Category Archives: Solar

Solar freakin’ roadways

Solar Roadways has raised $1,884,633 in six weeks from Earth Day to now on a goal of $1,000,000 in indiegogo (which was already a record for most contributors with 36,000 people at $1.5 million). Yes, to all those who have asked me, I think it could work. Add solar roadways to rooftop solar and solar farms and wind, and the EPA’s new CO2 rule (which doesn’t even do much about coal for years and does nothing about about “natural” gas) will seem like a quaint baby step in a few years after this happens: Continue reading

Energy Policy Act of 2005 considered harmful

The same Energy Policy Act of 2005 that subsidized dirty oil and fracked methane including LNG exports also funded that oxymoron “clean” coal such as Southern Company’s Plant Ratcliffe in Mississippi, ethanol production lining the pockets of Monsanto, and the $8.3 billion loan guarantee to Georgia Power for the new nukes at Plant Vogtle.

2005 was a very long time ago in solar PV years: prices are halved, and installed solar power production is up more than ten times and growing exponentially like compound interest. We need to stop throwing money at dirty, water-sucking, centralized baseload 20th century non-solutions and get on with clean 21st century distributed solar and wind power for jobs, for energy independence, and for clean air and water, not to mention less climate change.

-jsq

Slight changes at Southern Company @ SO 2014-05-28

Solar car charging station at the Southern Company Stockholder Meeting: that’s new. Other solar changes were detectable, if you knew what to look for, and with hints from SO CEO Tom Fanning and new R&D VP Larry Monroe here are some, while we’re waiting on SO for video and transcript.

Two demonstration solar charging cars were on the lawn outside the breakfast tent: Continue reading

30 MW solar times 3 Army bases in Georgia with Georgia Power

An additional 90 megawatts of solar power by Georgia Power, beyond what the GA PSC required last summer? With whose Army?

Kristi E. Swartz wrote for EnergyWire 16 May 2014, Georgia Power plan would install solar arrays on 3 Army bases,

Georgia Power and the Army jointly released plans to install large solar arrays at three military bases yesterday in what officials say could be a model for other states.

The three solar arrays are scheduled to start producing power in 2015 and will lead to the Army getting 18 percent of its electricity in Georgia from renewable fuels that are on-site.

The 90 total megawatts of solar electricity also will move the Army 9 percent closer to meeting federal goals for renewable energy.

Adding three 30 MW arrays would continue to boost Georgia’s rapidly growing solar output and would help the military meet its renewable energy goals to become sustainable and more secure.

The move also alleviates mounting political and public pressure on Georgia Power to remove roadblocks that some say have made it difficult for the military to meet its federal renewable energy goals.

OK, that’s all good stuff. However, I’m missing the part about SO is going beyond what GA PSC required Georgia Power to do:

“From the commission standpoint, it’s a joint venture between the Georgia Public Service Commission and the Georgia Power Co. It is a partnership,” PSC member Lauren “Bubba” McDonald said in an interview with EnergyWire. “Georgia will be the model state.”

At least a couple of state utility regulators have been working with Georgia Power for months on a program specifically to install solar at military bases. The utility will use a 90 MW self-build project that the Georgia Public Service Commission approved in 2007 to implement its plans.

So if that 90 MW was approved by GA PSC in 2007, how is it beyond the 525 MW GA PSC required of Georgia Power last summer? Maybe Georgia Power and GA PSC won’t count that 90MW within the 525 MW. This could confirm that interpretation:

McDonald said this program is an extension of his efforts last summer when he shepherded a proposal to have Georgia Power add 525 MW of solar to the grid as part of the utility’s long-term energy plan.

OK, that’s good. It’s still not enough: Georgia Power should be doubling its solar generation every year, not just adding 17% above what it’s required. But it’s some sort of acknowledgement that something needs to be done, and it is something Georgia Power is actually doing.

-jsq

Southern Company Stockholder Meeting @ SO 2014-05-28

If you owned Southern Company stock on 31 March 2014 (I did), you should have gotten a letter to Stockholders from SO CEO Tom Fanning:

The board of Southern Company You are invited to attend the 2014 Annual Meeting of Stockholders at 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday, May 28, 2014, at The Lodge Conference Center at Callaway Gardens, Pine Mountain, Georgia.

Tom Fanning is a most congenial host, always ready with an answer to any question, as you can see in these videos from the Continue reading

The fragility of centralized energy systems

All thermal power generation requires water for cooling, with nukes so vulnerable no private insurer will cover them anyway and failing frequently in recent heat waves. “Natural” gas is no better than coal or oil for water use; maybe worse because all those pipelines vulnerable to backhoes or corrosion or attack. Even hydro is vulnerable to lack of rainfall. Carbon sequestration doesn’t get good marks, while conservation and efficiency get rave reviews from a study of insurance perspectives on power generation. What’s the one power source this article about insurance risks does not say is fragile in the face of climate change? Hint: look up.

Limiting Liability in the Greenhouse: Insurance Risk-Management Strategies in the Context of Global Climate Change, by Christina Ross, Evan Mills, and Sean B. Hecht, Stanford Environmental Law Journal and the Stanford Journal of International Law, Symposium: on Climate Change Risk, Vol. 26A/43A:251, 2007.

Supply-side energy choices that may be made to reduce the carbon-intensity of energy services have their own distinctive liability characteristics. For example, switching to lower-carbon electricity generation technology based on thermal power plant technology (e.g., by substituting natural gas for coal) results in systems that are still heavily dependent on water resources for cooling. The Electric Power Research Institute has documented considerable risks to traditionally cooled power generation systems as a result of climate change-induced droughts.242 Similarly, “zero-emissions” hydroelectric generating systems are also sensitive to rainfall patterns.

242 Denis Albrecht, Electric Power Research Institute, Presentation: Climate Impact on Water Availability for Electricity Generation (April 11, 2006) (presentation slides associated with the Electric Power Research Institute).

Centralization considered harmful

Continue reading

Georgia Power wants more new water for Vogtle nukes than Savannah uses @ GA EPD 2014-05-08

Today is the last day to comment to GA EPD about Georgia Power’s demand for more new water for the Plant Vogtle nukes than Savannah uses. As Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning said two years ago, “water, more than air, is the issue of the future”. Comments may be emailed to EPDComments@dnr.state.ga.us with the subject line “Plant Vogtle.” See below for videos of what people said at a recent public hearing.

Mary Landers wrote for SavannahNow.com 7 May 2014, Nukes thirst for Savannah River water, Continue reading

Stanford beats Harvard; divests from coal

In the first big win for the fossil fuel divestment campaign, Stanford just did what campaign-founder Harvard has not yet: announced it would divest from coal-mining companies.

Here’s Stanford’s PR dated today, 7 May 2014, Stanford to divest from coal companies,

Acting on a recommendation of Stanford’s Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility and Licensing, the Board of Trustees announced that Stanford will not make direct investments in coal mining companies. The move reflects the availability of alternate energy sources with lower greenhouse gas emissions than coal.

Who is this Advisory Panel? Continue reading

Burnt Church Road: 2 megaWatts solar in Lanier County

The answer is: Burnt Church Road is the location of the 2 MW Lakeland Solar Farm, conveniently next to what appears to be a Georgia Power substation. The landowner appears from the Lanier County tax assessor maps to be Patten Seed Company. Compare this map to the big image in the previous post and they clearly show the same location. Apparently nobody has satellite images of Lanier County new enough yet to show the solar panels. Continue reading

2 megaWatts solar in Lanier County

Somebody told me a few weeks ago there’s a big solar farm near Lakeland. He was not very specific about where, but it’s big: two megawatts, organized by a company out of Chicago. Can anybody point me to where it is so I can go take pictures?

Evergreen Solar Services says,

2.0 MW Lakeland, GA
Completed in 2014, 2 — 1.0 MW Georgia Power ASI projects. Fixed tilt PV with central inverters, medium voltage interconnected.

You can see by this Evergreen Solar Services picture that Continue reading