It’s not just us gnats anymore, Southern Company now has yellowflies
giving it the business about converting from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
That’s smart business, since SO
called out solar power in its own 2014 Annual Report
for increased revenues in both 2013 and 2014.
Tomorrow at Callaway Gardens, stockholders including me will vote.
Dave Williams, Atlanta Business Chronicle, 15 May 2015, Southern shareholders to consider ‘green’ vote, Continue reading
This Memorial Day let’s honor those who have served and those who have fallen
by getting on with removing one of the major causes of war:
fossil fuels.
The U.S. military is putting its money where its mouth is in buying
solar power.
Especially now that
HB 57 is law and enables solar financing,
the rest of us can do the same.
And that will prevent casualties and prevent wars.
WTOC Staff, 15 May 2015, Ft. Stewart breaks ground on renewable energy solar project,
There will be nearly 140,000 solar panels covering about 200 acres. Georgia Power owns and operates the solar panels, and all of the energy generated will go to Georgia Power to be equally distributed to people across the region who use Georgia Power, including MidCoast Regional Airport, Fort Stewart, and any other residential customers.
“Let me put a little bit into perspective; so the Army is the largest utility consumer in the United States, we buy more utility services than anyone else, even WalMart,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army Richard Kidd said.
Why is the U.S. military doing this? Continue reading
Caught on-camera:
ALEC’s off-duty sheriff’s deputies getting TV reporters thrown out of their own hotel
for “taking pictures in the hotel”, after ALEC’s marketing droid denied any
lobbying going on, nevermind the lobbyist and
legislator in a bar spelling out how it works:
ALEC gives “scholarships” to legislators who then meet in closed rooms
with corporate reps (including all the companies involved in the Sabal Trail fracked methane pipeline) who have equal votes
on draft bills for legislators to get passed as law in many states.
Bills promoting fracking, pipelines, LNG export, and against solar power,
renewable portfolio standards, not to mention for private prisons
and privatized education and against municipal broadband and country-of-origin labelling, plus many other
corporate give-aways subsidized by the taxpayers and the environment.
It’s time for the IRS to revoke ALEC’s 501(c)(3) status.
And for the Georgia legislature to apply the state’s sunshine laws to itself.
Brendan Keefe and Michael King, WXIA-TV, 22 May 2015, Legislators and corporate lobbyists meet in secret at Georgia resort, Continue reading
The carbon bubble is popping faster than most people imagined,
and renewable sun, wind, and water power is taking over.
Ari Phillips, ThinkProgress, 15 May 2015, It Only Took Four Months For China To Achieve A Jaw-Dropping Reduction In Carbon Emissions,
China is the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, so small decreases in its emissions seem like monumental feats when compared to other countries. According to a new analysis, in the first four months of 2015, China’s coal use fell almost 8 percent compared to the same period last year — a reduction in emissions that’s approximately equal to the total carbon dioxide emissions of the U.K. over the same period.
The analysis, published by Greenpeace and Energydesk China, reviewed data from a number of sources, including China’s industrial output, and found that China had reduced its coal output by 6.1 percent in the first four months of 2015. The research team calculated that the drop in coal use translates into a nearly 5 percent drop in domestic CO2 emissions.
Lauri Myllyvirta, an analyst who worked on the Greenpeace report, told RTCC that the report shows that China’s industrial output and thermal power generation are falling while renewable energy sources like hydro, wind, and solar are growing fast.
Niall McCarthy, Forbes, 12 May 2015, China’s Revolution In Wind Energy [Infographic], Continue reading
Good question.
EWA, 7 May 2015, The Tesla Battery Heralds the Beginning of the End for Fossil Fuels,
Rather than wondering “Can we have our own energy system?” people are going to be wanting to know “Why can’t we have it?”
This is why early adopters like Alton Burns and George Bennett matter: other people start asking: why can’t we have that? And now that HB 57 is finally law, lots more people can have solar power without mortgaging the farm. Then they ask this question: why can’t we have storage?
The Tesla Energy program unveiled last week is Continue reading
The sun is finally rising on Georgia, and if that is possible, Florida can follow, and the southeast, the U.S., and the world.
Today is a historic day, when even a governor
who took campaign finance funds from
a long list of fossil fuel pipeline companies,
the governor of the most corrupt state
(least stringent ethics laws),
when that governor
finally signed a law that even the
most corruption-prone legislature,
after squelching similar bills for a dozen years,
finally passed as HB 57 unanimously in both houses.
Dave Williams, Atlanta Business Chronicle, 12 may 2015, Gov. Deal signs bill letting solar installers offer customers third-party financing,
Georgia property owners will get more affordable options for installing solar panels at their homes and businesses under a bill Gov. Nathan Deal signed into law Tuesday.
The legislation, which sailed through the General Assembly unanimously, will let solar installers offer customers third-party financing of installations. That’s a major change from the old law, which required customers to pay up front.
Already two years ago the Georgia Public Service Commissioners, even though overwhelmingly campaign-funded by the industries they regulate, required Georgia Power to buy twice as much solar energy as it wanted. This year Georgia Power’s parent Southern Company’s annual report says its main source of new revenue for both 2013 and 2014 was solar power. And Georgia has already leaped from far behind to become the fastest growing solar market in the nation, with numerous Georgia Power solar utility-scale installations and smaller ones like for Alton Burns in Thomas County and today for George Bennett in Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia. This new law Gov. Deal just signed will accelerate that growth even more.
Luis Martinez, NRDC, 12 May 2015, The Sun Also Rises in the Southeast, Continue reading
Early adopter Rev. George Bennett of First Christian Church of Valdosta gets creation care plus 8% return on investment in his 20 solar panels, just like the Savannah Georgia National Guard got two years ago from the same solar installer. Bennett is very well known around Valdosta and Lowndes County, Georgia, so his solar decision could be quite influential. If he didn’t even wait for the new solar financing law, solar must be something lots of people will want, especially when they see Rev. Bennett explain it in terms they understand.
Adam Floyd, front page, Valdosta Daily Times, today, 12 May 2015, Valdosta homeowner turns to solar power system, Continue reading
Power generation for both traditional electricity uses and transportation
is changing.
Michael Liedtke and Jonathan Fahey wrote for AP and Inc. 1 May 2015, Elon Musk Unveils Tesla’s Ambitious New Home Battery System: “Our goal here is to fundamentally change the way the world uses energy,” Musk told reporters gathered in Hawthorne, California.
The batteries are likely to become more useful if, as expected, more utilities and regulators allow Continue reading
Changing the world is hard and takes courage, but that’s why we will win. Bill Sargent had given up on global projects and turned to smaller local problems where it seemed there was a greater change of making a real difference. He wrote for Harvard Heat Week 27 April 2015, Heat Week: Teaching An Old Dog New Tricks,
But then I met Divest Harvard. Here was a group of bright, eager, sleep-deprived young undergraduates and grad students — free of such skepticism and willing to take on both Big Oil and the richest University in the world in one fell swoop.
He listed a number of ways Divest Harvard is winning because they chose the biggest targets under adverse conditions. For example: Continue reading
First of
three 30 MW military solar projects in Georgia,
the other two ag
Fort Gordon near Augusta and Fort Stewart near Savannah,
plus
a fourth one at Kings Bay Submarine Base.
The U.S. military has long recognized
fossil fuels are vulnerable supply chains that risk national security,
and U.S. DoD is doing something about it.
Brennan Reh, wrbl.com, 17 April 2105, Ft. Benning solar power project groundbreaking
Fort Benning held a groundbreaking ceremony for the U.S. Army’s renewable energy solar project. Georgia Power is building solar panels that will cover 200 acres on the post.
The solar project on Fort Benning will be the army’s largest power project in Georgia.
The panels will generate Continue reading