Tag Archives: Solar

MLK and pipeline opposition

The fossil fuel opposition is the child and grandchild of Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. With their nonviolence, truth, and action as a model, we shall overcome.

Bill McKibben, The Guardian, 25 August 2011, Martin Luther King’s legacy and the power of nonviolent civil disobedience: In opposing the Keystone XL oil pipeline, demonstrators are getting a sense of the civil rights leader’s courage,

Preacher, speaker, writer under fire, but also tactician. He really understood the power of nonviolence, a power we’ve experienced in the last few days. When the police cracked down on us, the publicity it produced cemented two of the main purposes of our protest: First, it made Keystone XL “ the new, 1,700-mile-long pipeline we’re trying to block that will vastly increase the flow of “dirty” tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf of Mexico “ into a national issue. A few months ago, it was mainly people along the route of the prospective pipeline who were organising against it. (And with good reason: Continue reading →

Solar financing bill HB 57

You won’t have to mortgage the farm to install solar power if this bill passes, because you’ll be able to get reasonable financing.

Update 2015-02-07: HB 57 was favorably reported out of the House Energy, Utilities & Telecommunications Committee 28 January 2015, first time such a bill has ever cleared that hurdle.

The actual solar leasing bill in the Georgia House as of 14 January 2015 is HB 57 “…to provide for financing of solar technology by retail electric customers for the generation of electric energy to be used on and by property owned or occupied by such customers or to be fed back to the electric service provider”, aka the “Solar Power Free-Market Financing Act of 2015.” It includes the same old generation limits from the 1973 Territorial Electric Service Act (10 Megawatts per individual and 100 MW per company), but it blows a huge hole in the prohibition on power purchase agreements (PPAs).

Georgia Power and the Electric Membership Corporations have reportedly already agreed on this bill. If so, it should sail through the legislature. Still, it won’t hurt to call your Georgia House member and ask them to vote for it, and maybe become a co-sponsor.

Here’s PDF of the bill, and here’s the key provision: Continue reading →

Georgia Power claims credit for solar leasing bill

That antique 1973 law may finally change to greatly facilitate solar financing through power purchase agreements (PPAs), now that Georgia Power has finally realized the good PR it’s getting for its own solar power deployments.

Walter C. Jones, Jacksonville.com, 13 January 2015, Solar access for residences, churches, small businesses could become easier under agreement,

ATLANTA | Homeowners, churches and small businesses would soon have access to the financing available in two-dozen states for the installation of solar panels with little upfront costs based on an agreement announced Tuesday during a legislative hearing.

Coming up with $18,000 or more in cash to install photovoltaic panels on the average home is difficult for most homeowners. But if the agreement becomes law, they could lease their roof to companies that pay them back with free electricity, selling the rest to the utilities.

Or cities or counties. Valdosta or Lowndes County, for instance, might save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on utility bills if they could finance solar power through PPAs.

Georgia has the fastest-growing solar Continue reading →

Solar boom charts

When a power source grows 66% a year on average people start taking notice. Few had heard of the Internet in 1993: now it’s in your pocket. In less than a decade, by 2023, solar power will generate more energy than any other U.S. source. To keep Georgia from being left behind, this is the year to change a 1973 law.

If charts like this one aren’t familiar yet, they will be in the next year or two:

Tim McDonnell, Mother Jones, 7 November 2014, Here Comes the Sun: America’s Solar Boom, in Charts: It’s been a bit player, but solar power is about to shine.

At 66% more per year, solar power’s current 1% of U.S. electricity next year will be 1.66%, then 2.76%, then Continue reading →

Videos: Solar parking denied, signs and dwelling design approved @ ZBOA 2014-11-04

Dr. Urbonas withdrew half and tried the other half, but got it denied 5-1, because Valdosta’s LDR doesn’t account for solar parking lots. Everything else was approved 6-0, including nomination of officers.

The agenda is on Valdosta’s website and here is the meeting summary followed by a video playlist.

