Tag Archives: Territorial Electric Service Act

GA Senate unanimously approved solar financing bill

Friday’s vote started at least a year and a half ago.
Organized years-long activism is paying off for everyone.



Summer before last, after statewide requests by Georgia Sierra Club, Greenlaw, and many others: Georgia PSC required Georgia Power to buy twice
as much solar power.
About a year later, Mary Landers, Savannahnow, 18 November 2014, Georgia is fastest growing solar market,

Last year the Georgia Public Service Commission approved a motion
for Georgia Power, the state’s largest utility, to add 525 MW of
solar power generation to its portfolio by 2016.

“That pushed out the growth of solar, especially projecting
forward,” Continue reading →

Solar bills in the Georgia legislature

Every year since about 2000 one or more solar bills have been
before the Georgia legislature to modify the
1973 Territorial Electric Service Act
to enable solar financing.


2015 could be the year one of them finally passes,
what with

influential people finally waking up
to the cost-saving and energy-independence power of solar panels.
If you want

real energy reliability, lower power bills, and local jobs,
you can help pass whichever bill gets before the legislature this year,
and right now is a good time to help draft that bill.

Here are a few recent bills.

Rooftop solar catching on; 1973 anti-finance law really needs fixing

People are starting to wake up as the solar sun rises above their horizon.
This could be the year the Georgia legislature finally passes a bill
to amend the law that inhibits solar financing.
Even the City of Valdosta seems suddenly interested in helping with that.

Michael Caputo and Grant Blankenship, GPB, 12 December 2014,

(VIDEO) Will Solar Power’s Surge in Georgia Make It To Homeowners?,



Early adopter Creighton Rosental of Macon is what you’d call a solar
pioneer. The early adopter said that he had the 4-kilowatt panels
installed on the backyard side of his roof about five years ago.
Two-thirds of the upfront cost—about $30,000—was covered
by a federal tax credit and a Georgia state credit.

“They built a frame and mounted it to the roof, which was a
substantial fairly substantial enterprise.” Rosental said.

Continue reading →

NYC Schools to use more solar power; how about in sunny southeast?

Solar high schools: not just for

Dublin, Georgia anymore.

New York City, and Rochester, NY, too!
How about solar Lowndes High School?
Or the new Valdosta High School?
Or since Valdosta has already
put solar at its Mud Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant,
how about on other city buildings?
How about on the county palace?
Or in Hahira, Dasher, Remerton, or Lake Park?

Erin Durkin wrote for New York Daily News 29 September 2014,

24 NYC schools getting solar panels in $28M project — and City Hall could be next, Continue reading →

Georgia missing out on solar jobs behind New Jersey and Michigan



Other states, even New Jersey and far-north Michigan,
are beating Georgia to solar jobs.
Why isn’t sunny Georgia leading in one of the fastest-growing industries in the country that is deploying rural jobs everywhere else?
Hint: who’s

holding a shareholder meeting this month?

Carin Hall wrote for energydigital 13 May 2013,

Solar Jobs Outnumber Texas Ranchers and US Coal Miners:
New statistics show that solar is one of the fastest growing industries in the US, creating thousands of jobs across the country

There are now more solar energy workers in the state of Texas than
there are ranchers, according to solar research group The Solar
Foundation.

The group’s data mapping out solar jobs across the nation also
showed that there are more solar jobs in California than actors, and
more solar workers than coal miners nationwide. Sunny states like
California and Arizona topped the list. Wyoming came in last, with
just 50 workers, while Utah showed a mere 290 solar workers despite
being one of the country’s sunniest states.

Even the states with less sunshine like New Jersey and Michigan
showed a high number of solar jobs—thanks to favorable tax and
regulatory policies that help attract developers to cope with high
electricity prices.



New Jersey is #9 and Michigan is #15 according to

The Solar Foundation’s map of State Solar Jobs.
Where’s Georgia?
Number 41 in solar jobs per capita.
Yet Michigan is #47 by maximum solar resource and New Jersey is #36,
while Georgia is #18: much sunnier than those northern states.
Why is Georgia so far behind?

LEGAL STATUS OF THIRD-PARTY OWNERSHIP: NOT ALLOWED

Because of Continue reading →

Nukes economically hard to justify —GE CEO Immelt

The CEO of General Electric,
the company that designed the reactors

at Fukushima and Hatch 1 and 2,
said nukes are economically hard to justify.
And that was back in July, before
the first new nukes permitted in 30 years,
at Plant Vogtle on the Savannah River,

slipped 15 months.
What’s winning? Shale gas, temporarily, but that’s just a bump
in the road on the way to wind and solar power.

Pilita Clark wrote for Financial Times 30 July 2012,

Nuclear ‘hard to justify’, says GE chief,



Nuclear power is so expensive compared with other forms of energy
that it has become “really hard” to justify, according
to the chief executive of General Electric, one of the world’s
largest suppliers of atomic equipment.

“It’s really a gas and wind world today,” said Jeff
Immelt, referring to two sources of electricity he said most
countries are shifting towards as natural gas becomes
“permanently cheap”.

“When I talk to the guys who run the oil companies they say
look, they’re finding more gas all the time. It’s just hard to
justify nuclear, really hard. Gas is so cheap and at some point,
really, economics rule,” Mr Immelt told the Financial Times in
an interview in London at the weekend. “So I think some
combination of gas, and either wind or solar … that’s where we see
most countries around the world going.”



GE CEO Immelt may also want to talk to GE’s own research director

Continue reading →

Solar cars and charging stations: who wouldn’t?

Tired of Southern Company CEO Fanning’s

maybe “next decade” for solar power?


Tired of Georgia Power’s Bowers

trying to push solar off for fifty years?
Let’s hear from somebody who takes on big tasks and gets them done:
Elon Musk, who’s already built a rocket that is resupplying the International
Space Station, and who is also building all-electric cars.

Carl Hoffman wrote for Smithsonian magazine December 2012,

Elon Musk, the Rocket Man With a Sweet Ride

When he’s not launching rockets, Musk is disrupting the notoriously
obdurate automobile industry (see National Treasure, p. 42). While
industry giants like Chevrolet and Nissan and Toyota were dithering
with electric-gasoline hybrids, this upstart kid said he would
design and manufacture an all-electric car that would travel
hundreds of miles on a single charge. The Tesla Roadster hit the
streets in 2008 with a range of 200 miles, and the far more


functional Model S, starting at $57,000, was introduced in June.
It’s the world’s first all-electric car that does everything my old
gasoline version does, only better. The high-end model travels 300
miles on a single charge, leaps from zero to 60 in 5.5 seconds,
slows from 60 to a dead stop in 105 feet, can seat up to five, has
room for mulch bags and golf clubs, handles like a race car and its
battery comes with an eight-year, 100,000-mile warranty. If you
charged it via solar panels, it would run off the sun. One hundred a
week are being produced in a former Toyota factory in Fremont,
California, and nearly 13,000 people have put deposits on them….

And since that story:

Continue reading →

Industrial Authority working for solar in south Georgia @ VLCIA 2012-12-18

The

Industrial Authority
is working to find locations for some of the
210 MW Georgia Power got the PSC to shift
from biomass to solar back in September.
That’s a good next step.

Jason Schaefer wrote for the VDT 23 Dec 2012,

Solar power push has Authority working to establish connections,

Since the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) approved Georgia

Allan Ricketts, Projects and Existing Industry Manager, VLCIA, 2012-12-18
Power Company’s plan Nov. 20 to add 210 megawatts of solar power to
its electrical grid, the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial
Authority has been devising strategies to draw solar energy
producers to South Georgia.

Georgia Power will issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) from solar
energy collection and production companies in early 2013, according
to the PSC, and the company will contract with the lowest bidders to
purchase their energy and place it on the Georgia Power electrical
grid for public consumption.

