Just as
four years ago I projected solar growth ten years ahead,
a quarter century ago I projected Internet growth ten years into the future:
Graph:
A Naive Projection of the Growth of the Internet,
John S. Quarterman, Matrix News 2.2, MIDS, February 1992.
From 7.7 million Internet users in 1992, I projected the exponential
growth of the previous few years ahead a decade, to about
3.8 billion people in 2002.
How close was that estimate? Continue reading
Road trip to Callaway Gardens for the annual question time with Tom Fanning,
questions provided by environmentalists and Southern Company (SO) stockholders from at least four states.
This figure from page ii of the meeting Notice illustrates both the problem and the solution for Southern Company.
Natural gas has replaced coal as SO’s top energy source, and Nuclear is still
in there.
But renewables are up to 4%.
And over on the right of the same page:
- Growth in Renewables
Approximately 3,800 megawatts of announced
or added renewable capacity since 2012. This
includes the development of what is expected to
be the largest voluntary solar portfolio in the U.S.
(at Georgia Power Company).
Interesting use of “voluntary”, but never mind that.
If SO keeps that up, it will Continue reading
I’m thankful we’re already on the way to a clean energy future,
with more jobs, less expense than doing nothing, no new nukes, no coal at all,
much less natural gas, no need for any new pipelines,
better health, clean air and water, and profit.
The COP meeting in Paris can do what it will, and we can still make a better world and profit by it.
We’re already doing it, with solar and wind power, energy efficiency and conservation,
The Clean Energy Future: Protecting the Climate, Creating Jobs, Saving Money,
by Frank Ackerman of Synapse for LNS and 350.org:
[M]eeting the IPCC targets will… create more jobs and save money.
This report, Continue reading
South Carolina Sierra Club Chair Susan Corbett summed up
the problem with
the EPA’s carbon rule:
it opposes one poison while promoting others.
We can make a real green clean energy policy
based on conservation, efficiency, solar, and wind energy.
Remember, you can still
send in your own comments directly to EPA.
SC Sierra club, chair at EPA Atlanta hearing, by Elaine Cooper on YouTube 30 July 2014: Continue reading
What would happen if VSU applied for such a research grant?
According to its own PR of 19 June 2014,
Binghamton University receives $12.8 million for innovative energy research,
The NorthEast Center for Chemical Energy Storage (NECCES) at
Binghamton University has been awarded a $12.8 million, four-year
grant, announced Wednesday by U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.
One of 32 grants awarded for a total of $100 million to fund Energy
Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs), it will help accelerate the
scientific breakthroughs needed to build a new 21st-century energy
economy.
One of 32 grants?
Some EFRC
partner institutions Continue reading
Projected 56% fracked methane increase over 28 years sets a Wall Street
analyst a-twitter,
while solar already went up 400% in four years
and will continue to do so for the next decade.
Which would you rather bet on?
More “natural” gas pipelines
that would take twice the land to produce as much power as solar panels,
or just go straight to installing the solar panels, faster, cheaper,
and with local jobs and reduced electric bills?
David Alton Clark wrote for seekingalpha 20 June 2014,
Kinder Morgan: Is The Party Over?
1) Shale gas provides the largest source of growth in U.S. natural gas supply.A 56% increase is expected in total natural gas production from 2012 to 2040 resulting primarily from increased development of shale gas, tight gas, and offshore natural gas resources.
He claims U.S. demand is still leading production,
but: Continue reading
A ribbon cutting for 30+ MW of solar power in Social Circle, Georgia,
with no media coverage,
other than a Georgia Power docket update buried at GA PSC.
Claudia Musleve Collier says she made this first quote from email to her,
and wants it shared.
Bryan Casey, with Greenavations Power sent me these photos of the
recent [13 May 2014] ribbon cutting of their 38 MW solar project in middle
Georgia[, Simon Solar in Social Circle].
PSC “Bubba” McDonald was present to flip the switch!
The same Energy Policy Act of 2005 that
subsidized dirty oil and fracked methane including LNG exports
also funded
that oxymoron “clean” coal such as Southern Company’s Plant Ratcliffe
in Mississippi,
ethanol production lining the pockets of Monsanto, and
the $8.3 billion loan guarantee
to Georgia Power for the new nukes at Plant Vogtle.
2005 was a very long time ago in solar PV years:
prices are halved, and installed solar power production is up more
than ten times and growing exponentially like compound interest.
We need to stop throwing money at dirty, water-sucking,
centralized baseload 20th century non-solutions and get on with
clean 21st century distributed solar and wind power
for jobs, for energy independence, and for clean air and water,
not to mention less climate change.
-jsq
Solar car charging station at the
Southern Company Stockholder Meeting:
that’s new.
Other solar changes were detectable, if you knew what to look for,
and with hints from
SO CEO Tom Fanning and
new R&D VP Larry Monroe
here are some, while we’re waiting on SO for video and transcript.
Two demonstration solar charging cars were on the lawn outside the breakfast tent: Continue reading
An additional 90 megawatts of solar power by Georgia Power,
beyond what the GA PSC required last summer?
With whose Army?
Kristi E. Swartz wrote for EnergyWire 16 May 2014,
Georgia Power plan would install solar arrays on 3 Army bases,
Georgia Power and the
Army jointly released plans to install large
solar arrays at three military bases yesterday in what officials say
could be a model for other states.The three solar arrays are scheduled to start producing power in
2015 and will lead to the Army getting 18 percent of its electricity
in Georgia from renewable fuels that are on-site.The 90 total megawatts of solar electricity also will move the Army
9 percent closer to meeting federal goals for renewable energy.Adding three 30 MW arrays would continue to boost Georgia’s rapidly
growing solar output and would help the military meet its renewable
energy goals to become sustainable and more secure.The move also alleviates mounting political and public pressure on
Georgia Power to remove roadblocks that some say have made it
difficult for the military to meet its federal renewable energy
goals.
OK, that’s all good stuff.
However, I’m missing the part about SO is going beyond what GA PSC
required Georgia Power to do:
“From the commission standpoint, it’s a joint venture between the
Georgia Public Service Commission and the Georgia Power Co. It is a
partnership,” PSC member Lauren “Bubba” McDonald said in an
interview with EnergyWire. “Georgia will be the model state.”At least a couple of state utility regulators have been working with
Georgia Power for months on a program specifically to install solar
at military bases. The utility will use a 90 MW self-build project
that the Georgia Public Service Commission approved in 2007 to
implement its plans.
So if that 90 MW was approved by GA PSC in 2007, how is it
beyond
the 525 MW GA PSC required of Georgia Power last summer?
Maybe Georgia Power and GA PSC won’t count that 90MW within the 525 MW.
This could confirm that interpretation:
McDonald said this program is an extension of his efforts last
summer when he shepherded a proposal to have Georgia Power add 525
MW of solar to the grid as part of the utility’s long-term energy
plan.
OK, that’s good.
It’s still not enough: Georgia Power should be doubling its solar
generation every year, not just adding 17% above what it’s required.
But it’s some sort of acknowledgement that something needs to be done,
and it is something Georgia Power is actually doing.
-jsq
