Category Archives: Solar

U.S. electric power source projections: solar still most by 2023

According to FERC’s own figures from 2012 and 2016, my solar projections from 2013 (and former FERC Chair Jon Wellinghoff’s) were pretty good, and more U.S. electricity will still come from solar power by 2023. LAKE Solar Table 2017 Since coal and nuclear are already crashing, and natural gas isn’t increasing even as fast as formerly projected, solar could win even faster.

I constructed table below from the 2012 and 2016 summaries of total U.S. electric power generation from all sources, by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Look at the 2012 column: only coal and natural gas generated more than 25% of total U.S. electricity.

But in 2016 it’s only natural gas, because coal’s growth rate actually turned negative: utilities are shutting down coal plants, not building them. Back in 2013 I did not predict that to happen so quickly.

Now look at the growth rates, both Continue reading →

New solar up 95% in 2016, more installed than gas or wind

Solar passed both wind and natural gas in 2016 for most new U.S. electricity installed in a year. Yet Bloomberg still doesn’t quite get it: solar is growing exponentially, and is still on track to produce more U.S. electricity total than any other power source by 2023.

Chris Martin, Bloomberg Markets, 15 February 2017, U.S. Solar Surged 95% to Become Largest Source of New Energy,

  • Solar installations surpassed gas and wind for first time
  • Record 14.6 gigawatts of solar panels added in 2016, SEIA says

Solar developers installed a record 14.6 gigawatts in the U.S. last year, almost double the total from 2015 and enough to make photovoltaic panels the largest source of new electric capacity for the first time.

Continue reading →

Solar Panels at Daytona International Speedway

Even FPL is doing solar power now, as evidenced by these pictures John Horton sent back from Daytona yesterday. Front gate So, FPL, how about cancel Sabal Trail and help the sun rise faster on the Sunshine State?

Kelly Pickerel, Solar Power World, 19 February 2016, Three solar canopies complete at Daytona International Speedway, Continue reading →

Valdosta to add solar power to both wastewater treatment plants 2016-10-06

Valdosta just leapfrogged the rest of the state in solar power for wastewater treatment plants. Council Tim Carroll expanded beyond the laconic summary of Thursday’s Valdosta City Council action, which itself expanded on a July action. Turns out Valdosta is one of several cities across Georgia with solar power for their wastewater treatment facilities, and maybe not the largest nor the earliest, but apparently the earliest large one. The main point is clear from all of them: solar power for wastewater plants pays for itself in only a few years and can save millions of dollars over decades.

Summary of Actions, Regular Meeting, Valdosta City Council, Thursday October 6th 2016, Continue reading →

FPL admits no need for new electricity until 2024: so why Sabal Trail?

17%, 13%, now 0% new electricity needed in Florida, according to FPL? And the Sabal Trail excuse of coal plant “modernization” has already been accomplished without Sabal Trail? While even FPL is now deploying solar power and admits solar “is now significantly influencing FPL’s resource planning”? So what is the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline boondoggle for, then?

Two years ago I pointed out that FPL’s own projections in its ten-year plans Continue reading →

Southern Company buying half of SONAT from KMI

SO is buying 50% of SONAT from KMI, as multiple people have pointed out, including someone from Southern Company. SO: SONAT in the Southeast Unfortunately SO is not just investing in existing pipelines: this purchase is about “specific growth opportunities”, and yes, it’s tied to SO’s recent purchase of AGL. Southern Company needs to stop plugging dying 20th century fossil fuels and get on with what it’s already started with solar power (and offshore wind).

Southern Company PR 10 July 2016, Southern Company, Kinder Morgan enter Southern Natural Gas pipeline strategic venture, Continue reading →

Sen. John Barrasso predicted China emissions wrong

See the power behind FERC get it very wrong. About China emissions, about energy and economy, about solar power, and all in one speech.

American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), YouTube, 3 December 2009 (posted 15 Dec 2009), U.S. Senator John Barrasso speaks at ALEC in December 2009 in DC. Part 3,

Just look at China, Continue reading →

Nature Nates and GEDA @ VLCIA 2016-05-17

On tonight’s Development Authority agenda, I’m guessing GEDA is Georgia Economic Development Association. Nature Nate, you may recall, is the first occupant of Miller Business Park. I continue to suggest the Development Authority put solar panels on much of that unused business park land and turn the business parks into profit centers instead of continual money sinks to service all those bonds that funded them.

Valdosta-Lowndes Development Authority
Tuesday, May 17, 2016 5:30 p.m.
Development Authority Conference Room/103 Roosevelt Drive
Monthly Meeting Agenda Continue reading →

Solar price drops setting invisible price limit for ever-dirtier fossil fuel extraction

A fairly insightful piece on the how oil price rises drive more fossil fuel production, currently fueled by debt because wages of most workers have been falling, still misses two big points: solar prices continually plumetting now undercut all fossil fuel prices, and dirtier fossil fuel extraction and its massive colonial invasion of pipelines are meeting resistance everywhere, including at the regulatory-captured puppet agencies like FERC.

“Tyler Durden”, ZeroHedge, 13 May 2016, Submitted by Gail Tverberg via Our Finite World blog, The Real Oil Limits Story – What Other Researchers Missed, Continue reading →

Solar farm or fracked methane pipeline with explosions?

Which do you want? A 31 megawatt solar farm such as is building next to Albany, Georgia, built by Southern Company subsidiary Georgia Power to power 5,000 homes, and that won’t leak or explode? Or the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline that could blow up like


Photo: US Army/Fort Benning.


KERRY JOBE VIA AP

another Spectra Energy 36″ pipeline this morning in Pennsylvania, badly burning a man and incinerating his house? After which Spectra declared force majeure, which Bloomberg spells out as “Force majeure is declared to remove a company from contractual obligation because of events beyond its control.” So apparently any promises Spectra or Sabal Trail made to you, your city, county, or state, it can just declare force majeure and get off the hook. Even for a 40-mile-long and 4,000-foot-high plume of smoke.

Russell Grantham, AJC, 29 April 2016, Old power gives way to new power in south Georgia, Continue reading →