A ribbon cutting for 30+ MW of solar power in Social Circle, Georgia,
with no media coverage,
other than a Georgia Power docket update buried at GA PSC.
Claudia Musleve Collier says she made this first quote from email to her,
and wants it shared.
Bryan Casey, with Greenavations Power sent me these photos of the
recent [13 May 2014] ribbon cutting of their 38 MW solar project in middle
Georgia[, Simon Solar in Social Circle].
PSC “Bubba” McDonald was present to flip the switch!
The solar bill that’s been talked about for weeks has finally appeared in the
Georgia legislature:
HB 657.
It’s better than I expected, because it’s about rural solar generation and distribution.
However, there is a catch: a “community solar provider” must be certified
by the Public Service Commission, instead of just setting up in business
as in most states, and the PSC could certify only one state-wide monopoly;
note the summary at the front says “an independent community solar
provider” as in only one.
But the body of the bill is more circumspect and says “any”.
Perhaps if we get enough installations
the benefits of solar will become obvious enough that
the PSC will certify a lot of community solar providers,
and we can get on with solar in Georgia,
including house and business rooftop solar.
Many thanks to Representatives Kidd of the 145th, Kirby of the 114th, Rogers of the 10th, Brockway of
the 102nd, Fullerton of the 153rd, and others.
And special credit to Robert E. Green, Shane Owl-Greason, and Ted Terry
of Georgia Solar Utilities (GaSU) for shepherding this bill
into the legislature.
Shane Owl-Greason, Ted Terry, Robert E. Green
at the
Dublin High School solar groundbreaking.
The bill requires the PSC to study changes in retail
rates because of this bill.
Too bad it doesn’t go the rest of the way to
what North Carolina did,
and require timely public posting of who buys and sells which types
of energy at which prices, but at least it’s a start.
Maybe HB 657 will help get
HB 503 passed for Renewable Portfolio Standards.
However, HB 657 is cleaner than either HB 503 or SB 51 because it does not mess around
with biomass or for that matter any other energy source:
HB 657 is about solar energy and nothing else.
The main part of HB 657 is in Section 1, but first here’s how it
shoehorns
Groundbreaking for solar power to save Dublin High 40%,
thus reducing teacher furloughs,
financed by municipal bonds,
made possible by cooperation among a wide range of
government officials, private companies, and individuals:
that was the groundbreaking story in Dublin, Laurens County, yesterday,
videod by Gretchen Quarterman for LAKE.
Dublin City Schools are willing to try something new, and that’s why
they were groundbreaking,
said Chuck Ledbetter, Superintendent, yesterday.
He
recognized members present of the Dublin City Council, the
Laurens County Commission, the Dublin-Laurens Development Authority,
and state representative Matt Hatchett, and
Public Service Commissioner Bubba McDonald.
Ledbetter’s theme,
Everybody worked together to make this happen.
was echoed over and over by many other speakers.
What they worked for was economic help for Dublin City Schools
through solar power, financed by municipal bonds.
The Mayor of Dublin, Phil Best added to the list
Dublin gets the jump on the rest of Georgia again:
Dublin High School will get a megawatt of solar electricity
through a lease agreement with a private company
using local government bonds to get around Georgia’s special financing problem.
Kenny Burgamy reported for for 13wmaz.com Thursday,
Solar Plant To Be Located at Dublin High,
Dublin High School of Dublin City Schools will soon implement
1 megawatt of solar energy.
The 4,000 panel solar power plant will be the largest in Central
Georgia and is expected to save the school 40 percent in energy
costs.Dublin City Schools Superintendent Chuck Ledbetter told 13WMAZ, “The
facility will be built and owned by private business and the school
system will lease the solar power plant, saving us money in energy
costs.”The original plan was developed more than 15-months ago by German
based MAGE SOLAR, which has a plant located in Laurens County.
The story has been carried by
GPB
by
Athens Banner-Herald via AP.
This installation is similar to but slightly different from
In most states, financing solar energy is largely a matter of learning
all the local ropes.
In Georgia, there’s a bigger problem.
Michael Mendelsohn
wrote for RMI 5 December 2012,
How Do We Lower Solar Installation Costs and Open the Market to Securitized Portfolios: Standardize and Harmonize,
Soft costs can be pretty tough. The cost of solar installations can
be generally separated into “hard” costs — representing
primary components such as modules, racking, inverters — and
soft costs including legal, permitting, and financing. While the
former group — particularly modules — have dropped
dramatically over the last several years, the latter have not.
According to a recent NREL analysis, these costs represent roughly
30% of both residential and utility installations (slightly less for
commercial-host systems). See Figure 1.
In fact, soft costs are so critical to the overall success of solar
adoption, their reduction is a primary focus of the Department of
Energy’s SunShot Initiative to make solar energy cost-competitive.
In order to reduce the cost of financing, NREL recently completed
and continues to work on various efforts to tap public capital
markets and enable other vehicles that securitize project
portfolios.
We’ll come back to tapping public capital markets and the like,
because that’s the key to what
Georgia Solar Utilities (GaSU) is trying to do.
But there’s a special problem in Georgia, buried in the next paragraph:
Here are videos of Saturday’s
Solar Energy Forum
at the
Center for a Sustainable Coast (CSC)
in Savannah,
with
We will probably post more later on the presentations by Paul Wolff
and Robert Green, and the ensuing questions and answers.
