Tag Archives: Solar

Why and how you can help bring solar power to Georgia

Foot-dragging utilities have stalled SB 401, which would facilitate generating and selling of solar power in Georgia. Here’s why and how you can help fix that.

John Sibley wrote for SaportaReport Sunday, Solar power bill would give Georgians more choices Have you gotten used to thinking you have no choice on your power

Times are changing. More and more of us are discovering choices for managing our power costs. Beyond the time-honored practice of turning off the lights leaving the room, we can find light bulbs that pay for themselves in a year or so; and we can find appliances, water heaters, and air conditioners that pay for themselves in a few years. After that, the savings are like getting part of your power free.

Now, on-site solar power has become an economical option for many. Deals for rooftop solar panels can be done in Georgia today that will provide power for 25 years for as little as 10 cents per kilowatt-hour. Many Georgians can save money from day one. Since rates in Georgia have gone up 49 percent in seven years, they can also protect themselves against increases.

More and more Georgians are choosing on-site solar, but

Continue reading →

Georgia Power peddling old disinformation about solar power

On the same day as SB 401 revived as SB 459 gets a hearing in a better committee, Georgia Power trots out the same old tired disinformation it’s been peddling for years. As if we didn’t already know that almost all solar installations in Georgia are installed by certified solar installers. Or that pretty much every inverter these days comes with built-in automatic cutoff if the grid goes down to which installers add air-gap cutoff knife switches plus breakers. And as if Georgia Power didn’t know it and EMCs could charge a percentage on electricity arbitraged across their networks, which gapower could use to finance any needed grid improvements, while retaining a hefty profit for doing not much of anything else. Meanwhile, those of us who chose to participate in solar electricity arbitrage would get lower rates for customers. We do know all that, but maybe your state senator doesn’t, so maybe you should call your senator today and tell them you want to be able to buy and sell solar power without having to get it from the utility monopoly.

Greg Roberts, Vice President of Pricing and Planning for Georgia Power in Atlanta, wrote for the Savannah Morning News today, The solar sleight of hand. I’ll only quote part of his concluding paragraph.

Georgia Power is involved in many efforts to expand the use solar energy
Usually dragged along behind reluctantly, Continue reading →

SB 401 revived in SB 459: lets you generate and sell solar power

SB 401 got tabled in the Natural Resources Committee. 46 other states already let people generate solar power and sell it to a third party.
Yet in only four states — Georgia, Florida, North Carolina and Kentucky Mdash; are third party power purchase agreements disallowed, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
But Georgia Power convinced that committee that it would raise rates for everybody else. Which is pretty rich coming from the same gapower that is already charging customers Construction Work in Progress for its nuke boondoggle. So SB 401 sponsor Sen. Buddy Carter found another way.

Mary Landers wrote for the Savannah Morning News Friday, Solar bill jolted back to life:

To revive his bill, Carter tacked it onto to one already sent to the Regulated Industries Committee — SB 459, which would allow consumers to opt-out of smart meters like the ones Georgia Power is currently installing in Savannah. The committee held a hearing on the bill Thursday, ultimately tabling it, and saying they wanted more information about how power purchase agreements work in other states.

Carter was elated.

“It’s out there now and people are aware of it,” he said. It’s getting media attention. I feel good about it.”

Help him feel even better about it. Contact the committee chair and tell him we want solar cogeneration:
Senator William Ligon
404-656-0045
william.ligon@senate.ga.gov
Oh, regarding the meter opt-out in the main body of the bill, why let gapower charge people for that? You can mention to Sen. Ligon that people should be able to opt out for free.

-jsq

PS: Owed to Bob Ingram.

2/3 of new European electrical capacity comes from solar and wind

If Europe can deploy mostly solar and wind for new electricity, we can do the same here, especially in sunny south Georgia.

Stephen Lacey wrote for Climate Progress 12 Feb 2012, More than 68% of New European Electricity Capacity Came From Wind and Solar in 2011,

That’s almost a 10-fold increase over deployment in 2000, when only 3.5 GW of renewable energy projects were installed. Last year, 32 GW of renewables — mostly wind and solar — were deployed across European countries.
If Europe can change its energy strategy that quickly, so can we.

-jsq

PS: Owed to William House.

Selling Solar Power in Richmond Hill: Lower Rates for Customers LLC 2012 02 17

While Georgia Power invokes forty-year-old territoriality laws to try to prevent you from selling or buying solar power with whomever you want to, Drs. Sidney Smith and Pat Godbey continue to open new solar power installations, this time in Richmond Hill, Georgia last Friday.

Dr. Sidney Smith said the new installation lowers the customer’s electricity rate and doesn’t raise it for two years.

The emailed invitation:

Lower Rates for Customers LLC celebrates the second installation of selling power to South Eastern Pathology Associates at 1pm Friday February 17th at the Georgia Skin and Cancer Clinic located at 9665 Ford Avenue Richmond Hill, Georgia 31324.

Join us to celebrate the expansion of our company in Bryan County as we lower the power bills for another customer. We will continue to lower our customers electric bills by 1% and fix their rates for two years.

We look forward to seeing you.

Dr. Sidney Smith and Dr. Pat Godbey

I don’t think Georgia Power is going to offer that rate, are they? No, I don’t think so.
But that’s just the start.
What we’re doing though is we’re creating a system where this communicates with software. What our real goal is is to go to south Georgia farmers and say put solar panels on your property, and we’ll connect those to the grid. Sell power through the grid, and we’ll give credit to somebody else in the state who wants it.
He gave an example.
If you live in Atlanta, you don’t have any property to put solar panels on, do you? I think there’s are a lot of people in Atlanta who would like to rent some property right now, don’t you think?

How about if you could actually, out in the county, have an income that would last forever? That would be an investment that you could make today, that a generation in the future would be able to take advantage of. And the possibility of that happening is real.

The only thing that stands between that happening, and our future being very different, is legislation. They’re actually passing some bills now, that solidify the fact that I can put this on this property.

Georgia Power right now…

Georgia Power opposes SB 401, which is the bill Dr. Smith was referring to.

If you want SB 401 to pass, you can sign the petition or call your state senator.

Here’s the video: Continue reading →

Georgia Power opposes SB 401 and Lower Rates for Customers

Is anyone surprised that Georgia Power has come out in opposition to Georgia SB 401, which will let you generate solar power and sell it to whomever you like? If you do want to do that, you can call your state senator today.

Errin Haines wrote for AP 18 Feb 2012, Georgia Power balks at Senate solar power proposal,

“The power company ought to be doing this, but they don’t want to buy it from anybody that produces it,” said state Sen. Buddy Carter, the bill’s main sponsor.

The state’s main electricity provider, Georgia Power, is opposing the legislation, pointing to the state’s Electric Service Act. Created nearly four decades ago, the law established assigned territories for the power company, along with 42 electric membership cooperatives and 52 cities with municipal systems, all competing for customers.

Spokeswoman Christy Ihrig said in a statement that the proposed bill would illegally infringe on the company’s territory and that the introduction of a new supplier could drive up rates for customers because utilities would be required to hike costs. She added the company is supportive of solar power and is working to provide solar as an option to customers.

Ah, the old territoriality law! “Competing” through assigned territories. Does that seem right to you?

You know, it’s not illegal if the legislature changes the law….

If you want lower rates for customers, call your state senator today. Around here, that would be Senator Tim Golden, tim.golden@senate.ga.gov

Capitol Office:
121-A State Capitol
Atlanta, GA 30334
Phone: (404) 656-7580
Fax: (404) 463-4226
District Office:
110 Beacon Hill
Valdosta, GA 31602
Phone: (229) 293-0202 (O)
(229) 241-1284 (H)
(229) 241-7732 (F)

-jsq

Solar thermal for Moody AFB

Moody AFB helps USAF lead the military and the country in solar installations by adding solar thermal. Did you know?
Federal mandates require that 25% of Air Force facility energy use comes from renewable energy sources by 2025 and Moody will help….
It’s a shame we have to go to Binghamton and Ithaca, New York, to get the equipment. You’d think we could build solar thermal hot water heaters right here in sunny south Georgia, and install them, too. The architect, however, was local. Congratulations to Moody AFB and Slone Associates for installing solar hot water!

