Tag Archives: Solar

Japanese solar grid

After Fukushima, Japan is now serious about solar power. From Miyama, Fukuoka (pictured), in the south of Honshu to northerly Hokkaido, Japan is building solar power plants, and now needs to upgrade its grid. Rooftop solar doesn’t need as many grid changes, since it delivers onsite at peak load. Hey, here’s an idea: solar panels on unused industrial park areas!

Yvonne Chang wrote for National Geographic 14 August 2013, Japan Solar Energy Soars, But Grid Needs to Catch Up,


Japan’s renewable energy incentive law has spurred construction of so many photovoltaic farms like this one, in Miyama, that the nation is expected to be the world’s leading solar energy market this year. But Japan must upgrade its system for delivering electricity.
Photograph from Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
A new renewable energy incentive program has Japan on track to become the world’s leading market for solar energy, leaping past China and Germany, with Hokkaido at the forefront of the sun power rush. In a densely populated nation hungry for alternative energy, Hokkaido is an obvious choice to host projects, because of the availability of relatively large patches of inexpensive land. Unused industrial park areas, idle land inside a motor race circuit, a former horse ranch—all are being converted to solar farms. (See related, ” Pictures: A New Hub for Solar Tech Blooms in Japan .”)

But there’s a problem with this boom in Japan’s north. Although one-quarter of the largest solar projects approved under Japan’s new renewables policy are located in Hokkaido, the island accounts for less than 3 percent of the nation’s electricity demand. Experts say Japan will need to act quickly to make sure the power generated in Hokkaido flows to where it is needed. And that means modernizing a grid that currently doesn’t have capacity for all the projects proposed, installing a giant battery—planned to be the world’s largest—to store power when the sun isn’t shining, and ensuring connections so power can flow across the island nation. (See related, ” In Japan, Solar Panels Aid in Tsunami Rebuilding .”)

Turning to Renewables

Japan historically has had no fossil energy sources of its own; it powered much of its economic growth over the past few generations with homegrown nuclear energy. At the start of 2011, more than 50 reactors provided Japan with 30 percent of its electricity, and the plan was to increase that share to 50 percent. That scenario was upended on March 11, 2011, when the most powerful earthquake ever to shake Japan touched off a tsunami that breached the defenses of Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on the east coast. (See related, ” One Year After Fukushima, Japan Faces Shortages of Energy, Trust .”)

The second-worst Continue reading →

PR and Marketing materials, ads, and trips @ VLCIA 2013-08-20

One hopes all this PR and marketing pays off in jobs. Remember, the Industrial Authority has kept its cushy 1 mil of property tax throughout the economic downturn. Four new industry projects are on the agenda this time, plus more solar power at Valdosta’s Mud Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant. Much better PR than Valdosta Fire Dept. helping put out Perma-Fix on fire.

Here’s the agenda in a slightly broken PDF on the VLCIA website and extracted below.

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Climate change adversely affecting U.S. power grid

Yes, and moving away from baseload coal, nukes, and natural gas and towards distributed solar and wind power will help with that, both directly by making the grid more resilient, and indirectly by slowing climate change.

Clare Foran wrote for NationalJournal 12 August 2013, Climate Change Is Threatening the Power Grid: So says the White House, in a new report that recommends strengthening the grid.

Just days away from the 10-year anniversary of the worst power outage in U.S. history, the White House and the Energy Department released a report on Monday evaluating the resiliency of the nation’s electric grid and recommending steps to prevent future blackouts.

The report called storms and severe weather “the leading cause of power outages in the United States,” and warned against the steep cost of weather-related damage to the electric grid. It put the price tag for electrical failures caused by inclement weather at between $18 billion and $33 billion annually, and noted that costs have increased in recent years, jumping from a range of $14 billion to $26 billion in 2003 to $27 billion to $52 billion in 2012. Storms exceeding a billion dollars in damages (electrical and otherwise) have also become more frequent in the past decade, as the chart below shows.

Well, Entergy’s Arkansas Nuclear 1 (ANO1) is still down more than four months after a fatal accident (hey, look at that; Continue reading →

New nukes make no financial sense –financial expert to GA PSC

If new nukes make no sense because of natural gas prices, they make even less sense with continually-dropping solar power prices.

Ray Henry wrote for AP yesterday, Regulator: New nuke plant now wouldn’t make sense,

If Georgia was starting from scratch, it would not build a nuclear power plant….

An analyst working for state regulators, Philip Hayet, said in written testimony that the total costs of building two more nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle (VOH’-gohl) is more expensive than the next-best option, constructing natural gas plants.

Still, Hayet said it is cheaper in most scenarios to finish the nuclear plant rather than halt the project and instead build natural gas plants.

But it’s not cheaper to finish a nuke than to halt it and get on with wind offshore and distributed solar power throughout Georgia.

GA PSC didn’t publish Hayet’s calculations, using the old excuse of “they involve proprietary financial information from Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power”. But Edison Electric Institute didn’t need any proprietary financial information to compute that Continue reading →

EDF exits nuclear, focuses on solar and wind

EDF is moving to solar and wind, despite its excuse of shale gas for leaving the U.S. nuclear market. EDF already has almost twice as much solar and wind in the U.S., 2.3 gigawatts, as the 1.2 gigawatts Southern Company plans by 2016. Maybe this means Calvert Cliffs is finally dead maybe along with NRC’s attempt to change foreign ownership rules to accomodate EDF. EDF is the operator of France’s fleet of nuclear reactors, including caught-on-fire Cattenom and many others that drain over-hot water into French rivers in the summer.

Reuters in Climate Spectator 31 July 2013 EDF exits US nuclear, focuses on renewables,

French utility EDF, the world’s biggest operator of nuclear plants, is pulling out of nuclear energy in the United States, bowing to the realities of a market that has been transformed by cheap shale gas.

Several nuclear reactors in the US have been closed or are being shuttered as utilities baulk at the big investments needed to extend their lifetimes Continue reading →

The Economist answers Paul Bowers about carbon tax

Back in May someone asked Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers what he thought about a carbon tax, and he answered, “Why would anyone want that?” The Economist answered his question, 29 June 2013, Tepid, timid: The world will one day adopt a carbon tax—but only after exhausting all the alternatives,

Winston Churchill famously said America would always do the right thing after exhausting the alternatives. The right thing in climate You can always count on Americans to do the right thing, after they ve tried everything else. --Winston Churchill policy for all the big countries is a carbon tax, which is simpler and less vulnerable to fluctuations in emissions than cap-and-trade schemes. For years, such a tax has been a non-starter politically. But as the alternatives are tested to destruction, it deserves to be looked at again. Current environmental policies will not keep the rise in global temperatures to below 2°C—the maximum that most climate scientists think safe. A carbon tax, if stiff enough, could. Big polluters should assume that such a tax will one day arrive, and start planning for it now.

Dear Paul Bowers,

Stop being tepid and timid. Go beyond Continue reading →

Local hospital opens 1950s-style diesel power plant

And still not a single solar panel at South Georgia Medical Center. Yes, I know that won’t work for emergency power during the night, but it would do fine for peak load during the afternoon. Plus, did anybody see a request for bids for that new power plant?

Valdosta Electric always parked across the street from SGMC; google streetview Eames Yates posted SGMC PR for WCTV Friday 19 July 2013 verbatim including the title, plus a smoking smokestack image, State-Of-The-Art Power Plant Opens At SGMC, while WALB posted a slightly shortened version, S. GA Medical boasts brand new power plant. Here’s the SGMC PR; I’ve added a few links: Continue reading →

German wind overpowering?

The biggest wind problem in Germany is it produces too much power? Fortunately there are two well-known simple solutions to this problem raised by GA Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols in a comment yesterday. I do want to thank him for engaging in dialog with the public.

Tim Echols wrote:

eeX DE wind 2013-07-20 We need nuclear, coal and gas as our baseload power. Germany is doing the opposite and they are in trouble. Their people pay triple what we pay for power, and when the wind is blowing at night or on the weekend, the Germans have to pay Poland to take their excess power. All of that primarily because the German people hate nuclear power. In Georgia, we are leading the nation, and I am fine with that. I just want to make sure our ratepayers are protected and not paying for the learning curve of new nuclear.

As FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghof has been pointing out for years, baseload is the problem. The baseload ideology stands in the way of the distributed solar power the vast majority of the American people want, and in the way of wind power.

Regarding German power costs to customers, Germany is far north of here, with far less sun, and Germany has depended heavily on Feed-In Tariffs, which may or may not be what we need in Georgia. Meanwhile, what’s been hiking power rates in Georgia is not solar or wind power, it’s nuclear and natural gas. And not for Feed-In Tariffs, either, which are only charged on actual energy production. The Georgia legislature approved Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) for nuclear, and GA PSC has raised rates to pay for natural gas plant construction, which amounts to the same thing. If we want to save ratepayers money, we should get on with solar and wind power.

Now to the problem with two well-known solutions: Continue reading →

Moody’s confirms excellent bond rating for Lowndes County School District

Lowndes Schools’ decrease of $4.1 million in annual bond payments after 2013 is more than the total $3.6 million in bonds Dublin Schools issued to pay for their megawatt of solar power. So Lowndes Schools could float bonds for solar panels at Lowndes High School like Dublin Schools did for Dubin High School. Or on the new Pine Grove Middle School, which already has some energy efficiency features. Either would decrease outgo in the future, thus evening up the financial structural balance and increasing reserve levels. The SPLOST mentioned by Moody’s is the educational ESPLOST, which passed by more than 4 to 1 in March 2011.

Moody’s PR 17 July 2013, Moody’s confirms Lowndes County School District, GA’s Aa3 GO rating,

$34.9 million in GO debt affected

New York, July 17, 2013 — Moody’s Investors Service has confirmed the Aa3 general obligation rating of Lowndes County School District, GA. The Aa3 rating affects $34.9 million in outstanding general obligation bonds. The bonds are secured by the district’s general obligation, unlimited tax pledge but are expected to be paid from proceeds of a one percent Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST). The district has an additional $10 million in general obligation bonds not rated by Moody’s.

SUMMARY RATING RATIONALE

The confirmation of the Aa3 rating reflects the district’s sizeable and growing tax base, SPLOST support of debt service, modest debt burden, and rapid payout. The rating also incorporates the district’s below average socioeconomic indicators and recent trend of General Fund operating deficits. Excluding a slight 1.7% decline in fiscal year 2011, Lowndes County School District has consistently experienced growth in the $3.87 million tax base, which is expected to continue going forward. The base benefits from the institutional presence offered by Moody Air Force Base, Valdosta State University (A1/stable), and South Georgia Medical Center (A2/stable). The current SPLOST is authorized through September 2017 and should provide sufficient revenues to make debt service payments. In fiscal year 2012, SPLOST revenues were $12.4 million compared to debt service payments of $12.2 million. Following fiscal year 2013’s payment of $12.1 million, the district’s payments will decline to just under $8 million annually. Amortization is rapid with all debt fully matured by fiscal year 2018. The district does not have any plans to issue additional debt.

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Solar power to Peru’s poorest

While we’ve been fighting over solar for 1% of Georgia Power’s production (we won, yay!), Peru is busily providing solar power for almost all of its poorest citizens.

Don Lieber wrote for PlanetSave 15 July 2013, Peru To Power 2 Million Of Its Poorest — By Solar Energy

The first phase of the program, called “The National Photovoltaic Household Electrification Program” was initiated on Monday (July 8) in the Contumaza province, where 1,601 solar panels were installed. These installations will power 126 impoverished communities in the districts of Cupisnique, San Benito, Tantarica, Chilete, Yonan, San Luis, and Contai.

As MEM says, PR 066-11 14 February 2011,
The availability of solar power makes its use attractive throughout the whole country.

MEM remarked about a 20 MW solar plant in Moquegua, PR 197-11 11 May 2011,

Project will produce clean energy and generate local employment Continue reading →