Tag Archives: Sterling Planet

When will the Wiregrass Solar plant be expanded? —John S. Quarterman @ VCC 9 June 2011



Compliments to Mayor Fretti for saying we will competitively expand the Wiregrass Solar plant!

Responding to
George Rhynes’ point,
I said that while I had recommended moving Citizens to be Heard to the
end of the agenda, it never occured to me that it might get moved


after Council Comments, which did lead to an impression that Council
did not want to hear and did not plan to respond.
I noted that if Council videoed its own proceedings and put them on the web,
that would help make the problem moot.
I’m thinking videos distributed by the City Council itself would probably


get
more citizens viewing them than ones distributed by bloggers like me and
George and by LAKE.

My main point was that, even though Brad Lofton and Col. Ricketts apparently
never told Mayor Fretti, there was a larger solar array in

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Biomass plant approved for Macon-Bibb County

How to get a biomass plant approved in Georgia:
tack it onto an existing business.
Remember to get an industrial authority to use a public bond issue
to expand the private business.

Carla Caldwell
wrote in the
Atlanta Business Chronicle 7 June 2011,

Graphic Packaging gets $140M bond deal

A deal OK’d by the Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority provides
revenue bonds for a $140 million expansion of Marietta, Ga.-based

Graphic Packaging
International’s Macon, Ga. mill. Improvements will include the addition of
a biomass boiler and a 40-megawatt turbine generator geared to reduce
emergency cost and improve profitability, reports Macon Telegraph
website macon.com.

The authority approved the deal on Monday for the provider of packaging
for food, beverage and consumer products. The biomass system, which
is scheduled for operation by mid-2013, is expected to generate power
from about 400,000 tons of logging materials, mostly the tops of trees,
the Macon newspaper reports. Graphic Packaging’s (NYSE: GPK) Macon mill
makes an estimated 1,600 tons of paperboard daily.

Maybe we should put some
parameters on the types of industry we want around here to avoid this
happening with the bonds the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
(and the Lowndes County Commission) floats.

This rationalization is precious:

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Sterling Planet wants to buy biomass site

Why would Sterling Planet want to buy the biomass site,
unless they want to come back later and propose to build a biomass plant
on it?
Funny how the Industrial Authority didn’t mention this when
they said Sterling Planet missed the June 1 deadline
for building the biomass plant.

Here’s the relevant part of

this morning’s VDT story by David Rodock:



The other major announcement at the meeting was the possibility of
Wiregrass LLC exercising the option to purchase the 22.2-acre tract of
land that was originally planned to be used for the biomass facility.

“We gave them the option to purchase the land based on certain terms
and conditions,” said Gupton. “They basically sent us a certified
letter prior to June 1 stating they wished to exercise their option to
purchase the 22.2-acre tract of land within 60 days.”

“We are currently looking at the letter to understand if we agree
if they have that option and will continue our due diligence,” said
Allan Ricketts, project manager, via conference call. “We don’t know
anything other than they have sent us a certified letter indicating that
they would like to pursue that option.”



And why don’t you know anything other?
Can nobody pick up the phone and call Sonny Murphy and ask him?
You remember him, the Chairman of Sterling Planet

who recently said:

It’s not over until it’s over.

-jsq

Southern Company “bullish” on solar

Colleen Kiernan, director of the Georgia chapter of the Sierra Club,
wrote in the Atlanta Business Chronicle 22 May 2011,

Wind energy a viable option for Southern Co.’s portfolio:



Two years ago, Southern Co. claimed “Renewable energy sources like wind
and solar are not really an option for us in the Southeast.”

Now the new CEO, Thomas Fanning, says he’s “bullish” on solar. While
the new attitude on solar is refreshing,

I’ve seen this before.
AustinEnergy went in one year from solar isn’t an option to

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Expand the array, publish the minutes, private prison is a bad idea —John S. Quarterman @ VLCIA 17 May 2011



Here’s what I said to the VLCIA board on 17 May 2011.
Notes are appended after

the video:




Expand the array, publish the minutes, private prison is a bad idea —John S. Quarterman @ VLCIA 17 May 2011

Regular Meeting, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),

Norman Bennett, Roy Copeland, Tom Call, Mary Gooding, Jerry Jennett chairman,

J. Stephen Gupton attorney, Allan Ricketts Acting Executive Director,

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 17 May 2011.

Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

Congratulations on the

Wiregrass Solar commissioning.


Since this was not ever the largest array in Georgia let’s encourage
Mayor Fretti and Commissioner Powell
to help VLCIA

expand the local array.

Referring to Mary Gooding’s

comments about people who wanted to see minutes probably going to be
frustrated,
I pointed out that

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Solar power is the peoples power —Alden Hathaway



After he talked about
expanding the Wiregrass Solar plant by another megawatt,
Alden Hathaway of Sterling Planet said this:

Solar power is the peoples power.

Whether you’re talking about grid tied power here in America tied to the wire,
or solar in the rural countryside of Uganda,
it’s immediately available and accessible in all sizes.
So I can use it to power a cell phone, charge a laptop,
put light in a school, or pump water in a hospital.
Solar is immediately available to do that, without massive
which is a barrier to development in much of the developing world.

And to development in south Georgia, for that matter.
So we can

leapfrog that barrier with solar.

Here’s

the video:




Solar power is the peoples power –Alden Hathaway

Commissioning Ceremony,

Wiregrass Solar, Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA),

Valdosta, Lowndes County, Georgia, 12 May 2011.

Videos by John S. Quarterman for LAKE, the Lowndes Area Knowledge Exchange.

-jsq

Expanding Wiregrass Solar —Alden Hathaway of Sterling Planet



Alden Hathaway of Sterling Planet said he hopes to expand the Wiregrass
Solar array in Valdosta to an additional megawatt, taking it from being
one of the largest in Georgia to one of the largest in the southeast.
This is the man
Sterling Planet Chairman Sonny Murphy singled out for praise.
This is the expansion project

Sonny Murphy promoted in the Sterling Planet press release.
Alden Hathaway knows what needs to be done, and
Pete Marte and Hannah Solar stand ready to do it.

Alden Hathaway also talked about how solar helps load distribution
on the electric
grid, lowering electric rates for everybody.
He remarked that once power companies realized that, they’d be for solar.
More on that later.

But meanwhile, let’s ask Mayor Fretti and Commissioner Crawford Powell

when they’re going to do this:

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Wiregrass Solar is the first of several projects —Sonny Murphy

Let’s look at Sterling Planet’s own press release about the
Wiregrass Solar commissioning.
What’s this about a first phase?
And what’s the second phase?


Sterling Planet announces completion of one of Georgia’s largest solar generating projects:
First phase of Valdosta solar project now supplies green energy to Georgia Power.



Sterling Planet, the leading national retail provider of renewable
energy and other clean-energy assets, today announced at a commissioning
ceremony the completion of a 200 kWAC output solar generating project
in Valdosta. One of the largest solar arrays in the state of Georgia,
the Wiregrass Solar, LLC project began commercial operation on April
6 and is now generating annualized output of approximately 350,000
kilowatt-hours. This is enough clean, emission-free electricity to power
350 Georgia homes using the average amount of 1,000 kilowatt-hours of
electricity monthly.

Developed by Sterling Planet, Wiregrass Solar supplies green power for
the Georgia Power Green Energy program, an option for the utility’s
customers who voluntarily choose to support renewable power and help
generate more of it in Georgia.

OK, that’s all good. Congratulations!

Also notice Sterling Planet doesn’t make the mayor’s mistake
in saying this is the largest solar array in Georgia, like

WCTV after Pete Marte of Hannah Solar corrected it,
Sterling says “one of the largest”.

But what’s this about “first phase”?

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What are they thinking? —Dr. Noll

Dr. Noll has a few questions. This came in as a comment Saturday.
I’ll be happy to ask VLCIA Chairman Jerry Jennett these and other
questions when he calls me back. -jsq

Let me see if I got this right:

  1. The week before the last meeting of the Industrial Authority (IA)
    Wiregrass Biomass LLC sent a letter to the IA asking for an extension
    of the agreement to build the biomass incinerator. (June 1, 2011, is
    the current deadline.)
  2. Based on comments made by Chairman Paulk and others, all indications
    were that the IA may have been ready to vote down such an application
    for an extension of the agreement.
  3. However, the vote on biomass never came up at the IA meeting, and
    as a matter of fact, biomass wasn’t even discussed, as it was not even
    on the agenda. Apparently a few hours before the IA meeting, “biomass”
    (or a vote on the extension of the agreement with Wiregrass Biomass LLC)
    was removed from the agenda.
  4. This change of events (i.e. the removal of a vote on biomass)
    was based on an initiative by Mr. Jennett (Chair of the IA board),
    Mr. Ricketts (Project Manager of the IA) and Mr. Gupton (the IA lawyer)
    who went to Atlanta to have a little chat with Wiregrass Biomass LLC
    (or Sterling Planet).
  5. As a result of that talk, Wiregrass Biomass LLC withdrew their
    application for an extension of the agreement. Thus, there was no contract
    (or an extension of a contract) to vote on at the last IA meeting.

What sense would it make

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I’m all for openness —Tom Call



The member who hardly ever speaks at board meetings makes a strong case for openness.

Tom Call

called me back about the biomass plant,
and we talked about a number of other matters.
He remarked that he was not an appointed spokesperson for the Industrial
Authority, so this is just him talking.

I asked him about

Ashley Paulk’s remarks in the 26 April 2011 Lowndes County Commission
meeting.
Tom Call said VLCIA was not standing behind any other body,
and he clarified what had happened.

He said the biomass plant had been brought to the Industrial
Authority by

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