Category Archives: Solar

USDA REAP grants for 2014

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 →

The Third Solar Age –Michael Noll

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 →

All new U.S. energy was solar in October 2013

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 →

EU could cut 40% emissions with little cost: and we can, too

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

Continue reading →

Wind for 1/3 of Georgia electricity, plus solar

“Georgia has about 14.5 gigawatts of feasibly developed offshore wind energy potential–enough power to provide one-third of Georgia’s current electrical needs.”

And the wind blows at night when the sun doesn’t shine. Add solar for the peak power day, and there’s no excuse for coal, nuclear, or natural gas.


Georgia’s Offshore Wind Energy Potential Showcased at CoastFest, by Allie Brown for SACE 15 October 2013.

Georgia Power and Southern Company know this. When will they act on it?

PS: Owed to Danielle Jordan

-jsq

Actually, green solar power is winning

An article that dismisses without investigation the fastest growing industry in the world, solar power, after solar has become cheaper than any other energy source, is not a serious article.

Richard Smith wrote for Truthout 9 January 2014, Green Capitalism: The God That Failed. Sure, there are lots of good points in there (such as we need a carbon tax, but it’s not enough), but given that only 90 companies account for 2/3 of GHG emissions saying we can’t change that without crashing the world’s economy is like saying we can’t deal with horse manure in cities in 1900 without crashing the world’s economy, and people did say things like that back then.

Most of the world’s oil and gas is used to produce power, so once we convert to solar and wind, we’ll have plenty of remaining petroleum for other uses such as lubrication.

Saying in 2014 that solar and wind can’t power the world is like saying in 1994 that Continue reading →

SAVE has a new website

Reminding everyone of what they do and what VSU President McKinney said, Students Against Violating the Environment has a new website.

S.A.V.E. is an environmental activist organization based on the campus of Valdosta State University (VSU). It is composed of students from all majors, and any VSU student is welcome to join regardless of race, gender, age, or sexual orientation.

The mission of the organization is Continue reading →

Organic battery with no metals –Harvard SEAS

Solar already provides peak power at peak load, and through distribution is resilient, and that plus ever-decreasing prices will drive solar deployments up exponentially for a decade or so yet. If we add an inexpensive metal-free battery, solar will take over even faster. And that’s what Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has just published as a discovery.

Harvard SEAS PR of 8 January 2014, Organic mega flow battery promises breakthrough for renewable energy: Harvard technology could economically store energy for use when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine,

The paper reports a metal-free flow battery that relies on the electrochemistry of naturally abundant, inexpensive, small organic (carbon-based) molecules called quinones, which are similar to molecules that store energy in plants and animals.

And much less expensive, reported CBC News 9 January 2014, Continue reading →

Utilities desperate to shade solar power

The same Edison Electric Institute that warned electric utilities that distributed solar is already eating their lunch has codified a net metering talking point that utilities are pushing to try to shade solar power. It’s not working.

Power play: Utilities want solar users to pay up Mark Koba wrote for CNBC yesterday, Power play: Utilities want solar users to pay up,

But some experts say the mere fact that utilities— which generate $360 billion a year in energy sales—are battling with solar indicates the threat it now poses to them.

“The success of solar power is forcing utilities to rethink their business model and push for the changes,” said Franc Del Fosse, an energy industry lawyer and partner at Snell & Wilmer. “If you have an individual putting solar panels on the roof, it’s easy to suggest that a utility is making less money.”

The effort for higher fees on solar panel users could backfire, Continue reading →

Solar is now competitive with … natural gas –Crossborder Energy study

Colorado, California, North Carolina: when will Georgia catch up in solar power? What will it take to get the Georgia legislature to realize all Georgians will benefit economically from much more solar power than GA PSC in July required Georgia Power to buy? And why should we permit a methane gas pipeline to gash through Georgia to profit executives in Houston and Juno Beach, Florida when we could be deploying solar everywhere in Georgia for local jobs, profit, lower electric bills, and clean air and water?

Here’s the study that showed solar benefits outweigh costs in North Carolina, The Benefits and Costs of Solar Generation for Electric Ratepayers in North Carolina, by R. Thomas Beach and Patrick G. McGuire for Crossborder Energy, 18 October 2013.

Wholesale solar PPA prices provide perhaps the most dramatic evidence of the continued decline in solar PV costs. Solar PPA prices have fallen dramatically over the past several years, to the point that, in some regions of the U.S., solar is now competitive with other generation resources, including wind and natural gas. Xcel Energy in Colorado recently announced that it is proposing to add 170 MW of utility-scale solar to its system, with its CEO stating “[f]or the first time ever, we are adding cost competitive utility scale solar to the system.”33 The California electric utilities make public each year the average PPA prices for renewable contracts approved by the CPUC in the prior year. Figure 3 shows the trend in the prices for their solar PV PPAs; CPUC contract approval can occur up to a year or more after bids are received, so the figure is indicative of prices through roughly 2011.34 2012 solicitations for solar PPAs in California in the 3 MW to 20 MW size range through the Renewable Auction Mechanism (RAM) have yielded market-clearing prices in the 8 to 9 cents per kWh range.3

The Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (LBNL) conducts and publishes regular national surveys of the installed costs of solar PV; these surveys include Continue reading →