Category Archives: Renewable Energy

Solar SAVE goes to SGA about fossil fuels @ VSU

SAVE‘s fossil fuel

divestment request made the
front page of

The Spectator at VSU,
and Danielle Jordan of SAVE was pullquote about fossil fuels
in another front page story, about solar panels on the Odum Library.
The student government didn’t vote to support SAVE’s request, but
many senators said they didn’t understand the subject and the student
government asked to get educated
about

fossil fuels and divestment.

Jordan Barela and Von Kennedy
wrote for The Spectator 24 October 2013,

Solar panels bring green energy to Odum,

VSU is moving in a greener direction.

A solar canopy was recently built behind Odum Library.

“We cannot address climate change without decreasing our dependency
on fossil fuels and solar is one way we could change that.”

—Danielle Jordan

The canopy is a 10 kilowatt solar array. The canopy produces energy
that goes directly to Odum Library, and does not go to the Georgia
Power grid.

Construction of the solar canopy began in September, and was
finished earlier this month.

“It is exciting,” Danielle Jordan, president of Students
Against Violating the Environment, said. “We cannot address
climate change without decreasing our dependency on fossil fuels and
solar is one way we could change that.”

The solar panels were manufactured by Continue reading →

Columbus against Georgia Power solar tariff

Getting an earful across the state about

that proposed solar rate hike:
Georgia Power and the Georgia Public Service Commission,
first in Savannah,
then in Columbus.

Mike Owen wrote for the Ledger-Enquirer 21 October 2013,

Georgia Public Service Commission: Public decries Georgia Power rate hike, solar power fee,

A crowd of about 50 people gave Georgia Public Service Commission
Chairman Chuck Eaton an earful Monday night concerning a proposed
Georgia Power rate hike and controversial proposal to charge solar
power users a new fee.

At a public hearing in the auditorium of the Coca-Cola Space Science
Center, Eaton heard several audience members call the rate hike “bad
business practice” and “unconscionable,” while calling the solar
proposal “a step backward” and a “disincentive” for modern, clean
technology.

At issue is a two-pronged proposal before the PSC. Georgia Power is
asking the commissioners to approve a $482 million rate hike that
would add almost $100 a year to average residential electric bills,
said Seth Gunning, an organizer for the Sierra
Club of Georgia, one of the meeting’s sponsors.
It [Georgia Power] is also asking the PSC to allow it to levy a fee
on those who install solar panels on their homes or businesses.

The story continues with Continue reading →

Solar tariff damaging to solar growth in Georgia –GSEA

GSEA PR of yesterday about

Georgia Power’s attempt to tax rooftop solar generators.

Proposed Solar Tariff Unfair and Damaging to Solar Growth in Georgia,

Atlanta, GA — The Georgia Solar Energy Association Chairman Mark Bell said today
that the tariff on solar installations proposed in the Georgia Power rate request now
under consideration by the Public Service Commission is unfair to solar customers.

The tariff, which will add roughly $22 a month to residential solar customers’ bills
beginning in 2014, will have a significant
“chilling effect” on the robust growth
of solar development now under way in
Georgia. Solar investment currently is
providing jobs and new infrastructure throughout the state, including its rural areas
where economic investment is badly needed. Solar energy is making Georgia farms
more cost-effective and productive, and high-demand manufacturing more efficient.

“This proposal penalizes solar at
the exclusion of other energy saving methods,
which Georgia Power supports. Georgia Power has traditionally Continue reading →

Dominion buying up solar projects

A Virginia electric utility bought a solar project near Georgia Power’s
nuclear plant Vogtle, and has been busily buying up four more,
in Indiana and Connecticut.
The Georgia electric customer is

recent coal-to-solar convert Cobb EMC, not Georgia Power.
This is the same Dominion Power that got Virginia to legalize its

“standby charge” of a monthly fee for individuals to connect solar to its grid.
Is Dominion trying to beat
Edison Electric’s warning of the disruptive challenge of rooftop solar
by building large solar plants?
If so, it’s a start, with quite a few construction jobs.
And all of this new solar power is expected to be online this year,
a lot faster than nuclear….

Dominion says of its

Azalea Solar Power Facility:

Dominion announced on March 1, 2013, that it has acquired a solar energy development project in Georgia from Smart Energy Capital and Jacoby Development. The expected start of commercial operations is Dec. 1, 2013. (> View our news release for complete details.)

Dominion’s Azalea Solar Power Facility is planned to produce approximately 7.7 megawatts (AC) using photovoltaic technology. Dominion will select a contractor and oversee the construction of the project. The 40-acre project is located on Continue reading →

Against rate hike and solar fee by Georgia Power

If you missed Savannah, Columbus tomorrow, then Gainesville, Athanes, and Atlanta: you can speak up against Georgia Power’s

attempt to charge you for saving them money by generating solar power.

Mary Landers wrote for SavannahNow Friday,

Ga. Power proposed rate hike, solar fee blasted,

“Unconscionable” and “theft” were two of the
words used Thursday evening to describe a residential rate hike and
fee on solar installations proposed by Georgia Power.

More than 50 people attended a meeting sponsored by Georgia Watch
and the Sierra Club at the Coastal Georgia Center to discuss the
issues.

The rate hike, proposed in July, would have average residential
customers paying almost $8 more a month. Some homeowners with solar
panels would pay a new monthly fee of about $22 by Georgia Power’s
estimations.

Video by WJCL News: Continue reading →

Nukes have always been a government sponsored boondogle as cover for nuclear weapons production –John Pate

From Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace and Matsutaro Shoriki founding
the Japanese nuclear industry
to Shinzo Abe’s international nuclear salesmanship,
nuclear power has always been a whitewash for nuclear weapons,
with “peaceful” nukes

a boondoggle for big corps subsidized by taxpayers and ratepayers.
Yet the sun is rising around the world, on Japan as well as on the U.S.

U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower kicked it off with his

“Atoms for Peace”
speech at the UN, 8 December 1953,

The Atomic Energy Agency could be made responsible for the
impounding, storage, and protection of the contributed fissionable
and other materials. The ingenuity of our scientists will provide
special safe conditions under which such a bank of fissionable
material can be made essentially immune to surprise seizure.

The more important responsibility of this Atomic Energy Agency would
be to devise methods whereby this fissionable material would be
allocated to serve the peaceful pursuits of mankind. Experts would
be mobilized to apply atomic energy to the needs of agriculture,
medicine, and other peaceful activities. A special purpose would be
to provide abundant electrical energy in the power-starved areas of
the world. Thus the contributing powers would be dedicating some of
their strength to serve the needs rather than the fears of mankind….

Against the dark background of the atomic bomb, the United States
does not wish merely to present strength, but also the desire and
the hope for peace.

And “Atoms for Peace” was part of an organized government PR campaign
(“Operation Candor”)
about Soviet nuclear weapons; see

http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/research/online_documents/atoms_for_peace.html”>Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library for sources.
Operation Candor was replaced by Operation Soothing Syrup (I am not making this up),
according to Continue reading →

Solar and wind cheaper than fossil fuels –more evidence

The most cost-effective power sources are solar and wind,
re-affirms a study that includes social costs,
such as the environmental costs of the climate
change caused by CO₂ from fossil fuels
(the social cost of carbon, or SCC),
and the health damage caused by sulfur dioxide pollution.
It’s time to stop paying for utility executive profits with our health and dollars.
No fracking, no pipeline.

M Caulfield wrote for Exposing the Truth 24 September 2013,

Renewable Energy Now Cheaper Than Fossil Fuel,

Renewable energy is becoming more and more
competitive. Alternative and renewable energy sources are increasingly
becoming more affordable. According to a new study published in the Journal
of Environmental Studies and Sciences, it is now less costly in
America to get electricity from wind turbines and solar panels, than it
is to get it from coal-fired power plants. The study shows, when climate
change costs and other health impacts were factored in, that it is even
more cost effective to convert an existing coal-fired power plant with
a wind turbine, than it is to keep the old fossil fuel-burning plant.

Unsubsidized renewable energy is now cheaper than electricity from coal and
gas power stations in Australia as well. Wind farms in Australia
can produce energy at AU$80/MWh. Meanwhile, coal plants are
producing energy at AU$143/MWh and gas at AU$116/MWh. And the myth that alternative energy sources
were enormously more costly than the typical
fossil fuels, is proving to be untrue. And after initial
investment costs are waged, making them now ameliorated, and the raw materials for solar and wind power are free, besides
costs of upkeep, and the harvesting of those sources doesn’t cause
mayhem to the environment. Making it an ever-more appealing alternative
energy source.

“The perception that fossil fuels are cheap and
renewables are expensive is now out of date… The
fact that wind power is now cheaper than coal and gas in a country with some of the world’s best fossil fuel
resources shows that clean energy is a game changer which promises to turn
the economics of power systems on its head,” – Michael Liebreich,
chief executive of Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

In lead author Laurie Johnson’s Blog 17 September 2013,

New Study: Clean Energy Least Costly to Power America’s Electricity Needs, Continue reading →

Fracking at VSU

It’s good to see fracking reviewed in the VSU Spectator,

including that it’s

coming to Georgia
unless we stop it, and we should stop it.
It’s unfortunate the story ends with a bad idea when
there’s a much better idea already rapidly being deployed: solar power.

Stephen Cavallaro wrote yesterday for the VSU Spectator,

Fracking hits Georgia,

Fracking, the process of harvesting the environmentally unfriendly
natural gas called shale that is being pushed by the government,
plows its way through Georgia.

More like being pushed by fossil fuel companies who have bought too many
politicians.

In March, I discussed a deal backed by the government between
British-owned Centrica and American-owned Cheniere. The agreement
was that Cheniere would spread toxic chemicals across America in
order to fuel millions of British homes.

Kind of like Continue reading →

European utilities scared of renewable energy

Another reason

Southern Company needs to get on with a smart grid,
using its

biggest private R&D outfit in the U.S.
Now that

solar has reached grid parity with everything
including

natural gas
(and years since

it passed nuclear), if the utilities
don’t get out in front, they’re going to be left behind.

Derek Mead wrote for Motherboard yesterday,

European Utilities Say They Can’t Make Money Because There’s Too Much Renewable Energy,

Renewable energy has been on a tear the past few years, with growth in many countries spurred by subsidies for
wind and solar power. Now the heads of 10 European utility companies
say EU subsidies should end, because they've got more renewable
energy than they know what to do with.

The 10 CEOs in question, who refer to themselves as the Magritte
group because they first met in an art gallery, represent companies
that control about half the power capacity of Europe. The group gave
a press conference today—

Reuters says that 10 such executives
giving a joint public statement is “unprecedented”—to hammer
home a message they’ve been trumpeting ahead of an EU energy summit
in 2014: There’s too much energy capacity, which has driven prices
down so far that they can’t make any money.

As long as there are nukes or coal plants, there’s too much capacity.
European utilities need to get on with things like Continue reading →

Solar vs. fossil fuel stocks

Should Harvard President Drew Faust

worry that
“Significantly constraining investment options risks significantly constraining investment returns”?
Actually, if Harvard has been wasting investments in oil and gas for the
past year, its endowment has lost a bundle.
Ditto VSU.

Let’s compare stock performance of

Guggenheim Solar ETF (NYSE:TAN)
which invests in solar stocks with the

PowerShares DB Energy Fund (NYSEARCA:DBE),
which invests in oil and natural gas companies.
Yep, that’s

120% for TAN and 0% for DBE:

Sure, if you go back farther, solar stocks continued to drop after 2009
until this year: Continue reading →

On the LAKE front

Citizen dialog for transparent process by the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange