Category Archives: energy conservation

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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Waste Not, Want Not —Michael Noll

VDT LTE today. -jsq
We can only prosper as a society if we work together. Despite the differences we might have, we share so much more in common. Yet it seems that we prefer to fall into separate camps, that we seek to view issues in black and white, and that we like to belong to those who have “got it all figured out”. Just pick your side (liberal, conservative) and you “know” who got it all wrong.

I have been humbled by the wide-ranging support WACE received to stop a biomass plant that was once considered a done deal. In the end what mattered was the realization by people across all ages, racial and ideological lines that we want to breathe clean air, and that we don’t want to waste millions of tax dollars on a project that will lead to increases in respiratory illnesses, heart diseases, and cancer. Thus the people spoke up, and with the help of elected representatives and the Industrial Authority “no biomass” became the consensus.

In the last couple of months I noticed another issue many agree on.

Continue reading →

Growing talent instead of population

What are some ideas for economic and cultural growth that don’t require huge population growth? Richard Florida has many ideas for large and mid-sized population areas in the article discussed below. Who’s the Richard Florida for places the size of Lowndes County?

Richard Florida wrote in the Atlantic in December 2009, How the Crash Will Reshape America:

Big, talent-attracting places benefit from accelerated rates of “urban metabolism,”
The question we need to address is how to be a small talent-attracting place, and even more a smallish place that grows its own talent and jobs.

This part is especially relevant: Continue reading →

Retrofitting suburbia —Ellen Dunham-Jones

There are many jobs in this. The Five Points redevelopment is an example of what she’s talking about. It’s a lot better than building more sprawl: safer, less expensive, more jobs, less energy cost, more energy independence, better health, and more community.

Georgia Tech Professor Ellen Dunham-Jones spole January 2010 at TEDxAtlanta, Retrofitting suburbia

In the last 50 years, we’ve been building the suburbs with a lot of unintended consequences. And I’m going to talk about some of those consequences and just present a whole bunch of really interesting projects that I think give us tremendous reasons to be really optimistic that the big design and development project of the next 50 years is going to be retrofitting suburbia. So whether it’s redeveloping dying malls or re-inhabiting dead big-box stores or reconstructing wetlands out of parking lots, I think the fact is, the growing number of empty and under-performing, especially, retail sites throughout suburbia gives us actually a tremendous opportunity to take our least-sustainable landscapes right now and convert them into more sustainable places. And in the process, what that allows us to do is to redirect a lot more of our growth back into existing communities that could use a boost, and have the infrastructure in place, instead of continuing to tear down trees and to tear up the green space out at the edges.
Here’s the video: Continue reading →

Because of my mother —Dr. Noll @ VLCIA 19 July 2011

Dr. Noll, president of WACE, welcomed VLCIA’s new executive director Andrea Schruijer, and then reminded the board that the honking cars outside indicated an ongoing community assessment of biomass, and he encouraged them to consider previously presented materials and to prevent the biomass plant from finding a back door to come back in.

He remarked that he had visited his mother in Germany:

One and half years ago she was in the intensive care unit for about three weeks because she had severe lung issues. She moved away after that to an area where there isn’t the kind of air pollution she was exposed to before hand, and every single day she wakes up she feels like she’s on vacation.

Here’s the video:


Because of my mother —Dr. Noll @ VLCIA 19 July 2011
Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),
Norman Bennett, Tom Call, Roy Copeland chairman, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett,
Andrea Schruijer Executive Director, J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Project Manager,
Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 19 July 2011.
Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

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Stockholm Fossil Fuel Free City 2050

If a cold Nordic city at the latitude of Anchorage can do this, sunny Valdosta can do this:
The City of Stockholm’s “Action Programme on Climate Change” involves the participation of several groups: the City of Stockholm’s own departments, local businesses and those who live and work in the city. The work has been successful so far and the emission of greenhouse gases has been reduced. In 1990, emissions of 5.3 tons of CO2e* per person were registered compared with 4.0 tons CO2e per person in 2005.

The long-term target is for Stockholm to continue to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases at the same rate as between 1990 and 2005. In theory, this means that Stockholm will become a fossil fuel free city by 2050.

Greenhouse gas targets for the period of 2005-2050 compared with the base year of 1990.

* CO2e = means of specifying the effect of a gas on the emission of greenhouse gases compared to carbon dioxide.

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PS: This post owed to Tim Carroll, who saw it in Time Magazine.

Andrea Schruijer’s Opportunity —John S. Quarterman

Here’s my op-ed in the VDT today. -jsq
Welcome Andrea Shuijer Schruijer to a great opportunity as the new Executive Director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA)!

For a year I’ve been asking for a list of jobs attracted by the Authority. We welcome your marketing expertise so we’ll know the Authority’s successes!

We welcome your communications expertise to inform the community affected by the process of bringing new jobs. VLCIA could publish its agendas, minutes, and videos of its meetings, events, and new jobs on its web pages, and facebook, maybe even twitter.

We welcome your stewardship of the Authority’s $3 million/year in taxes. Maybe some

Continue reading →

Energy as a National Security Challenge —Col. Dan Nolan @ Solar Summit

In his morning keynote at the sold-out Southern Solar Summit, Col. Dan Nolan (U.S. Army ret.) asked the musical question:
“When did our Marines become Birkenstock-wearing tree huggers?”
This was after some Marines asked for solar power so they wouldn’t have to haul fuel in long convoys, which were among the most dangerous missions. Most of that fuel was going into very inefficient generators to run very inefficient air conditioners in tents in the desert. Dealing with that got the military thinking about energy security: assured access to mission-critical energy.

Looking up, he asked:

“What is it we as a nation need to understand about our own energy security?”
He identified America’s strategic center of gravity as its economy. It’s very resilient but has vulnerabilities open to attack. So how do we secure those vulnerabilities?

The main vulnerabilities are: Continue reading →

A mix is the way to go —Dr. Noll

This comment from Dr. Noll came in today on San Antonio promises to shut down a coal plant:
Of course we can! And “a mix of energy efficiency, [energy conservation,] and new renewable energy projects” (e.g. solar, wind, geothermal)is the way to go. We simply need the political will and communal support to make such a transition possible.

I am still in Germany and am amazed to see just how much progress has been made here in these past couple of years. Solar thermal and solar voltaic installations abound on private residences; wind mills can be seen in many regions; cars are more fuel efficient, houses better insulated, public transportation accessible and affordable, recycling thoroughly organized, etc.

We may still have a long way to go, but until Continue reading →

Valdosta energy conservation survey

You can help Valdosta save energy.

Jade Bulecza writes for WALB, Valdosta wants your input on energy conservation

There’s two surveys one on goals to save energy and the second one is your thoughts on the planning phase and projects already using energy saving measures. Some of those changes are the timing at traffic lights in a high accident prone areas that allows traffic to move more smoothly and efficiently.

They’ve also had energy audits on municipal buildings at no cost from Georgia Power and added motion detector light sensors through a community block grant that’s also paying for the surveys.

“It’s not only important as a local government to take steps to conserve energy because we see energy prices going up but we need to protect our natural resources and our environment and we want to encourage our citizens to do the same,” said Mara Register, the assistant to the city manager. “This helps heighten that awareness.”

The last day to submit the surveys is Friday.

Here’s the city of Valdosta’s survey page.

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