Tag Archives: Solar

Notes for Mr. Blankenship —Michael Noll

Please note that the following was inspired by a letter (attached as a photograph) that appeared in the Valdosta Daily Times in response to my earlier piece on “Solar: Infinite and Clean”. The Valdosta Daily Times seems to enforce a quota of sorts at this time, so they won’t publish my additional information for Mr. Blankenship and other “skeptics”.

Sources for the Skeptic

I have no idea why anyone would call companies in Mexico or Canada to research the feasibility of local solar energy projects. I also do not know what type of freezer the writer of “Seeking affordable solar energy” has. Either way, I will be happy to share more information, so that anyone interested in solar energy can do more research and educate himself.

At the state level you can contact the “Georgia Solar Energy Association” (www.gasolar.org/) to learn more about the viability of solar power in 2011, which is quite different from the situation in 2001. A larger solar firm our community Continue reading →

Top 10 Reasons Why Solar Energy Will Win

Greentechsolar has an interesting article 28 Sep 2011 on Top 10 Reasons Why Renewable Energy Wins. in which is a top 10 list for solar. Here are some excerpts:
  1. A job is a job is a job.
    With all this talk about green jobs, clean jobs, and other kinds of jobs — how about we just call it a job? A job that puts food on the table, pays the bills, keeps the kids in clothes, and affords the occasional family night out. And, if you subscribe to the belief that all is lost due to the Chinese PV manufacturing juggernaut, keep in mind that you can’t export the thousands of business development, sales, design, engineering, installation, and service jobs we’re going to need every year.
Why not just say jobs, jobs, jobs? Because solar also doesn’t pollute the air and doesn’t suck up ground water. Not just jobs: clean jobs that don’t drain our resources.
But opinion only matters if the data supports it. Solar is one of the only industries adding private sector jobs in our struggling economy — with 6.8 percent growth from August 2010 to August 2011, when overall U.S. job growth was only 0.7 percent and when fossil fuel generators actually cut jobs by 2 percent. It’s estimated the United States already has over 90,000 direct and indirect jobs in the manufacturing and installation of solar panels. That’s more than in either steel production or coal mining (not including transportation and power plant employment).
Yes, while road and bridge building projects may bring in a few temporary construction jobs, solar brings construction jobs plus all sorts of other jobs plus long-term jobs. Long-term jobs in the fastest-growing industry in the world: Continue reading →

Solar: Infinite and Clean —Michael Noll

In today’s VDT. -jsq
If we are to believe Fox News and the Tea Party, solar doesn’t work because the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra went belly up, despite the fact that it received $535 million in subsidies. While wasting an enormous amount of tax dollars on a company with a flawed business concept should raise everyone’s eyebrows, the conclusion that the Solyndra mess means “solar doesn’t work” is mind-boggling. It’s like saying “cars don’t work” because Chrysler went bankrupt in 2009, or “T-shirts don’t work” because Fruit of the Loom filed for Chapter 11 in 1999.

Solar is one of the most attractive renewable sources of energy throughout

Continue reading →

Thanks for CHIP and lower monitors; also solar just to the south —John S. Quarterman @ LCC 27 Sep 2011

I thanked the Commission for doing the right thing about the CHIP grant. And for at least three people sitting up front (Evans, Paulk, and Pritchard) lowering their monitors so citizens (and even cameras) could see their faces.

Then I relayed the news about the $1.5 billion investment in Gadsden County, Florida for a 400 MW solar project. Plus ongoing jobs, expanded education, private sources of investment, and customers for the electricity. Unlike the failed local biomass project, National Solar Power’s Gadsden County project already has Progress Energy signed up as a customer for its electricity. I recommended that the Commission go on record as being in favor of such projects locally.

Here’s the video:


Thanks for CHIP and lower monitors; also solar –John S. Quarterman @ LCC 27 Sep 2011
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 September 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

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Local leadership nets $1.5 billion solar project

That’s 400 MW of solar power in twenty 20 MW PV plants, just across the state line in Gadsden County, Florida. Plus ongoing jobs, expanded education, private sources of investment, and customers for the electricity.

According to SolarServer quoting a National Solar press release yesterday, National Solar Power chooses Gadsden County, Florida for 400 MW PV project

The company estimates that the 400 MW project will create 400 jobs during the five-year construction phase and up to 120 permanent operations jobs.
And that’s not all. According to Solar Energy News today, Plan to build $1.5bn solar farm in Florida, Continue reading →

Solar Lowndes County Commission?

