Tag Archives: Nuclear

China can go 80% sun, wind, water power by 2050 –WWF

300x424 Cover, in China's Future Generation, by WWF, February 2014 If the most populous country in the world can do it, even the Sunshine State and the rest of the world can do it. With no new nuclear, depending heavily on on energy efficiency and conservation, using China’s huge number of rooftops for solar power, with almost as much wind power, plus a bit more hydropower, China can go 80% renewable energy by 2050. While reducing energy use per capita and increasing GDP per capita. So this path will not only improve Chinese quality of life by getting rid of massive pollution by reducing emissions 90% from otherwise-projected levels; it will also give Chinese citizens more money in their pockets. China has no more sunshine than the U.S. or much of Canada does, so there’s no reason the Canada, U.S., and pretty much every country can’t do this, too. Continue reading

NYC Schools to use more solar power; how about in sunny southeast?

Solar high schools: not just for Dublin, Georgia anymore. New York City, and Rochester, NY, too! How about solar Lowndes High School? Or the new Valdosta High School? Or since Valdosta has already put solar at its Mud Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant, how about on other city buildings? How about on the county palace? Or in Hahira, Dasher, Remerton, or Lake Park?

Erin Durkin wrote for New York Daily News 29 September 2014, 24 NYC schools getting solar panels in $28M project — and City Hall could be next, Continue reading

SolarCity in Buffalo: 1,000 megawatts capacity, 3,000 jobs

Three times as many millios of dollars invested as expected, 3,000 jobs, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says “they could have gone anywhere on the planet”. They could have come here. They went to snowy Buffalo.

David Robinson wrote for Buffalo News 23 September 2014, ‘Historic day for Buffalo,’ Zemsky says of SolarCity RiverBend plans,

SolarCity’s planned factory in South Buffalo — and the 3,000 jobs that come with it — packs a powerful economic punch.

To be built on the former Republic Steel plant site in South Buffalo, the factory is expected to bring more new jobs to the region than the steel maker ever had in its heyday.

With the ability to make enough solar panels to generate more than 1,000 megawatts of electricity, the factory would be Continue reading

Georgians march in NYC for climate action

It’s a start. At least New York City is already doing something. Time for Georgia to stop burning more fossil fuels and uranium and get on with solar power.

By Lisa W. Foderaro, NY Times, 21 September 2014, At climate change march in New York, a clarion call for action,

Participants from across the country began arriving early on Sunday morning at the staging area near the American Museum of Natural History. Rosemary Snow, 75, stretched her legs after a nearly 14-hour bus ride from Georgia.

Continue reading

Solar or wind investment will produce more energy than oil or natural gas

We already knew solar and wind are better investments than nuclear or natural gas, and now we find they’re already better than oil.

In Impact Lab 18 September 2014, $100B invested in wind or solar will produce more energy than oil,

Kepler Chevreux, a French investment bank, has produced a fascinating analysis that has dramatic implications for the global oil industry. The investment bank estimates that $100 billion invested in either wind energy or solar energy — and deployed as energy for light and commercial vehicles — will produce significantly more energy than that same $100 billion invested in oil.

The implications, needless to say, are dramatic. It would signal the end of Big Oil, and the demise of an industry that has dominated the global economy and geo-politics, for the last few decades. And the need for it to reshape its business model around renewables, as we discuss here.

“If we are right, the implications would be momentous,” writes Kepler Chevreux analyst Mark Lewis.

“It would mean Continue reading

All of the above: mercury water, methane fracking, radioactive waste, water overuse; EPA go clean renewables instead –Susan Corbett

South Carolina Sierra Club Chair Susan Corbett summed up the problem with the EPA’s carbon rule: it opposes one poison while promoting others. We can make a real green clean energy policy based on conservation, efficiency, solar, and wind energy. Remember, you can still send in your own comments directly to EPA.

SC Sierra club, chair at EPA Atlanta hearing, by Elaine Cooper on YouTube 30 July 2014: Continue reading

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

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

NRC nuke waste plan failed federal appeal

Why the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is trying to get the public’s confidence in nuclear waste management: NRC lost an appeal in 2012. Southern Company’s new nukes at Plant Vogtle scraped by before this happened, but there’s still no place for nuke waste even from the existing Vogtle 1 and 2 reactors to go. NRC has a revised Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) scheduled to be finished October 2014.

Here’s U.S. DC Circuit Court of Appeals decision No. 11-1045 NY v. NRC 8 June 2012, on the Court’s website and on NIRS’ website.

David Erickson and Mark Anstoetter wrote for Lexology 17 August 2012, NRC suspends issuance of nuclear power plant licenses,

In response to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to vacate its rule regarding long-term storage of nuclear waste, New York v. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, No. 11-1045 (D.C. Cir. 6/8/12), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has agreed to suspend 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