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We’re all for solar, go solar! But no to biomass.Here’s the video:
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia.
Video by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.
More Noll here.
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We’re all for solar, go solar! But no to biomass.Here’s the video:
More Noll here.
-jsq
Georgia Power had several pages in the business section of the Valdosta Daily Times (VDT) the previous Sunday, written up on Monday as Harnessing the sun’s rays: Georgia Power kicks off 18-month solar power study, by Karah-Leigh Hancock, about what Gapower is doing instead of actually deploying solar: Continue reading
The solar plant has been part of the plan from the beginning, which of course doesn’t quite answer Patrick Davis’ question. VLCIA knows it can increase the size of the solar plant, and they seem to think that could be a good idea. They could also choose to forget the biomass plant, but they refuse to do that. Much more about Wiregrass Solar Power LLC.Is this Brad Lofton-led ‘solar’ groundbreaking event by the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority an olive branch or a smokescreen.for the community Or an example of ‘compassionate consevratism’?
Also please note that this blog is
On the LAKE Front,
where
LAKE is an acronym for the
Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange,
which is about
citizen dialog for transparent process
for all of Lowndes County and the general area, not just Valdosta.
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Actually installing the Wiregrass Solar LLC plant is
Hannah Solar.
Speaking
here is
Patrick T. O’Donnell, Managing Partner,
who talks about two other Hannah Solar people standing there,
Project Manager Dave Fisher,
and CEO Pete Marte.
Here’s the video.
“Solar energy is definitely part of the solution for water issues in Georgia, and it’s not being talked about. When the president of Georgia Power is the chairman of the water commission and 52 percent of water is being used for power generation, you’ve got the fox in the henhouse,” said Pete Marte, chief executive officer of Hannah Solar.According to VDT commenter Solar All The Way: Continue reading
I congratulate Chairman Murpny and Sterling Planet on the solar groundbreaking.
I offered to introduce him to the biomass protesters.
He said he didn’t want to get into a debate.
Hm, that
reminds me of something.
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“…solar is an important component of our electricity needs and our power energy needs, and that it will continue to be. We need to take into consideration all renewable energy resources such as solar, and wind, and bio, and bring those together to eventually make them more efficient and effective to supply our grid with energy sources.”He also talked about eventual lower rates to the customers. And he bragged about how big it is:
“I think currently the largest array… in Georgia”Um, no, Dalton, Georgia already has a 365kW solar array installed and in use, although that information never seems to get through the VLCIA filter.
Still, it’s a start, and I congratulate VLCIA on doing it.
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In this post are videos of the speeches by VLCIA personnel;
speeches by other dignitaries will follow.
Brad Lofton,
Executive Director of the
Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
said they’ll have a commissioning reception in a few months
(currently scheduled for
Wednesday 16th April 2011)
to which they’ll invite “the entire City Council
and the County Commission.”
Interestingly, there was nobody from the County Commission
at this groundbreaking ceremony.
They’ve said they’re in favor of biomass;
are they not in favor of solar?
Lofton says they’ll also invite
“…the governor of Georgia who has about half a million dollars invested in this project.”
Lofton also said:
“We’ll go around and if anybody has any comments, I’d like you to make them.”Hm, they never seemed to get around to me.
Brad Lofton explained that the property for the solar plant is owned by the City of Valdosta and leased to VLCIA and then subleased Continue reading
Executives and city officials broke ground together at the site to the mixed cheers from the crowd of protesters: “Hooray for solar! No biomass!”More perceptive text by David Rodock and pictues by Paul Levy online and in the paper paper.
Videos of the protesters here. Videos of the groundbreaking ceremony (with protesters) to come.
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WCTV does include timestamps, and Dontaye Carter did some reporting for her story posted 6:48 PM: Continue reading