Valdosta – Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals

Matt Martin, Valdosta Planning and Zoning Administrator
300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 259-3563 		Carmella Braswell, Lowndes County Zoning Administrator
327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 671-2430

MEETING RESULTS SUMMARY
November 4, 2014
2:30 p.m.

Continue reading →

Videos: County withdrew Lake Alapaha, Hahira dwelling approved, Solar tabled in Valdosta @ ZBOA 2014-09-09

Withdrawn: the county’s never-ending no-bid Alapaha Water Treatment plant. Tabled: Dr. Urbonas’ solar parking variance because if he connects the structures to his building maybe they don’t need a variance.

Approved: a single-family design variance near Hahira an accessory structure near Valdosta, and a sign variance in Valdosta.

Here’s the agenda, with results added from the meeting summary, followed by a video playlist.

Valdosta – Lowndes County Zoning Board of Appeals

Matt Martin, Valdosta Planning and Zoning Administrator Carmella Braswell, Lowndes County Zoning Administrator
300 North Lee Street, Valdosta, Georgia 327 North Ashley Street, Valdosta, Georgia
(229) 259-3563 (229) 671-2430

AGENDA

September 9, 2014
2:30 p.m.
Continue reading →

Zero percent down solar installations for Georgia? Change a 1973 law first

Who would pass up cutting their monthly electric and transportation costs by 60%? Well, people in Georgia will get passed by unless we change an antique 1973 law.

Chris Mooney wrote for Washington Post 24 December 2014, How solar power and electric cars could make suburban living awesome again,

…the solar-EV combo may just be too good for suburbanites to pass up — no matter their political ideology. Strikingly, the new paper estimates that for a household that buys an electric vehicle and also owns a solar panel system generating enough power for both the home and the electric car, the monthly cost might be just $89 per month — compared with $255 per month for a household driving a regular car without any solar panels.

I’m no fan of sprawl, Continue reading →

Wind and Solar 77% of New U.S. electricity generation in November 2014

And more new capacity year to date than natural gas in 2014, according to FERC’s own numbers, despite FERC betting on the wrong horse.

Joshua S. Hill, CleanTechnica, 23 November 2014, Wind & Solar = 77% Of New US Electricity Generating Capacity In November (Exclusive),

The United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) Office of Energy Projects released its monthly “Energy Infrastructure Update” on Tuesday, and the big winners from the month of November seem to be wind and solar, which combined added up to over 70% of all new electrical generating capacity placed into service during the month. If you add in our estimate for non-utility-scale solar, the market share of solar and wind rises to 77%.

Continue reading →

Solar bills in the Georgia legislature

Every year since about 2000 one or more solar bills have been before the Georgia legislature to modify the 1973 Territorial Electric Service Act to enable solar financing. 2015 could be the year one of them finally passes, what with influential people finally waking up to the cost-saving and energy-independence power of solar panels. If you want real energy reliability, lower power bills, and local jobs, you can help pass whichever bill gets before the legislature this year, and right now is a good time to help draft that bill.

Here are a few recent bills.

Rooftop solar catching on; 1973 anti-finance law really needs fixing

People are starting to wake up as the solar sun rises above their horizon. This could be the year the Georgia legislature finally passes a bill to amend the law that inhibits solar financing. Even the City of Valdosta seems suddenly interested in helping with that.

Michael Caputo and Grant Blankenship, GPB, 12 December 2014, (VIDEO) Will Solar Power’s Surge in Georgia Make It To Homeowners?,

Early adopter Creighton Rosental of Macon is what you’d call a solar pioneer. The early adopter said that he had the 4-kilowatt panels installed on the backyard side of his roof about five years ago. Two-thirds of the upfront cost—about $30,000—was covered by a federal tax credit and a Georgia state credit.

“They built a frame and mounted it to the roof, which was a substantial fairly substantial enterprise.” Rosental said.

Continue reading →