Category Archives: Renewable Energy

Do you have solar energy yourself? Why yes, yes, I do

Grady Blankenship wrote a LTE in the VDT Wednesday, in which he asked
“do you have solar energy yourself?”
Why yes, yes, I do.
And I have some questions for everyone at the end.

Back

in 2009 we installed solar panels on our farm workshop.


At the time the closest certified solar installer I could find was in Marietta.
Four years ago there were 4 in the state.
now there are forty.
And that’s in a state that’s trailing

North Carolina
and even

New Jersey
in solar installations.

Also, I applied some weeks back for a USDA REAP grant for solar
for Okra Paradise Farms.


Much to our surprise, last week we

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Notes for Mr. Blankenship —Michael Noll

Please note that

the following was inspired by a letter (attached as a


photograph) that appeared in the Valdosta Daily Times in response to my
earlier piece on

“Solar: Infinite and Clean”. The Valdosta Daily Times
seems to enforce a quota of sorts at this time, so they won’t publish
my additional information for Mr. Blankenship and other “skeptics”.

Sources for the Skeptic

I have no idea why anyone would call companies in Mexico or Canada to
research the feasibility of local solar energy projects. I also do not
know what type of freezer the writer of “Seeking affordable solar
energy” has. Either way, I will be happy to share more information,
so that anyone interested in solar energy can do more research and
educate himself.



At the state level you can contact the “Georgia Solar Energy
Association” (www.gasolar.org/)
to learn more about the viability
of solar power in 2011, which is quite different from the situation
in 2001. A larger solar firm our community

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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Network met yesterday

Yesterday the Renewable and Sustainable Energy Network had its second
monthly organizationl meeting at the Valdosta-Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce.
It’s working up a business plan to submit to the Chamber Board for next year.
The Chair is the eminent Dr. Dennis Marks, VSU Emeritus Professor,
and the Chamber contact is ReKasa Deen of

Opportunity Central.
Here everybody says “renewable energy and solar power!”





Sherry Wheat (Hannah Solar), Sharon Jackson (South GA Solar Power), Ron Jackson (Production Community Services), Bill Branham (21st Century Telecom), ?, Dr. Dennis Marks (Chair), Matt Jansen (Boys and Girls Club), John S. Quarterman (Okra Paradise Farms), ReKasa Deen (VLCoC Opportunity Central)

picture by Myrna Ballard (VLCoC President) for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange

Sherry Wheat of Hannah Solar drove down from Atlanta to help me announce
that

Okra Paradise Farms got the USDA REAP grant we applied for,
to add about 52 solar panels to our farm workshop.
Hannah Solar helped us submit the paperwork in 3 days.
More on that as it transpires.

-jsq

Top 10 Reasons Why Solar Energy Will Win



Greentechsolar has an interesting article 28 Sep 2011 on

Top 10 Reasons Why Renewable Energy Wins.
in which is a top 10 list for solar.
Here are some excerpts:

  1. A job is a job is a job.

    With all this talk about green jobs, clean jobs, and other kinds of jobs
    — how about we just call it a job? A job that puts food on the table,
    pays the bills, keeps the kids in clothes, and affords the occasional
    family night out. And, if you subscribe to the belief that all is lost due
    to the Chinese PV manufacturing juggernaut, keep in mind that you can’t
    export the thousands of business development, sales, design, engineering,
    installation, and service jobs we’re going to need every year.

Why not just say
jobs, jobs, jobs?
Because solar also doesn’t pollute the air and doesn’t suck up
ground water.
Not just jobs: clean jobs that don’t drain our resources.

But opinion only matters if the data supports it. Solar is one of the only
industries adding private sector jobs in our struggling economy — with
6.8 percent growth from August 2010 to August 2011, when overall U.S. job
growth was only 0.7 percent and when fossil fuel generators actually cut
jobs by 2 percent. It’s estimated the United States already has over
90,000 direct and indirect jobs in the manufacturing and installation
of solar panels. That’s more than in either steel production or coal
mining (not including transportation and power plant employment).

Yes, while road and bridge building projects may bring in a few temporary
construction jobs, solar brings construction jobs plus all sorts
of other jobs plus long-term jobs.
Long-term jobs in the fastest-growing industry in the world:

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What a successful Chamber of Commerce looks like

Here’s what

a successful Chamber of Commerce looks like:

State Sen. Bill Montford, right, congratulates Gadsden County Chamber of
Commerce Executive Director David Gardner on the National Solar Power’s
massive solar farm project.


With the excitement of a massive solar-energy farm coming to the community
still fresh on their minds, Gadsden County businesses are looking ahead
to the potential such a project could have on the local economy.

Monday’s announcement by National Solar Power was a discussion topic
Wednesday at the “Go Gadsden” breakfast of the Gadsden County Chamber of
Commerce. The invited speaker, state Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee,
told the gathering the project’s impact will extend well beyond the
county.

“This is good for Gadsden County, but it’s good for all of North Florida,”
Montford said during the breakfast at the Florida Public Safety Institute
in Midway. “We believe it’s just the beginning.”

I look forward to seeing

Myrna Ballard
in such a picture.
Or
Andrea Schruijer.

-jsq

Solar: Infinite and Clean —Michael Noll

In today’s VDT. -jsq

If we are to believe Fox News and the Tea Party, solar doesn’t work


because the solar panel manufacturer Solyndra went belly up, despite the
fact that it received $535 million in subsidies. While wasting an enormous
amount of tax dollars on a company with a flawed business concept should
raise everyone’s eyebrows, the conclusion that the Solyndra mess means
“solar doesn’t work” is mind-boggling. It’s like saying “cars don’t
work” because Chrysler went bankrupt in 2009, or “T-shirts don’t work”
because Fruit of the Loom filed for Chapter 11 in 1999.

Solar is one of the most attractive renewable sources of energy throughout

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Thanks for CHIP and lower monitors; also solar just to the south —John S. Quarterman @ LCC 27 Sep 2011



I thanked the Commission for doing the right thing about the

CHIP grant.
And for at least three people sitting up front (Evans, Paulk, and Pritchard)
lowering their monitors so citizens (and even
cameras) could see their faces.

Then I relayed the news about the

$1.5 billion investment in Gadsden County, Florida


for a 400 MW solar project.
Plus ongoing jobs, expanded education, private sources of investment,
and customers for the electricity.
Unlike the failed local biomass project,
National Solar Power’s Gadsden County project already has
Progress Energy signed up as a customer for its electricity.
I recommended that the Commission go on record as being in favor of such
projects locally.

Here’s

the video:




Thanks for CHIP and lower monitors; also solar –John S. Quarterman @ LCC 27 Sep 2011

Regular Session, Lowndes County Commission (LCC),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 27 September 2011.

Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Local leadership nets $1.5 billion solar project

That’s 400 MW of solar power in twenty 20 MW PV plants,
just across the state line in Gadsden County, Florida.


Plus ongoing jobs, expanded education, private sources of investment, and customers for the electricity.

According to SolarServer quoting a National Solar press release yesterday,

National Solar Power chooses Gadsden County, Florida for 400 MW PV project

The company estimates that the 400 MW project will create 400 jobs during
the five-year construction phase and up to 120 permanent operations jobs.

And that’s not all.
According to Solar Energy News today,

Plan to build $1.5bn solar farm in Florida,

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Solar Lowndes County Commission?

While GSEA is promoting statewide solar businesses and lobbying the state government to do what other states have done to promote solar,


local governments and businesses don’t have to wait
on the state.
For example, the

Lowndes County Commission has opened a discussion about solar energy
in response to a presentation by Bill Branham.
Now that they’ve learned

the Lowndes County Commission could lead by making one of their famous
position statements, this time in favor of solar,
or by putting solar on the roofs of their buildings (solar on the jail! imagine that),
bringing in money to do so by
or by applying for grants,
or by making a project big enough to apply for private venture capital
from the at least two firms that are looking for such projects.

If the LCC won’t do it, how about solar Valdosta fire departments,
or solar Hahira tobacco barns?

-jsq

Solar works for Georgia —GSEA

Back in June, the Georgia Solar Energy Association (GSEA)
held a


Solar Summit in Atlanta, in which we learned
there were four certified solar installers in Georgia four years ago,
and now there are forty;
that
oil for energy
is a national security risk (Col. Dan Nolan),
and that

“Solar is great for diversity, independence, research, and business.” (Chuck Eaton),
and that

Georgia is the third top state “that would benefit from solar deployment through generating and exporting energy to other states” (Richard Polich).
Sounds like a business opportunity to me!

GSEA chair Doug Beebe elaborates in a column in the Atlanta Business Chronicle
on 11 September 2011,

Solar energy already works in Georgia, but it can do so much more for our state’s economy,

This has been a great year for the Georgia Solar Energy Association,
too. Our membership has swelled to almost 300 corporate and individual
members. This number includes manufacturers, installers, integrators,
consultants and advocates who want to see Georgia benefit from an
industry that contributed more than $5 billion in economic activity to
the U.S. gross domestic product since 2008 and now employs more than
93,000 workers nationwide.

Our annual Southern Solar Summit in Atlanta this summer sold out, filling
the auditorium at the Georgia Tech Research Institute Conference Center
with Georgians eager to learn what innovations are making solar power
more accessible in Georgia and beyond. Another annual Solar Summit
in Savannah last month doubled its attendance this year, proving that
interest in solar has spread beyond metro Atlanta.

The 2011 Georgia Solar Tour will feature sites statewide. We hope that
some of the participants in this year’s tour will become hosts in
next year’s.

Great, huh?
So what’s the problem?
This:

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