Tag Archives: electricity

Georgia #3 state that could benefit most from solar electricity

Matthew Croucher wrote
29 November 2010 in asu news,

Who would benefit most from solar energy?”

The Top 10 states that would benefit from solar deployment through
generating and exporting energy to other states are:

  1. Arizona

  2. Colorado

  3. Georgia

  4. Texas

  5. Hawaii

  6. Arkansas

  7. Wyoming

  8. Alabama (tie)

  9. Missouri (tie)

  10. California

This is according to a
study from the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University,

“Optimal Deployment of Solar Index,”
published in The Electricity Journal,

This article found on WACE facebook page;
thanks for locating it, WACE!

-jsq

Just say no to biomass –VDT to VLCIA

VDT reported on

Biomass plant misses deadlines,
but what do they really think?
The title is my paraphrase of Sunday’s editorial title,

It’s all up to the Industrial Authority:



In two months, less than 60 days away, Wiregrass Power LLC is supposed to
break ground on the biomass facility in Lowndes County. By now, they are
supposed to have contracts with power companies to sell the electricity
to and with suppliers to purchase the wood waste. They have neither,
nor does the company have an agreement with the city of Valdosta to
purchase the wastewater from the sewage treatment plant.

Well, the City of Valdosta could

refuse to sell the wastewater.
And maybe the Lowndes County Commission could exercise its

fiduciary responsibility.
But, sure, the Industrial Authority could just say no.


And yet the folks at the Industrial Authority appear to be rather
nonchalant about the fact that this company has yet again broken its
agreement. They have the power to renogiate the terms of the agreement and
they also have the power to cancel it, but neither is happening. Instead,
they are giving the company all the leeway they need to continue dragging
this project along that the community doesn’t want.

Folks?
Like Col. Ricketts?
But remember, he and

Lame-Duck Lofton
are only

Continue reading →

Biomass plant misses deadlines –VDT

David Rodock writes on the front page of the Sunday VDT today
(the highest profile news source for the region) that

Biomass plant misses deadlines:
Will the plant move forward?



The Wiregrass Power LLC biomass facility was supposed to have met a number
of project goals established by the Economic Development Agreement (EDA)
between the company and the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
by April 1, 2011. According to Allen Ricketts, Industrial Authority
project manager, those goals still have yet to be met.

The specific goals in the agreement were that a “finalized engineering
procurement construction contract” would be ready by March 31. By
April 1, the company was supposed to have finalized both a power
purchase/transmission agreement along with a wastewater/biosolids
agreement.

They’ve been slipping deadlines for quite some time.
According to page 4 of that EDA (which you can see for yourself

on the LAKE web site):

Continue reading →

The plummeting cost of solar electricity

Computers are so small and cheap these days that the phone in your pocket
has more computing power than the biggest corporate computers of a few decades
ago.
A similar phenomenon is driving down the cost of solar electricity.
Ramez Naam writes in ScientificAmerican,

Smaller, cheaper, faster: Does Moore’s law apply to solar cells?
Here’s a summary in one diagram:


Solar may not be the most affordable power source today, but wait a few
years and it will be.
Or get on with organizing the political and corporate structures
to be ready.
In sunny south Georgia, solar is our best bet.

-jsq

Quitman solar electricity and hot water




California can do it, and it turns out Brooks County can do it:
install solar hot water heaters on low-cost housing.
In Brooks County, they also installed solar electric panels.


Kevin Skeath explains the 2.03 kilowatt solar electric panels
on an apartment office, 9 solar thermal systems on the apartments,


and how you can reduce your power bill upwards of 30% just by heating
your regular hot water, and even more by using it for heating your rooms.

Continue reading →

Still no suppliers or buyers for Wiregrass Power LLC –VLCIA



According to an open records request of 17 February 2011,
the Industrial Authority says Wiregrass Power LLC still

“has not yet identified or completed a comprehensive list
of potential suppliers of raw materials,
goods and services required to construct and operate
the biomass electric generating plant.”

This is on a sheet entitled
“Owners/Investors/Suppliers/Contracts”, which also says:

“Site preparation and construction is not scheduled
to begin until June 1, 2011.”

Hm, what happened to breaking ground in January 2011?
The document also said a “Project Critical Path time-line is attached”
but it wasn’t.

Regarding buyers for the plant’s power:

Continue reading →

Where’s the wood to come from and who will buy the electricity?



Here’s video of what I asked at the recent VLCIA biomass event
(6 Dec 2010) and the answers from the panel.

So there’s actually not any new study of wood sourcing
(Brad Lofton told me after the meeting that the study had been “completed”
after we met in June),
and the study that exists is not publicly available.
Someone from Sterling promised me after the meeting to redact the
private parts of the wood sourcing study and provide the rest
for public distribution. We’ll see.

Regarding my question about who will buy the electricity and
whether we’ll end up like Plant Scherer, selling electricity
to Florida while keeping the pollution here, the answer was:

Continue reading →

VDT Elevates Biomass and Renewable Energy as Political Issues

The Valdosta Daily Times (VDT) has apparently decided biomass and real clean energy instead are political issues.
As part of the VDT’s

sudden turn against the VLCIA and its biomass plant,
which was

provoked by citizen and student activism,
the VDT started a week of articles with the headline



“Proposed plant said to be ‘medical atrocity'”,
about Dr. William Sammons’ Monday
talk about health problems of biomass and how solar is better.

The VDT then featured biomass in

its reporting
on the

AAUW Candidate Forum:

Continue reading →

Why is the VDT suddenly anti-biomass and pro-solar?

What has caused the VDT to decide to look into the matter?
Johnna Pinholser acknowledges that it was Growing oposition of proposed biomass energy plant:



A growing organization of concerned citizens are opposing the building
of a biomass energy plant in Lowndes County.

Wiregrass Activists for Clean Energy hope to promote clean and sustainable
energies while also educating the public on how a biomass plant could
be detrimental to community health.



The goal of the organization and the opposition to the plant is not to
inhibit economic development but to promote a conversation on sustainable
energy, Dr. Michael Noll, WACE president, said.

The new organization is not the only one in the community speaking out
against the biomass plant.

Continue reading →

VDT turns against VLCIA and its biomass plant

The newspaper of record in Valdosta and Lowndes County
has reversed course on biomass.
Top of the front page in a landmark issue:
Wednesday, October 27, 2010:


Biomass plant fuels questions

by Johnna Pinholster

The Valdosta Daily Times

VALDOSTA — As the state and nation look to renewable energy solutions, locally, a proposed green energy plant is causing controversy and raising questions that remain unanswered.



The Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority and Wiregrass Power,
LLC are in the beginning phases of developing property for a future
biomass electric generating plant.

…


Issues with lack of information

Continue reading →