Tag Archives: electricity

Local leadership nets $1.5 billion solar project

That’s 400 MW of solar power in twenty 20 MW PV plants, just across the state line in Gadsden County, Florida. Plus ongoing jobs, expanded education, private sources of investment, and customers for the electricity.

According to SolarServer quoting a National Solar press release yesterday, National Solar Power chooses Gadsden County, Florida for 400 MW PV project

The company estimates that the 400 MW project will create 400 jobs during the five-year construction phase and up to 120 permanent operations jobs.
And that’s not all. According to Solar Energy News today, Plan to build $1.5bn solar farm in Florida, Continue reading →

Sign up for renewable energy from Georgia Power —Jaime Hockin @ Solar Summit

Panelist Jaime Hockin of Georgia Power pointed out that gapower customers can sign up for green energy right now. Here’s where: Residential Green Energy Signup.
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
You get a separate line item on your bill for whichever one you buy.

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!

-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 →

Valdosta budget hearing: no citizens spoke

Valdosta city officials advertised a budget hearing and no citizens spoke.

David Rodock wrote today in the VDT, Valdosta’s 2012 budget reviewed by citizens and public officials

City officials and staff gathered Wednesday night to discuss and review the fiscal year 2012 budget. Public participation was advertised, but no citizens presented any concern at the meeting. This is the first budget hearing, with the final adoption of the budget taking place at the upcoming regular City Council meeting on June 23 at 5:30 p.m.
No citizens. I don’t live in Valdosta, so I didn’t go. Apparently no Valdosta residents who have any economic concerns went, either.

That’s too bad, because among the items discussed was this:

  • Energy and fuel prices are a threat, since the private sector controls the costs. Public Works, the Valdosta Fire Department and the Valdosta Police Department use significant amounts of fuel.
And I bet the city spends significant funds air conditioning its buildings. Costs that could be offset by investment in solar panels for those same buildings. Solar panels that would limit ongoing electrical expenditures, and would also be a visible sign to residents and potential investors that Valdosta means renewable and sustainable energy business.
According to Hanson, for every dollar spent by residents, $1.17 is spent by non-residents.
And many of those non-residents would see those solar panels, which would spread the green reputation of Valdosta back to whereever they came from.

If Valdosta wants to be forward-looking, Continue reading →

Biomass plant approved for Macon-Bibb County

How to get a biomass plant approved in Georgia: tack it onto an existing business. Remember to get an industrial authority to use a public bond issue to expand the private business.

Carla Caldwell wrote in the Atlanta Business Chronicle 7 June 2011, Graphic Packaging gets $140M bond deal

A deal OK’d by the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority provides revenue bonds for a $140 million expansion of Marietta, Ga.-based Graphic Packaging International’s Macon, Ga. mill. Improvements will include the addition of a biomass boiler and a 40-megawatt turbine generator geared to reduce emergency cost and improve profitability, reports Macon Telegraph website macon.com.

The authority approved the deal on Monday for the provider of packaging for food, beverage and consumer products. The biomass system, which is scheduled for operation by mid-2013, is expected to generate power from about 400,000 tons of logging materials, mostly the tops of trees, the Macon newspaper reports. Graphic Packaging’s (NYSE: GPK) Macon mill makes an estimated 1,600 tons of paperboard daily.

Maybe we should put some parameters on the types of industry we want around here to avoid this happening with the bonds the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (and the Lowndes County Commission) floats.

This rationalization is precious: Continue reading →

Sharable solar

Beth Buczynski wrote in shareable: ecosystem 13 May 2011 about Solar Energy Meets The Sharing Economy:
Although it’s one of the only forms of energy to offer a 100 percent return on investment, solar energy has only been adopted by about 1 percent of the U.S. population. A recent solar energy industry report indicated that cost and complexity were two of the biggest reasons why people are slow to invest in solar technology.

Solar Mosaic brings the popular crowdfunding technique to the clean tech industry by developing a way for communities to create their own renewable energy without going into debt.

I don’t get the complexity part, since certified installers do that for you. But up front cost is the hurdle pretty much everybody local mentions as to why they haven’t installed solar yet. As I’ve mentioned before, Solar Mosaic is one answer to that. It’s one way of implementing what Alden Hathaway says about solar power is the people’s power.

-jsq

High-Voltage Grid of the Future — Daniel E. Frank

No new grid is needed to profit by becoming electrical generators on your own rooftops, but with a smarter grid south Georgia can export power to Atlanta and beyond.

I found this over in NO COAL PLANT IN BEN HILL COUNTY! with this comment by Dan Corrie:

This Georgia Tech announcement emphasizes how quickly technology is changing toward healthier energy production and away from coal. I would hate to see our South Georgia stuck with a contaminating, health-harming coal plant for 50 years while so much progress would be going on during that time.
The article by Daniel E. Frank dated 18 May 2011 appears on a law firm’s page, Georgia Tech Clean Energy Speaker Series: “High-Voltage Grid of the Future”: Continue reading →

Wiregrass Solar is the first of several projects —Sonny Murphy

Let’s look at Sterling Planet’s own press release about the Wiregrass Solar commissioning. What’s this about a first phase? And what’s the second phase?

Sterling Planet announces completion of one of Georgia’s largest solar generating projects: First phase of Valdosta solar project now supplies green energy to Georgia Power.

Sterling Planet, the leading national retail provider of renewable energy and other clean-energy assets, today announced at a commissioning ceremony the completion of a 200 kWAC output solar generating project in Valdosta. One of the largest solar arrays in the state of Georgia, the Wiregrass Solar, LLC project began commercial operation on April 6 and is now generating annualized output of approximately 350,000 kilowatt-hours. This is enough clean, emission-free electricity to power 350 Georgia homes using the average amount of 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity monthly.

Developed by Sterling Planet, Wiregrass Solar supplies green power for the Georgia Power Green Energy program, an option for the utility’s customers who voluntarily choose to support renewable power and help generate more of it in Georgia.

OK, that’s all good. Congratulations!

Also notice Sterling Planet doesn’t make the mayor’s mistake in saying this is the largest solar array in Georgia, like WCTV after Pete Marte of Hannah Solar corrected it, Sterling says “one of the largest”.

But what’s this about “first phase”? Continue reading →

Using oil to move an automobile down the street … not something you’re going to see in 20 to 25 years. —Pete Marte

Pete Marte of Hannah Solar predicted that within a generation cars will run on electricity generated by solar arrays like the one commissioned last Thursday.

Col. Allan Ricketts introduced Pete Marte, CEO of Hannah Solar.

Here’s Part 1 of 3: Continue reading →

“Solar power at one time was a theory, and now it’s in practice” —Sen. Tim Golden

State Sen. Tim Golden used Yogi Berra to illustrate that solar power is no longer just a theory: it’s now implemented in practice.
Yogi said, and I quote:
In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is.
…

I thought about that quote because solar power at one time was a theory, and now it’s in practice.

A very good point.

(This is also where Sonny Murphy got the idea to quote Yogi Berra.)

Sen. Golden mentioned that he and Sonny Murphy grew up with Gov. Nathan Deal.

He said he met Pete Marte of Hannah Solar at the governor’s office the previous day, at the signing of HB 346, which includes solar tax credits. That’s the bill that Wes Hudson said “extends the renewable energy tax credit to the year ending Dec. 31, 2014, and for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 it newly expands the total statewide credit amount from $2.5 million to $5 million in each of the years 2012-2014.”

Sen. Golden once again said we’d gone from theory to practice.

He lauded Jimmy Carter for putting solar panels on the White House Continue reading →