Black and white, young and old, conservative and liberal,
college professors and unemployed:
dozens of them demonstrated against biomass
outside the Valdosta City Council meeting, 24 March 2011:
As Dr. George said
Black and white, young and old, conservative and liberal,
college professors and unemployed:
dozens of them demonstrated against biomass
outside the Valdosta City Council meeting, 24 March 2011:
As Dr. George said
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, here are the
current costs of coal, natural gas, nuclear, wind (onshore and offshore),
solar (electrical and hot water), geothermal, biomass, and hydroelectric:
Here’s a four page explanation of that table.
Coal is not the cheapest: natural gas is.
Onshore wind actually costs about the same as coal, and less than nuclear.
Offshore wind is currently about 2.5 times more expensive.
Solar photovoltaic (PV) currently costs a bit more than twice as much as coal,
and already less than offshore wind.
The table does not take into account the environmental costs
of the various power sources, or obviously coal would fare far worse,
and biomass would not be rated anywhere near as good as wind.
Remember, the cost of solar is
falling rapidly,
so solar will rapidly become more cost-effective compared to other
energy sources.
-jsq

MAGE SOLAR,
the German company which in September
opened its North American headquarters
in Dublin, Georgia,
will be giving a 30 minute presentation
at Lowndes High School next Tuesday, 29 March 2011
on
“the immense possibilities of solar power and its economic benefits for Georgia”
Hey, here’s an idea:
Concluding the program will be a highly anticipated Q&A-session which
will provide direct access to industry experts and company officials;
refreshments will be served.
Maybe with real answers, unlike an
expensive dog and pony show
with a hand-picked moderator going
“we’re not going to get into debate.”
Kudos to MAGE SOLAR for locating in Georgia and then forging ahead
into the sunshine of south Georgia!
PDF and image of the flyer, and PDF and text of the detailed invitation,
are available
on LAKE’s website.
-jsq
PS: This post owed to Jerome Tucker.
Kelly Rigg in Huffpo writes
Battle-proof Wind Farms Survive Japan’s Trial by Fire:
Colleagues and I have been directly corresponding with Yoshinori Ueda
leader of the International Committee of the Japan Wind Power Association
& Japan Wind Energy Association, and according to Ueda there has been
no wind facility damage reported by any association members, from either
the earthquake or the tsunami. Even the Kamisu semi-offshore wind farm,
located about 300km from the epicenter of the quake, survived. Its
anti-earthquake “battle proof design” came through with flying colors.Mr. Ueda confirms that most Japanese wind turbines are fully
operational. Indeed, he says that electric companies have asked wind
farm owners to step up operations as much as possible in order to make
up for shortages in the eastern part of the country:
The only wind farms not operational are stopped because of failure
of the grid to feed electricity into, says Mr. Ueda:
Eurus Energy Japan says that 174.9MW with eight wind farms (64% of
their total capacity with 11 wind farms in eastern part of Japan)
are in operation now. The residual three wind farms (Kamaishi 42.9MW,
Takinekoshirai 46MW, Satomi 10.02MW) are stopped due to the grid failure
caused by the earthquake and Tsunami.
So they wind farms built like that could most likely survive a hurricane
in the Georgia Bight.
-jsq

The first thing I saw when I drove up to the Industrial Authority building:
protesters outside.
They don’t seem to like some biomass plant.

Let’s ask these two what this is about.
Dr. Michael Noll,
President of Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy (WACE)
said:
“We’re here to protest against biomass.
We wish Brad Lofton well in his new job,
but we want biomass to go as well.”
I asked Leigh Touchton, President of
Valdosta-Lowndes NAACP
about
a letter she forwarded to LAKE, and she
said:

Last Saturday I heard Hannah Solar had completed the Wiregrass Solar
plant installation in Valdosta.
Today
Col. Ricketts confirmed that.
Congratulations, Industrial Authority, Wiregrass Solar LLC,
and Hannah Solar!
The first slide shows the location of the solar plant,
which is

in the back of Valdosta’s Mud Creek Water Treatment Plant
on Water Plant Road off of GA 94 (New Statenville Highway).
Where there used to be just a bare field, it’s now covered with solar panels.
The current holdup is

waiting for Georgia Power to connect the panels
to the grid.
After that, they just need to schedule a commissioning ceremony.
Col. Ricketts said they’d discuss that “later”.
Here’s
the video:
-jsq
The VDT finally published something today about Brad Lofton moving to
Myrtle Beach, apparently mostly drawing on the same SC newspaper story
LAKE picked up on last Thursday,
with some material from
the second SunNews story of Friday.
The VDT did
add some local interviews:
Why do some people deny the overwhelming science of climate
change in a time when the evidence and analysis is so thorough
and so conclusive that no reputable scientific organization
in the world doubts any longer that humans are changing the climate
of the whole planet for the worse:
because it threatens their political and economic beliefs.
Naomi Klein: Why Climate Change Is So Threatening to Right-Wing Ideologues:
And the reason is that climate change is now seen as an identity issue
on the right. People are defining themselves, like they’re against
abortion, they don’t believe in climate change. It’s part of who
they are.
It’s like denying the earth goes around the sun.
Why would they identify with such a silly thing?
Because of what actually dealing with climate change would mean:

Rich McKay wrote for the ajc,
Carbon limits a boon for traders:
Proposed emissions standards may galvanize business in Georgia.
The carbon-emitting companies pay the farmers to not cut down the trees
or to plant new trees. The idea is that the trees, which gobble up
carbon, will store up the carbon from the atmosphere and offset what
the smokestacks spew.
Blake Sullivan, of the Macon-based
Carbon Tree Bank,
has 26,000 acres
of forest in the state under contract for carbon banking.“Georgia has an abundance of forests right here, and trees are like the
lungs of the Earth,” he said. “They inhale carbon and exhale oxygen. We
can be part of the solution right here in our own backyard.”
Why is this suddenly a business?

After all the
protesters, police, and press,
representatives of
VLCIA,
Sterling Planet,
Hannah Solar,
Georgia Power,
and the
City of Valdosta
did finally break ground for
the Wiregrass Solar power plant.
I asked Col. Ricketts for a shovel, but he just snorted.
Here’s the
groundbreaking video: