Category Archives: Renewable Energy

Making this a green campus –Dr. Michael G. Noll @ SAVE 2013-11-15

Dr. Noll remarked on the rain falling and said of the solar canopy:

It’s multipurpose, it provides shade, it provides shelter,
and it provides renewable energy, so that makes it really awesome.

He offered as story about events and world population at those times:

1 billion in 1783: the first hot air balloon in 1783 in Paris, France
2 billion in 1903: Orville and Wilbur Wright’s first flight
1969: Apollo 11 landed on the moon when Dr. Noll was 8 years old
1973: Oil crisis
4 billion in 1977: Jimmy Carter installed first solar panels on White House
1981: Ronald Reagan took down those solar panels
7 billion now: Accelerating climate change

He said we’re entering a second solar age,
the first one being the fossilized solar power of fossil fuels.
He mentioned the solar powered long flights of the

Solar Impulse
airplane as an example of hope, and an example of accelerating change.

Then you know what we are capable of, what we can do.

He concluded: Continue reading →

Anytime we use coal or natural gas we are linked to fracking and of course climate change –Danielle Jordan @ SAVE 2013-11-15

After repeating

SAVE’s request for VSU to
reinvest in more socially responsible options,
Danielle Jordan, President of SAVE, gave one reason why
SAVE supports fossil fuel divestment:

In our fiscally globalized world, our actions don’t stop here.
Everything we do affects people half a world away.
So anytime we use coal or natural gas we are linked to fracking
and of course climate change.
But that doesn’t have to be.
We can change that.
This proves it.

This was at the

Solar Canopy Ceremony 15 November 2013. Continue reading →

More solar jobs already than coal, or oil and gas extraction

Want jobs?
Invest in solar power.

There are more people in the

U.S. employed in the solar energy
marketplace than mining coal. The banal argument that transitioning
to a clean energy economy will cost us jobs is simply false. Solar
is growing more than 10 times faster than the American economy.

Solar already employs more than coal, and that gap is widening. In
2012, solar added 14,000 new jobs, up 36 percent from 2010 and the
industry will add another 20,000 jobs this year. The fossil fuels
industry cut 4,000 jobs last year. So when it comes to employing
Americans, solar is winning.

That 119,000 jobs in the solar industry is also more than
the 106,400 “production and nonsupervisory employees” in the oil and
gas extraction industry, and gaining rapidly Continue reading →

Southern Company missed earnings: weather and Kemper Coal and nuclear Plant Vogtle

SO CEO Tom Fanning continued to blame slow sales and earnings on mild
weather (air conditioners running less), but the big boondoggle
going bad is Kemper Coal, which has slipped six months from May 2014 to Q4 2014,
and even the Wall Street Journal calls it “possibly the most expensive fossil-fuel power plant ever built in the U.S”.
How bad will SO’s stock tank when SO’s even more expensive
nuclear Plant Vogtle slips even more?

Dividends can’t prop up SO’s share price forever, not when PSCs are revolting against the rate hikes
and guaranteed profit hikes that prop up those dividends.
When will Southern Company and Georgia Power get out front and lead in solar and wind power?
Before or after the public, state public service commissions, and investors make them do it?

Justin Loiseau wrote for DailyFinance 4 November 2013,

Southern Company Earnings: A $5 Billion Blunder? Continue reading →

Divesting from oil and gas –Prof. Matthew Richard

Dr. Richard posted this letter to the editor of the

The Spectator,
VSU’s student newspaper,

on SAVE’s facebook page today. I added the links and the images. -jsq

To the Editor:

I would like to address the VSU community with this letter.

VSU Students, faculty, and staff, did you know that many of the
clothes that we admire and purchase in the USA are made in places
like Bangladesh? Indeed, some of our most popular brands of

clothing, including GAP, Old Navy, and Banana Republic originate
there. Perhaps you know that many Bangladeshi clothing manufacturers
employ children as young as 12 years old who earn as little as $32
per month despite working up to 14 hours a day? It’s little wonder
that so many of us can look so stylish—and for relatively
little money.

If you didn’t already know this, does it matter to you now? Are you
concerned that the money you spend supports sweatshops in Bangladesh

and elsewhere, perpetuating the misery of millions of our fellow
human beings? Undoubtedly many of us are concerned, and we
understand that we can make a difference in the world by being more
judicious about where we shop. It’s why we choose to buy groceries
at worker-friendly Publix rather than Continue reading →

Citizens for solar power; GA leg. not so much

Utility backers in the Georgia legislature tried scare tactics
to stop HB 657
(or anything else) from requiring more solar power from Georgia Power.
Still no solar tax, said citizens in

Savannah,

Columbus,

Gainesville,

Athens,
and now Atlanta.

Walter C. Jones wrote for the Florida Times-Union 31 October 2013,

Outlook for solar bill isn’t bright in Georgia.

Not sure why

this picture of me illustrates this story on facebook
(I wasn’t at the hearing in Atlanta),
but hey, why not.

Claudia Collier with Green Georgia drove from Savannah to speak at
the hearing.

“This bill will give us direct choice in where our electricity
comes from,” she said.

Rep. Mike Dudgeon, R-Johns Creek, pointed to the amount of solar
generation the Public Service Commission ordered Georgia Power to
acquire this year.

“It looks like the PSC is already managing the
situation,” he said.

As

Southern Company CEO Tom Fanning and Georgia Power CEO Paul Bowers
well know, Continue reading →

Video of citizens in Athens opposing Georgia Power solar tax

Another city, more citizens opposed to Georgia Power’s solar tax,
and to Georgia Power’s rate hikes for fossil fuels and nukes.

Hyacinth Manacap Empinado wrote for Athens Patch today,

“No” To Rate Hike for Georgia Power, Say Residents at Athens Meeting:
People urged Public Service Commissioner Tim Echols to vote against the Georgia Power rate hike request.,

Echols says that part of the money will be used to clean up older
coal plants and convert some plants to burn cleaner, natural gas.

If approved, Continue reading →

No solar tax –citizens in Gainesville GA

Solar advocate PSC Commissioner Bubba McDonald joined Tim Echols for this one.
Citizens said no to

Georgia Power’s proposed solar tax,
just like in

Savannah
and

Columbus.

Sarah Mueller wrote yesterday for Gainesville Times,

Public gives thumbs-down to Georgia Power rate hike,

The Georgia Power Co. rate hike proposal and suggested fees on solar
energy installation didn’t get a lot of support from residents who
attended a town meeting in Gainesville on Tuesday night.

The Georgia Public Service Commission is reviewing a $482 million
three-year rate increase request from the energy company that would
add about $7.84 to the average ratepayer’s monthly bill. The Georgia
Sierra Club and Georgia Watch has sponsored town meetings around the
state this month to let commissioners hear public input on the
request. Commissioners Tim Echols and Lauren “Bubba”
McDonald participated in the meeting at the Brenau Downtown Center.

Pursuing solar energy as state policy was also a hot topic at the
meeting, which was lightly attended. About 10 people spoke,
criticizing the proposed hike, the company’s proposed guaranteed
profit increase to 11.5 percent and Continue reading →

Fossil fuel divestment fastest

Not just

faster than apartheid divestment;
faster than divestment from tobacco, armaments, and others:
fossil fuel divestment.
It’s not about direct reduction of market capitalization;
it’s about making it socially unacceptable to buy from stigmatized
companies, and it works, and it’s working faster than ever for fossil fuels.
Oh, and fossil fuel companies are a tiny sliver of university endowments,
so ditching them is pain free,
especially now that

fossil fuel stock prices are not rising while solar stocks skyrocket
(and nuclear stocks don’t).
Go fossil free, go VSU.

Stranded Assets and the Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign: What Does Divestment Mean for the Valuation of Fossil Fuel Assets?
8 October 2013 | Authors: Atif Ansar, Ben Caldecott, James Tilbury

Damian Carrington wrote for the Guardian Monday 7 October 2013

Campaign against fossil fuels growing, says study:
Investors being persuaded to take their money out of fossil fuel sector, according to University of Oxford study,

A campaign to persuade investors to take their money out of the fossil fuel sector is growing faster than any previous divestment campaign and could cause significant damage to coal, oil and gas companies, according to a
study from the University of Oxford.

The report compares the current
fossil fuel divestment campaign, which has attracted 41 institutions since 2010, with those against tobacco, apartheid in South Africa, armaments, gambling and pornography. It concludes that the direct financial impact of such campaigns on share prices or the ability to raise funds is small but the reputational damage can still have major financial consequences.

Continue reading →

China $375 billion conservation and pollution investment

Fayen Wong and Ruby Lian wrote for Reuters 30 July 2013,

China to invest $375 billion on energy conservation, pollution: paper,

China plans to invest 2.3 trillion yuan ($375 billion) in energy
saving and emission-reduction projects in the five years through
2015 to clean up its environment, the China Daily newspaper reported
on Wednesday, citing a senior government official.

The plan, which has been approved by the State Council, is on top of
a 1.85 trillion yuan investment in the renewable energy sector,
underscoring the government’s concerns about addressing a key source
of social discontent.

China has set a target of reducing its carbon emissions per unit of
GDP by 40-45 percent by 2020 from the 2005 level, and raising
non-fossil energy consumption to 15 percent of its energy mix, Xie
Zhenhua, deputy director of the National Development and Reform
Commission (NDRC), was quoted as saying.

The article continues about tiered power pricing for energy intensive
industries and carbon trading markets.

Given that most of the world’s increase in energy usage comes from one country,
China,

according to OECD figures,
anything China can do to slow that increase is good.

-jsq

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange