The bipartisan distributed rooftop solar financing bill,
HB 874, the Solar Power Free-Market Financing and Property Rights Act of 2014,
is on the agenda for Monday for the
House Energy, Utilities & Telecommunications Committee,
according to Claudia Musleve Collier.
The Committee member from closest to here is
Carol Fullerton (D 153) Albany.
Here are
the rest of the committee members.
Call ’em up!
-jsq
Spectra was unwilling to consider adapting
their Sabal Trail pipeline plan to include renewable energy,
other than to continue reiterating that they do natural gas pipelines,
and to refer to renewables only as “alternative” energy.
Laura Dailey asked at the
Gilchrist County Commission meeting 20 February 2014:
Will the pipelines be adaptable to future use of
other forms of energy besides the transmission of fossil fuels.
Anybody know that?
Brian Fahrentholdt of Spectra answered: Continue reading
LTE in the VSU newspaper, The Spectator, today. -jsq
To the Editor,
Climate change is the defining issue of our time.
Ninety-seven percent of scientists agree that
humans are the cause. S.A.V.E.
believes that it’s time for people to become the solution.
Globally,
we are feeling the impacts of record-setting temperatures, most
notably in the extreme weather patterns and rising sea levels.
Recent
chemical (W.VA) and
coal ash spills (N.C.) add to the urgency
of moving beyond fossil fuel. Yet here on our campus there’s a
remarkable disconnect between the classroom and the board room.
Shockingly, the VSU Board of Trustees includes science deniers,
oblivious to the threat of climate change—and to the academic
integrity of this institution of higher learning.
Recently,
the Board dismissed S.A.V.E.’s
request that VSU rid its portfolio of fossil fuel holdings.
Board Chairman,
Wayne Edwards,
a financial analyst, cast doubt on
the study that accompanied our request.
But we ask you, who knows more about climate, a team of
2,000 scientists from 154 countries who have compiled data from more
than 9,000 studies, or a stock broker? Our point is that serious
decisions at this institution are being taken by people who lack the
proper credentials.Chairman Edwards
dismissed socially responsible investing as Continue reading
What electric utilities fear most:
bipartisan support for distributed rooftop solar financing.
You can call your legislator and support HB 874,
the Solar Power Free-Market Financing and Property Rights Act of 2014.
Dave Williams
wrote for the Atlanta Business Chronicle 28 January 2014,
Ga. Republican unveils solar bill,
Georgia property owners would be able to contract directly with
solar energy installers to finance the installation of solar panels
under legislation introduced in the General Assembly Tuesday.The bill would let property owners lease solar panels instead of
having to buy them with cash up front, said Georgia Rep. Mike
Dudgeon, R-Johns Creek, the bill’s sponsor.“We want to make it clear Continue reading
The VSU Foundation has invited SAVE to dinner Monday.
No agenda is known, but the Foundation gets four attendees
and SAVE gets two.
Foundation attendees are to be:
William J. McKinney,
ninth president of VSU, and ex-officio VSU Foundation board member,
who at the solar canopy inauguration said
“I am committed to developing a culture of sustainability on this campus”.
The two attendees from
Students Against Violating the Environment (S.A.V.E.),
each apparently twice as heavyweight as a Foundation Trustee,
will be: Continue reading
Bryan Zulko gave me this information about a workshop Thursday
in Nashville, Georgia.
I don’t know if there’s a fee; none is mentioned on the flyer.
Presumably the contact listed can tell you. -jsq
Learn How To:
- Eliminate Your Electric Bill
- Create an Additional income stream
- Use Government Grants and Tax Credits
- Access Grants Support & Financing
Guest Speakers: Continue reading
Applications are being accepted now for
grants from the
USDA Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).
According to
Bryan Zulko, the amount of funds available
is still being worked out, and an announcement is expected in
February.
Meanwhile, the number of applications is low this year.
To me that means that if you want to apply, you’ve
got a better chance than usual of getting in.
Section 9007 of the 2008 Farm Bill established a grant, loan, and
loan guarantee program to assist eligible farmers, ranchers, and
rural small businesses in purchasing renewable energy systems and
for making energy efficiency improvements.
Eligible projects include Continue reading
LTE in the VDT today. -jsq
For millennia humans gazed into the sky and marveled at birds
sailing through the air. While some imagined a day when we would be
able to fly, others said it could not be done. Likewise the idea of
infinite, clean energy might seem unattainable to some, but the
progress we have seen in recent years is astonishing.Since the discovery of fire Continue reading
While
ten nukes were shut down or cancelled in 2013,
solar power continues its compound-interest-curve ever-faster deployment.
Zero (0) new nukes were built in 2013 and in October all
new U.S. utility-scale power was solar.
Unfortunately, the biggest of those was Southern Company’s Campo Verde,
which powers California, not Georgia or the southeast, but that is changing now.
Todd Woody wrote for The Atlantic 26 November 2013,
Solar Energy Was America’s Sole New Power Source in October:
Get ready for a photovoltaic building boom.
In October, power plants generating 530 megawatts of electricity came online in the United States. And
every single electron put on the grid came from the sun,
according to a report released today.
That’s apparently not even counting rooftop solar.
The report is
Solar the sole capacity completed in October, at 530 MW,
by Althena Enguerra for SNL 25 November 2013. Continue reading
If Europe can do it, the U.S. can do it.
And we know
Georgia can get a third of its power from wind,
and even Spain is north of Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida,
which have a lot more sun for solar power than anywhere in Europe.
Solar power
is already winning, even in Georgia.
Let’s help it win even faster, plus wind.
PR from Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) 16 January 2014,
EU could cut emissions by 40 percent at moderate cost,
The costs of achieving a more ambitious EU climate target are
estimated to be moderate. Upscaling greenhouse-gas emissions
reduction from the current 20 percent by 2020 to 40 percent by 2030
would be likely to cost less than an additional 0.7 percent of
economic activity.
And that apparently doesn’t count the additional economic activity
that would be produced by all those wind and solar deployments,
not to mention related activities like electric cars.
This is actually a pessimistic study, because it doesn’t account
for such likely positive corollaries.
Many options to choose from—wind power could expand sevenfold
