Tag Archives: Solar

Videos: Candidates, Landowners, Methane and Solar Power @ SpectraBusters 2014-03-29

Candidates for Lowndes County Commission went on the record ( Mark Wisenbaker and Tom Hochschild both running for District 3, and Norman Bennett and Gretchen Quarterman both running for District 5), plus a statement by County Chairman Bill Slaughter, in addition to essential background information from directly affected landowners in the audience and from the panelists on why the proposed Sabal Trail methane pipeline is bad for property values, is hazardous here and elsewhere, and will be obsolete in a few decades, all at a SpectraBusters panel on the Sabal Trail pipeline at VSU, Saturday 29 March 2014.

The panelists were Continue reading

Renewables Report from Southern Company forthcoming

Nonprofit As You Sow got mighty Southern Company to agree to report on renewable energy, which is the first step towards widespread adoption of solar power. How about taking on FPL next, about that Sabal Trail methane pipeline? And that green bond idea, how about our Industrial Authority take that up?

Dave Williams wrote for the Atlanta Business Chronicle yesterday, Southern Co. to report renewable energy spending,

Atlanta-based Southern Co. has agreed to produce a comprehensive report on its current renewable energy projects and plans for future development of renewables, an environmental organization reported Thursday.

The company’s decision prompted Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit As You Sow to withdraw a shareholder resolution asking Southern to consider President Barack Obama’s goal of reducing carbon emissions by 80 percent by 2050, the group said in a news release.

“To achieve that goal, utilities need to immediately shift Continue reading

Time to call it: Carbon Crash, Solar Dawn

Another observer gets it that green solar power is winning. Letting a fracking deliver company turn us into “stakeholders” in a white elephant methane pipeline would be an even huger waste after the pipeline stopped being used in a decade or so because sun, wind, and water power everything by then, winning like the Internet did.

Paul Gilding wrote on his blog 19 March 2013, Carbon Crash Solar Dawn,

I think it’s time to call it. Renewables and associated storage, transport and digital technologies are so rapidly disrupting whole industries’ business models they are pushing the fossil fuel industry towards inevitable collapse.

Some of you will struggle with that statement. Most people accept the idea that fossil fuels are all powerful — that the industry controls governments and it will take many decades to force them out of our economy. Fortunately, the fossil fuel industry suffers the same delusion.

In fact, probably the main benefit of the US shale gas and oil “revolution” is that it’s keeping the fossil fuel industry and it’s cheer squad distracted while renewables, electric cars and associated technologies build the momentum needed to make their takeover unstoppable — even by the most powerful industry in the world.

Why are the fossil fuel companies still pushing, then? Continue reading

Utility-owned rooftop solar: Tom Fanning and Steven Chu agree

Tom Fanning is getting support for his idea of utility-owned rooftop solar. Can we see that tiger team report, Tom? And FPL, how about you get on with this, instead of trying to gouge an unneeded yard-wide methane pipeline through here? Sun, wind, and water can power each U.S. state, so how about FPL in the Sunshine State and Southern Company in the southeast get out in front and lead?

Jeff McMahon wrote for Forbes yesterday, Steven Chu Solves Utility Companies’ Death Spiral,

Utility companies have been looking for new regulations and higher connection charges to save them from a “death spiral” spurred by a surge in rooftop solar installations. Instead, says former Energy Secretary Steven Chu, they should get into the rooftop solar business.

Continue reading

100% sun, wind, and water can power each U.S. state and the world –Stanford study

We have all the technology right now that we need to power the U.S. state by state and the world with solar, wind, and water power. No burning coal or oil or fracked natural gas and no nukes. No need for any new destructive and hazardous methane pipelines. No waiting for batteries. All we have to do is get on with it.

100% RENEWABLE ENERGY IS FEASIBLE AND AFFORDABLE, ACCORDING TO STANFORD PROPOSAL,

Stanford University researchers led by civil engineer Mark Jacobson have developed detailed plans for each state in the union that to move to 100 percent wind, water and solar power by 2050 using only technology that’s already available. The plan, presented recently at the AAAS conference in Chicago, also forms the basis for The Solutions Project nonprofit.

“The conclusion is that it’s technically and economically feasible,” Jacobson told Singularity Hub.

The plan doesn’t rely, like many others, on dramatic energy efficiency regimes. Nor does it include biofuels or nuclear power, whose green credentials are the source of much debate.

The proposal is straightforward: eliminate combustion as a source of energy, because it’s dirty and inefficient. All vehicles would be powered by electric batteries or by hydrogen, where the hydrogen is produced through electrolysis rather than natural gas. High-temperature industrial processes would also use electricity or hydrogen combustion.

The rest would simply be a question of allowing existing fossil-fuel plants to age out and using renewable sources to power any new plants that come online….

“The greatest barriers to a conversion are neither technical nor economic. They are social and political,” the AAAS paper concludes.

For Georgia, that’s 40% solar PV plants, 35% offshore wind, 13% rooftop PV (6% residential and 7% commercial), 5% concentrating solar plants, 5% onshore wind, and 1% each wind, tide, and conventional hydro power. Plus 210,200 construction jobs and 101,000 operation jobs. And saving $14.3 billion per year Continue reading

Lowndes County Democratic Party opposes the Sabal Trail Methane Pipeline –Gretchen Quarterman @ FERC 2014-03-04

Gretchen Quarterman stood up for local landowners, the economy, and the environment, by reading the statement against the pipeline recently approved by the Lowndes County Democratic Party, of which she is the chair, at the Valdosta FERC Scoping Meeting 4 March 2014.

Here’s the video:


Lowndes County Democratic Party opposes the Sabal Trail Methane Pipeline –Gretchen Quarterman
Sabal Trail Methane Pipeline,
Scoping Meeting, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC),
Video by John S. Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 4 March 2014.

Here’s the text she was reading: Lowndes County Democratic Committee Opposes Sabal Trail Methane Pipeline Continue reading

Solar power record installation and acceleration in 2013 in U.S.

Solar power is already second only to methane in new energy generation, and solar is increasing its growth rate much faster than “natural” gas. Solar is going to win, and quickly. How many unnecessary, destructive, and hazardous pipelines will we let the fracking industry gouge through here before we get on with solar power for local energy, local jobs, and local lower electric bills?

Mike Munsell wrote for greentech solar 7 March 2014, US Solar Market Grew 41%, Had Record Year in 2013: The U.S. installed 4,751 megawatts of PV, according to the Solar Market Insight Year in Review report.

According to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s Solar Market Insight Year in Review 2013, photovoltaic installations continued to proliferate, increasing 41 percent over 2012 to reach 4,751 megawatts. In addition, 410 megawatts of concentrating solar power came on-line.

Solar was the second-largest source of new electricity generating capacity in the U.S., exceeded only by natural gas. Additionally, the cost to install solar fell throughout the year, ending the year 15 percent below the mark set at the end of 2012.

At the end of 2013 there were more than Continue reading

Solar panels in Stow, Massachusetts

In snowy Massachusetts you can finance a solar system with little money down and complete payoff in 11 years. Get the Georgia legislature to pass HB 874 and we’ll be able to do this in sunny Georgia, too.

Used with permission from howeowner Carl Howe. -jsq

People seem interested so I’ll share details of our solar installation in Stow, MA.

Full disclosure: I know the president of our solar installation firm socially (he’s a friend of a friend of ours), and like many solar installers, they do pay referral fees if others sign up based on a recommendation from an existing customer. Should anyone decide to do business with our installer, New England Clean Energy, please mention my name.

We used New England Clean Energy from Hudson MA. I believe that they are one of, if not the, highest quality installer in our area. They have more than 300+ installations in MA and NH. Of course, SolarCity and others are also in the region, Continue reading

GA Senator Tim Golden not running

This makes state Senate district 8 an open seat. Qualifying is al this week, Monday through Friday.

Dated 2 March 2014, STATEMENT OF SENATOR TIM GOLDEN:

Today, I am announcing that I will not be a candidate for re-election to the Georgia State Senate, District 8, in 2014. After 34 years in public service—more than half of what will soon be my 60 years on this earth—and having gone through many difficult yet successful campaigns during that time, I have decided that this is the right time to devote more time to my business career and to my family during the remainder of our son’s high school years before he goes on to college.

I’m familiar with at least one of Sen. Golden’s campaigns, but he has also spoken up for solar power in Georgia, although neither he nor his buddy Gov. Deal got it that doubling GEFA’s solar state tax rebate fund once in 2011 wasn’t enough when solar deployments increase 65% every year. Witness we installed 12KW more of solar panels at the end of 2012 and we’re finally on the list for rebate for 2014 because state funds for 2012 and 2013 were already used up.

Maybe we can elect a state senator who will Continue reading

Solar financing HB874 on GA House Energy Committee for Monday

The bipartisan distributed rooftop solar financing bill, HB 874, the Solar Power Free-Market Financing and Property Rights Act of 2014, is on the agenda for Monday for the House Energy, Utilities & Telecommunications Committee, according to Claudia Musleve Collier.

The Committee member from closest to here is Carol Fullerton (D 153) Albany. Here are the rest of the committee members. Call ’em up!

-jsq