While GSEA is promoting statewide solar businesses and lobbying the state government to do what other states have done to promote solar, local governments and businesses don’t have to wait on the state. For example, the Lowndes County Commission has opened a discussion about solar energy in response to a presentation by Bill Branham. Now that they’ve learned the Lowndes County Commission could lead by making one of their famous position statements, this time in favor of solar, or by putting solar on the roofs of their buildings (solar on the jail! imagine that), bringing in money to do so by or by applying for grants, or by making a project big enough to apply for private venture capital from the at least two firms that are looking for such projects.

If the LCC won’t do it, how about solar Valdosta fire departments, or solar Hahira tobacco barns?

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Solar works for Georgia —GSEA

Back in June, the Georgia Solar Energy Association (GSEA) held a Solar Summit in Atlanta, in which we learned there were four certified solar installers in Georgia four years ago, and now there are forty; that oil for energy is a national security risk (Col. Dan Nolan), and that “Solar is great for diversity, independence, research, and business.” (Chuck Eaton), and that Georgia is the third top state “that would benefit from solar deployment through generating and exporting energy to other states” (Richard Polich). Sounds like a business opportunity to me!

GSEA chair Doug Beebe elaborates in a column in the Atlanta Business Chronicle on 11 September 2011, Solar energy already works in Georgia, but it can do so much more for our state’s economy,

This has been a great year for the Georgia Solar Energy Association, too. Our membership has swelled to almost 300 corporate and individual members. This number includes manufacturers, installers, integrators, consultants and advocates who want to see Georgia benefit from an industry that contributed more than $5 billion in economic activity to the U.S. gross domestic product since 2008 and now employs more than 93,000 workers nationwide.

Our annual Southern Solar Summit in Atlanta this summer sold out, filling the auditorium at the Georgia Tech Research Institute Conference Center with Georgians eager to learn what innovations are making solar power more accessible in Georgia and beyond. Another annual Solar Summit in Savannah last month doubled its attendance this year, proving that interest in solar has spread beyond metro Atlanta.

The 2011 Georgia Solar Tour will feature sites statewide. We hope that some of the participants in this year’s tour will become hosts in next year’s.

Great, huh? So what’s the problem? This: Continue reading →

Gov. Deal: the ugly on energy

Gov. Nathan Deal said he’s a free-enterprise person and doesn’t want to subsidize renewable energy, but he maybe doesn’t know that the state of Georgia subsidizes Georgia Power’s new nuclear plants through an indirect tax, and that fossil fuels are far more subsidized than renewable energy. That plus the chickens.

Continuing Gov. Deal: the good, the ugly, and the bad on prisons, quoting again from David Rodock’s interview with Gov. Nathan Deal in today’s VDT.

The Ugly

Continue reading →

The extraordinary negative side of coal mining —Jane Osborn @ LCC 13 September 2011

Jane Osborn talked about two health issues: the downside of coal mining, and no institutions for mental health.
…also related to the solar discussion that was begun yesterday, I think a piece we don’t talk about very often is the extraordinary negative side of coal mining. We are taking the tops off of mountains in Appalachia, leaving pristine streams clogged with the debris and the toxic waste of that. So coal is not just the price you see that we pay for it. Coal is seen in the price of people still dying of black lung, every time a mine collapses, and every time another mountain is taken down. I would guess if they were taking mountains down in North Georgia, we’d be fussing about it.
She said she has been a social worker for 33 years. She said starting June the DBHDD there would be a new service she recommended the county advertise on its website.
As of June 1st no person in the state of Georgia with a developmental disability may be placed in an institution.
The new service is a 24/7 toll free number to call for help.

Here’s the video:


The extraordinary negative side of coal mining —Jane Osborn @ LCC 13 September 2011
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 13 September 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

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Solar is cost-effective —Dr. Noll @ LCC 13 September 2011

Dr. Noll made the case for the cost-effectiveness of solar energy through, among other things, an analogy to finaninc buying a car.

First Dr. Noll thanked people who had supported WACE’s anti-biomass work, and hoped people had had time to read his recent LTE in the VDT, Waste Not, Want Not. Then he addressed Commissioner Raines’ comments of the previous day. Dr. Noll pointed out that solar is fast becoming less expensive and with financing costs little more than a car or truck.

Here’s the video:


Solar is cost-effective —Dr. Noll @ LCC 13 September 2011
Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 13 September 2011.
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

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