Meanwhile,
here’s
a video playlist
of the entire event:
Videos, Solar Energy Forum
Solar Energy Forum, Center for a Sustainable Coast (CSC),
Videos by Gretchen Quarterman for Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange (LAKE),
Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia, 1 December 2012.
-jsq
Local TV is getting it about solar in Georgia,
and what’s holding it back!
WSBTV.com posted 20 November 2012,
Georgia law keeps power customers from saving with solar energy
Supporters say it could save some people big on their electric
bills, but leasing solar panels in Georgia isn’t worth it because of
a current state law.Critics believe it gives Georgia Power a solar monopoly and prevents
consumers from saving money.Jeff Sain installed solar panels on his Dunwoody house because his
electric bill was nearly $600 a month in the summer. With solar his
Georgia Power bill plummeted.“The first month’s power bill, I saved 91 percent on my power bill,”
Sain said.Purchasing solar panels required a big outlay of cash. Sain spent
$32,000.But companies in 14 states now offer systems that can be leased with
no upfront costs. However, you get less in savings because you have
split it with the leasing company providing the equipment.“Typical savings if you lease panels as people do in other states
will be 30 to 50 percent of your power bill,” Consumer advocate
Clark Howard said.
The main law that prevents us getting financing for solar
like in
GA PSC Stan Wise’s 2009 nuclear CWIP lobbying points eerily matched Southern Company’s,
but suddenly he’s got separation-of-powers religion about Georgia Solar Utilities (GaSU).
The PSC recommended GaSU’s utility bid anyway.
When the legislature takes that up in a month or so, will GaSU CEO Robert Green,
unlike SO or Georgia Power or Stan Wise, help the rest of us little people
fix the 1973 Territoriality law so we can sell our solar electricity
on a free market?
Dave Williams wrote for the Atlanta Business Chronicle yesterday,
Georgia Public Service Commission moves ahead on solar energy,
The Georgia Public Service Commission approved a plan by Georgia
Power Co. Tuesday to acquire an additional 210 megawatts of solar
generating capacity, more than tripling its investment in solar
energy.
But a sharply divided PSC also gave a potential competitor to
Georgia Power its blessing to appeal to the General Assembly to
amend a 39-year-old law that gives the Atlanta-based utility the
exclusive right to continue serving existing customers.Under Georgia Power’s Advanced Solar Initiative, the company will
buy solar power produced by both large “utility-scale”
solar farms and from smaller projects operated by residential and
commercial property owners.
Right, that’s actually
only 10 Megawatts from “smaller projects”,
maintaining Georgia Power’s monopoly while throwing throwing
a bone to the rest of us.
While the PSC supported Georgia Power’s plan unanimously, a
subsequent motion by McDonald encouraging other solar utilities
interested in serving Georgia to pursue their plans with the
legislature passed by the narrow margin of 3-2.Georgia Solar Utilities Inc., a company launched in Macon, Ga.,
earlier this year, filed an application with the PSC in September
for authority to generate solar energy in Georgia on a utility
scale.
The two Nay votes were from the two recently-reelected PSC members,
apparently now thoroughly in the pocket of the incumbent utilities.
Here’s one of them now:
So what is Georgia Power afraid of
that made their CEO Paul Bowers double down on old-style baseload?
Competition, that’s what!
What could be more scary in the power-monopoly state of the
1973 Territorial Electric Service Act?
On one side, Georgia Power faces
GaSU and its 80 or 90 MW solar plant proposal.
Walter C. Jones wrote for OnlineAthens 24 September 2012,
Proposed solar company could stir up Georgia’s utility structure,
A proposal from a start-up business promises to lower electricity
rates by rebating profits to customers if given a chance to compete
as Georgia Power Co.’s “mirror image.”
To proceed with its long-range plan of developing 2 gigawatts of
solar power, the start-up, Georgia Solar Utilities Inc., wants to
start by building an 80-megawatt “solar farm” near
Milledgeville as soon as it gets a green light from the Georgia
Public Service Commission. GaSU filed its request last week, and as
of Monday, it’s still too fresh for public evaluation.So radical is the proposal that spokespersons for Georgia Power and
the Georgia Solar Energy Association said they still were evaluating
it and could not comment.Groups that normally advocate for customers also are staying quiet.
GaSU executives recognize such a big change won’t come easily.
The
failed EDF nuke project at Calvert Cliffs in Maryland
makes it clearer why Southern Company (SO) was the first company
to get a nuclear permit in 30 years:
it was the only one big enough and monopolistic enough to pull it off.
Even then it’s such a
bet-the-farm risk
that even
“great, big company”
SO only dared
to deploy its
“great big huge scale“ equipment
with the regulatory capture triple-whammy
of
a stealth tax on Georgia Power bills,
PSC approval of cost overruns,
and
an $8.33 billion federal loan guarantee:
Southern Company’s regulated utility subsidiaries derive predictable
cash flows from low-risk utility businesses, enjoy relatively
favorable regulatory framework in their service territories, and
exhibit limited commodity price risks due to the ability to recover
fuel and purchased power through separate cost trackers.
Translation: Georgia Power customers subsidize SO’s bonds
and SO shareholders’ stock dividends.
The PSC also approved
cost overruns being
passed on to Georgia Power customers,
and those nukes are already over
$400 or $900 million, depending on who you ask.
What do you expect when
4 out of 5 Public Service Commissioners
apparently took 70% of their campaign contributions from utilities
they regulate or their employees or their law firms,
and the fifth commissioner took about 20% from such sources?
Hm, there’s an election going on right now!
And what if even one of that three-legged regulatory capture stool’s legs
went away?