Georgia Power plans to add 90 megawatts to its grid from distributed
generation (small companies producing between 100 kilowatts and 1
megawatt), and 120 megawatts of large utility-scale projects
producing up to 20 megawatts each. The company plans to price the
solar energy at $0.13 per kWh for distributed generation and up to
$0.12 per kWh for utility-scale projects, according to the PSC.

This government-approved commercial push for solar energy could be a
boon to sunny South Georgia as well as the greater Valdosta area
specifically, and the Authority is prepared to accommodate the solar
energy producers they expect.


Andrew Schruijer, Executive Director, VLCIA, 2012-12-18
“I think there’s a very good possibility of solar energy
coming to South Georgia,” Executive Director Andrea Schruijer
said. “Possibly in the near future.”

There’s more in the VDT story.
It’s pretty much what
Col. Ricketts also told me after the VLCIA meeting Tuesday a week ago.
He asked me if I knew what “distributed” meant.
I pointed out Georgia Power’s version of distributed was actually not
very distributed, compared to

Continue reading →

Rooftop solar for grid outage independence

Solar power can bring for energy independence, not just from foreign countries,
also from the grid during storms and other outages.

Inspired by the need to deal with downed power lines
in New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy,
David Crane and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote for NYTimes 12 Dec 2012,

Solar Panels for Every Home,

Solar photovoltaic technology can significantly reduce our reliance


on fossil fuels and our dependence on the grid.
Electricity-producing photovoltaic panels installed on houses, on
the roofs of warehouses and big box stores and over parking lots can
be wired so that they deliver power when the grid fails.

Solar panels have dropped in price by 80 percent in the past five
years and can provide electricity at a cost that is at or below the
current retail cost of grid power in 20 states, including many of
the Northeast states. So why isn’t there more of a push for this
clean, affordable, safe and inexhaustible source of electricity?

First, the investor-owned utilities that depend on the existing
system for their profits have little economic interest in promoting
a technology that empowers customers to generate their own power.
Second, state regulatory agencies and local governments impose
burdensome permitting and siting requirements that unnecessarily
raise installation costs.

I can tell you by experience that solar panels on the roof
(with batteries) can supply power when the grid is out.

In regulatory-captured Georgia, the big impediment to solar is

financing, because of 1973 Territorial Electric Service Act.
When will Southern Company and Georgia Power admit their boondoogle
on the Savannah River has failed and get on with conservation,
efficiency, wind, and solar power?

-jsq

New solar in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida: where’s Georgia?

What are these

new solar projects?
Here are a few FERC lists,
in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Florida,
and there are more in Texas.
Not so many in Georgia.



  • Zongyi Solar America’s 20 MW Tinton Falls Solar in Monmouth County,
    New Jersey, is online. Tinton Falls Solar is the largest
    photovoltaic project in New Jersey.
  • Southern Sky Renewable Energy LLC’s 5.6 MW Canton Landfill Solar
    Project in Canton County, Massachusetts is online. This photovoltaic
    project is built on the closed and capped Canton Landfill. It is the
    largest solar facility in New England. The electricity generated is
    sold to the Town of Canton under a long-term agreement.

New Jersey again!
20 Megawatts is even larger than the

6.1 MW at Lawrenceville School.
And Massachusetts, even farther north.
Let’s also look just south of us:



  • SunEdison’s 3.6 MW Phase 2 Lakeland Regional Airport Solar Project
    expansion in Polk County, Florida is online. The Lakeland Regional
    Airport Solar has a total capacity of 6.3 MW. It is the largest
    photovoltaic project in Florida. The electricity generated is sold
    under long-term contract to Lakeland Department of Electric Water
    Utilities.

Ah, but

that’s illegal in Georgia!
Here you can sell electricity only to your one and only monopoly utility,
predetermined for you by the 1973 Territorial Electric Service Act.
Maybe we should change that?

The Lakeland Chamber of Commerce

helped promote that solar project.
Maybe better PR than

feuding with the newspaper?

Also only slightly farther south of us,

Continue reading →