also what happened after the meeting.
Dr. Michael Noll, longtime opponent of the Industrial Authority’s formerly proposed biomass plant, asked that same board at their most recent meeting:
What can we do as a community to better cooperate, to better communicate?
He also referred to the school consolidation issue and to the nuclear vs. renewable energy issue among the reasons he gave, along with some suggestions on how to proceed, and said he would take the same message to other bodies.

Here’s the video, and a transcript is appended.


What can we do as a community to better cooperate? –Dr. Noll
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland chairman, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett,
Andrea Schruijer Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Project Manager,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 18 October 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Dr. Noll sent an edited transcript removing some of the repetition to clarify what he was trying to say: Continue reading →

Financing for renewable energy projects

Most of the cost of a corporate or personal renewable energy installation can be funded through federal and state rebates, but the remainder is what stops most people. Here is what I know about that. There are many other sources of information.

Federal 30% and Georgia 35% rebates add up to 65% (see below under DSIRE). That’s for solar (PV or hot water), wind, and some other related items.

The other 35% is what stops most businesses and people. 35% of a $25,000 house solar system is still $8,750. People like that it will pay itself off in 9-15 years, but most people don’t have $8,750 to invest.

That’s a business opportunity for some enterprising local bank or banks. As Dr. Noll has explained, if you pay for that remainder yourself, the system will pay itself off in about 9 years. If you get a bank to finance it, more like 15 years. And local banks currently require collateral other than the system itself (they like real estate as collateral). The simplest business opportunity is for a local bank to accept the solar equipment itself as collateral. After all, it’s worth 65/35 or 185% of the total loan amount.

The Georgia Solar Energy Association (GSEA) can probably tell you more.

Other ways to finance renewable energy projects include: Continue reading →

Who to contact about nuclear vs. solar

Somebody asked who to write about the nuclear costs Georgia Power is passing through to customers. Here’s the contact page for the Georgia Public Service Commission.

PSC Commissioner Lauren McDonald has been the most vocal about wanting Georgia Power to do solar. Commissioner Chuck Eaton and Tim Echols have both said in public they want more solar. PSC staff member Tom Newsome tried to get gapower to accept a better nuclear profit deal.

Don Parsons, chair of the energy committee of the Georgia House of Representatives, wants to write an energy plan for Georgia. A real one; not that bogus one from 2006 that nobody followed anyway.

Doug Stoner, Georgia State Senator, has said that Georgia Power wasn’t building nuclear plants with private money; they were using public money, and that even a public utility is a subsidy. So it appears he gets it.

Scott Holcomb, Georgia State Representative, wants a state energy policy, and has said:

Our lack of an energy policy is an absolute Achilles heel of our national policy.
So we should get on with a real energy strategy for Georgia.

Click on the pictures of each of the legislature members for their contact information. Even better, contact your state representative or senator. Or federal, since I think the new Plant Vogtle construction gets federal subsidies, too. Or write your local newspaper, or your local TV station, or the AJC.

-jsq

Yes, I do have solar

Here’s my LTE in the VDT today. -jsq
A letter last week asked, “Do you have solar energy yourself?” Why yes, I do. When we installed solar panels on our farm workshop in 2009, the closest certified solar installer was in Marietta. There were only four in the state. Now there are forty. Georgia may yet catch up with North Carolina and even New Jersey!

Hannah Solar had all the paperwork ready when Okra Paradise Farms applied for a USDA REAP grant for more solar panels a few weeks ago. Much to our surprise,

Continue reading →

To the people of Valdosta and South Georgia —Occupy Valdosta

Posted today in Occupy Valdosta’s facebook page:
To the people of Valdosta and South Georgia

We, the local citizens occupying Valdosta, urge you to assert your power.

Exercise your right to peaceably assemble; to nonviolently occupy public space; to create an open process to address the problems we face, and to generate solutions accessible to everyone.

Our issues are varied, yet related.

We seek

Continue reading →

Neighborhoods matter more than schools?

Where you live makes more difference to your education than where you go to school, says a news study, backed up by an older study.

Maureen Downey blogged for AJC 5 October 2011, Forget school vouchers. The route to improving education may be housing vouchers.

School voucher proponents argue that kids need a way out of failing schools, but research increasingly suggests that it would be more effective to provide them a way out of failing neighborhoods.

Should we consider giving poor families in low-performing school zones housing vouchers that they could use to relocate in the zone of a school performing above the area median?

I’d say that’s a bad solution to the problem the study identifies, and we already know better solutions. But first, from the abstract of the the study Continue reading →

Walking Route of Occupy Valdosta

Both the VDT and the Spectator got the route backwards. Not their fault; although the route has been posted since last Saturday, it hasn’t been easy to find.

Here is the actual route of the Friday noon 14 October sidewalk amble through Valdosta, as confirmed last night at the organizational meeting:


View Larger Map

This is a peaceful nonviolent exercise in assembly for redress of grievances and celebration of community. Bring a sign or we’ll help you make one. Talking, chanting, singing, and music are encouraged. Stay on the sidewalk except in the parks; no littering; ask for help if you need water or assistance; feel free to discuss and agree or disagree, but please no name calling or the like.

Assemble: Gather 11AM-noon at Drexel Park

Start: Noon at Drexel Park Continue reading →

VDT announces Occupy Valdosta

In the paper paper today, David S. Rodock wrote, “Occupying Valdosta: Protesters to hold rally in Drexel Park Friday.” The pullquote top center of the page is:
“We initially wanted to go out and target corporate greed and get the corporations out of the government. There needs to be a separation.”
Erin Hurley
Occupy Valdosta event coordinator.
You can see it here, thanks to Michael Noll:

Y’all come:

“Basically, we want to exercise our right to peaceably assemble,” said Hurley, “We want everyone to join in and let their voice be heard. I feel a lot of people have lost that sense of freedom we once had.”
Meet at Drexel Park before noon. The VDT got the route wrong, but just come along and you’ll get there. If you aren’t able to walk a few miles, head directly to the Chamber of Commerce around 1:30 PM, and we’ll meet you there a bit later.

Yes, I’m one of the organizers, in case I haven’t said that before. Here’s the Facebook event.

I’d like to add my usual plug for Continue reading →