While Georgia failed to reform its antique Territorial Electric Service Act and toyed with a solar monopoly, New Jersey, far to the north with far less sun, finished installing a gigawatt (1,000 megawatts) of solar power. The rest of the U.S. installed 3.3 MW total, slightly higher than projections of 3.2 MW, but Georgia lagged behind. When will the legislature and the Public Service Commission, and perhaps more importantly, Georgia Power and Southern Company, stop stop wasting our money on that three-legged nuclear regulatory-capture boondoggle at Plant Vogtle and get on with solar in Georgia for jobs, for profit, and for clean air and water?

Pete Danko wrote for Earth Techling and Huffpo 20 March 2013, New Jersey Solar Capacity Hits 1 Gigawatt,

You’ve got hand it to New Jersey. For a non-Sunbelt state, it kicks ass in solar power.

Park Avenue Elementary School, Newark, N.J. (image via PSEG)

This is something we’ve noted before, but it deserves mention now because the state — sometime in late February — hit the 1 gigawatt mark in total installed solar electric capacity, according to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities [PDF].

Yes, that’s a picture of an elementary school with solar panels on its roof. We can do that in Georgia, as Dublin High School just demonstrated and as we could do right here on top of Lowndes High or the new VHS.

Poor New Jersey did fall to #3 nationwide, behind California and Arizona, and NJ Sierra Club is complaining about that, but Georgia is #22 in 2012 annual installed PV capacity, behind tiny Delaware, Vermont, and Connecticut. Georgia can continue to lag behind the pack and lose lots of benefits, or it can get on with solar and lead the country in solar power, for jobs, profit, and energy independence, and for clean air and water.

-jsq

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