The installer, Intelligent Green Solutions (IGS) of Ithaca, New York, has the details:

The installation is a large solar thermal system that includes:
  • 20 TitanPowerPlus 2.0 Flat Plate Solar Collectors
  • 512 Gallon Solar Hot Water Storage Tanks
The completion target date was end of December.

SunMaxx Solar press release of 29 Jan 2012, SunMaxx Solar and Intelligent Green Solutions Install Solar Thermal System at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta, Georgia, Continue reading →

Stop Georgia Power from stopping you from affording solar

Why can’t you do this?
Say you own a coffee shop. You’d like to install solar panels on your roof but can’t afford them. A company offers to install and lease you the equipment, provided you sign a long-term contract. The company will sell you energy at a cheaper rate than you already pay Georgia Power. No longer would you be so susceptible to spikes in electricity prices. Nor would your money be helping to support burning coal or nuclear power.
Georgia law says you can’t do that.

That’s why SB 401 is in the Georgia Senate. It’s

a common-sense measure that would put people to work, create a new sector in Georgia’s economy, and promote clean energy. In addition, the legislation would help shield people from increases in electricity rates, which, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, have risen nearly 50 percent over the last seven years.
Why would Georgia Power not like that? Continue reading →

Help pass GA Senate Bill 401 to facilitate distributed power cogeneration

SB 401 intends to modernize Georgia law to make distributed power generation easier. You can help.

Drs Sidney Smith and Pat Godbey not only have started Tabby Power, which sells solar power directly to customers. They also have an outfit called Lower Rates for Customers, which is about generating solar power in one place and selling it in another. There are various legal impediments to doing that.

Charlie Harper wrote for the Courier-Herald and Peach Pundit 9 February 2012, A Little Sunshine On A Battle To Expand Renewable Energy,

Essentially, customers with solar panels meter not only power coming into their house from the existing grid, but also the amount of power returned to the grid. The generating company — Georgia Power in most of the state — is required to buy surplus power back based on their state granted regulated monopoly status. Currently, projects are limited in size to 10 Kw for residential customers and 100 Kw for business customers. SB 401 removes these caps.

More intricate details of the bill provide for private ownership of these systems, as opposed to current law which requires the owner of the property to also own the attached grids. This will allow for manufacturers of solar grids or interested third parties to enter into financing or lease agreements which pay for the systems long term out of cost savings for the customer. By allowing for these arrangements, many customers can access these systems with no money up front, as opposed to the high initial capital costs which would take years to recover.

Here are the details and text of SB 401. It has six cosponsors:
  1. Carter, Buddy 1st
  2. Chance, Ronnie 16th
  3. Carter, Jason 42nd
  4. Williams, Tommie 19th
  5. Rogers, Chip 21st
  6. Stoner, Doug 6th
We’ve seen Doug Stoner before, at last June’s Southern Solar Summit, talking about renewable energy. It looks like he and others are actually trying to do something about it.

You can help, by signing this petition.

-jsq

Georgia Power doubles solar capacity in Dalton, GA

Dalton, the place that had a solar plant bigger and earlier than Valdosta’s. Did Mayor Fretti’s brag about this location being competitive go out with him? Crawford Powell is still a County Commissioner. The Industrial Authority is still supposed to be bringing in industry. The Chamber of Commerce is still supposed to be promoting jobs. If Dublin and Dalton do this, it seems like Valdosta and Lowndes County could….

Dave Williams wrote for the Atlanta Business Chronicle Thursday, Georgia Power tees up next phase of solar plant,

Georgia Power Co. will begin construction soon on a project that will double the generating capacity of the utility’s solar plant in Dalton, Ga., the company announced Thursday.

The first phase of the plant went on line last March and is operating with a capacity of 350 kilowatts.

Construction of the second phase, due to be completed in about two months, will bring the plant up to 700 kilowatts, on its way to a full capacity of 1 megawatt of electricity. One megawatt of solar photovoltaic panels produces enough energy to power about 135 homes.

Let’s see some local leadership!

-jsq