Industrial Authority board meetings have turned into sidewalk cultural events. This was outside the 17 May 2011 meeting.
A couple of different signs:
Susan Wehling with her traffic signal stop biomass sign,
and a Honk for Clean Air sign.
-jsq
Skipping in to the Industrial Authority office to file an open records request,
I noticed all five board members in the board room having a meeting.
So I asked whether an appointed board was bound by the same state law
as for an elected body that it had to announce meetings in advance.
Lu Williams said that it was a special called meeting,
that they sent a notice to the VDT, and yes, they were bound by
the same rule.
I asked if I could have a copy of the agenda of the meeting in progress. She said they had all the copies in there but she would get me one later.
A few minutes later I went back and asked if they were in executive session. She said yes, they already went from the open called meeting into executive session to discussion personnel.
However, I did pick up a copy of tonight’s agenda, and typed it in, so, for apparently the first time ever, here is the agenda for a VLCIA board meeting on the web before the meeting. -jsq
Continue readingValdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority
Agenda
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 5:30 p.m.
Industrial Authority Conference Room
2110 N. Patterson Street
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: Continue reading
It is unfortunate that such a wonderful event ; the commissioning of the large solar facility in our community, was sullied by Mr. Sonny Murphy’s comments about the viability of biomass. I was then compelled to ask the players in attendance the very pressing question, so where is the biomass issue. Mr Murphy & Mr Ricketts spoke of milestones to be met. The mystery continues.
THE BIOMASS MYSTERY: We all love a good murder mystery. The sleuth that finds the murderer of the dead biomass plant. Oh, that would be fun, but for the plot to work we need a dead biomass plant.
If they want to quietly disappear Mr. Murphy is sending the wrong messages. A disappearance has been the favored outcome from the officials I’ve spoken with. If they want to walk away quietly- fine. I can handle that. Just give us the proper clues that this monster is simply going to wander into the woods to die…, we’ll all look away politely, and then take a peek before celebrating. The mixed messages make for a very poor mystery novel.
-Karen Noll
Allan Ricketts (Acting Executive Director, VLCIA),
Georgia Power rep.,
Roy Copeland (VLCIA Board member),
Crawford Powell (Lowndes County Commissioner),
John J. Fretti (Mayor of Valdosta),
Therrell “Sonny” Murphy (Chairman of Sterling Planet),
Tim Golden (Georgia State Senator),
Pete Marte (CEO of Hannah Solar).
Pete Marte of Hannah Solar predicted that within a generation cars will run on electricity
generated by solar arrays like the one commissioned last Thursday.
Col. Allan Ricketts introduced Pete Marte, CEO of Hannah Solar.
Here’s Part 1 of 3: Continue reading
State Sen. Tim Golden used Yogi Berra to illustrate that solar power
is no longer just a theory: it’s now implemented in practice.
Yogi said, and I quote:A very good point.In theory, there’s no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is.…I thought about that quote because solar power at one time was a theory, and now it’s in practice.
(This is also where Sonny Murphy got the idea to quote Yogi Berra.)
Sen. Golden mentioned that he and Sonny Murphy grew up with Gov. Nathan Deal.
He said he met Pete Marte of Hannah Solar at the governor’s office
the previous day, at the signing of HB 346, which includes solar tax credits.
That’s the bill that
Wes Hudson said
“extends the renewable energy tax credit to the year ending Dec. 31,
2014, and for the years 2012, 2013 and 2014 it newly expands the total
statewide credit amount from $2.5 million to $5 million in each of the
years 2012-2014.”
Sen. Golden once again said we’d gone from theory to practice.
He lauded Jimmy Carter for putting solar panels on the White House Continue reading
Note “one of the largest solar arrays in Georgia” instead of Mayor Fretti’s “the largest array in the state of Georgia”. This is because Pete Marte of Hannah Solar had to correct what the mayor said. But the mayor promised to make this one bigger if somebody else leapfrogged it, so time to get cracking!
Back to the WCTV article:
The $1.4 million Wiregrass Solar project was built on two acres of land, which will produce 350-thousand kilowatts per hour of electricity annually for the next 30 years.Indeed!On average that will come out to about nine cents per kilowatt hour.
The city says solar is the future and on Thursday it lit the way.
There are 1,100 solar panels here, but organizers say the most surprising part is it took 18 months to find financing, but it only took five days to build.Funny how the biomass plant has taken even longer to not find financing, and still is nowhere near even starting building, if it ever gets there. Expanding the solar array as the mayor said we would sounds a lot more practical.If you’re wondering what made Valdosta such a popular spot to build the solar arrays, the company, Hannah Solar says it was the attraction of the Wiregrass Biomass plant and…
“The second is the sun. We get some incredible sun down here in Valdosta and it’s a longer solar day because we’re farther south,” said Hannah Solar CEO Pete Marte.
-jsq
Yes, let’s celebrate Hannah Solar and this solar array!
But why do people have to keep gilding the lily and
claiming it’s the largest in the state when
it wasn’t even back at groundbreaking?
So if Valdosta Mayor John Fretti and County Commissioner Crawford Powell have agreed to expand this solar array
if somebody leapfrogs it, time to get cracking!
It was already leapfrogged before it was built.
After lauding his class of Leadership Lowndes over others, Mayor Fretti complimented various local organizations and said:
…not only that it has a good quality of life, it has the infrastructure that is needed for industrial recruitment, but that you will be successful when you locate in Valdosta-Lowndes County, and I think Hannah Solar is evidence of that.All true, and note which comes first: “a good quality of life.”
Mayor Fretti quoted the first law of thermodynamics (conservation and conservation of energy) and remarked:
But now we have some energy sources in our area that we can take advantage of. Unfortunately we don’t have an ocean for tidal power. Unfortunately we don’t have geothermal as much as other areas of the country.That’s all good stuff, except this wasn’t the biggest solar array in the state even the last time Mayor Fretti stood on the same spot and said the same thing.We do have sunlight. Certainly not as much as some areas of the country, but we have an abundance enough that we could put out what is currently the largest array in the state of Georgia.
Maybe he (and everyone) should double-check what VLCIA tells him.
Brad Lofton knew Continue reading
Continue readingI asked VLCIA Board member Roy Copeland afterwards whether this means the biomass incinerator is STILL going to be built? He shrugged and walked away.
Karen Noll asked Allan Ricketts what does this mean, since we all
heard Lowndes County Commission Chairman Paulk give us a very different scenario at the last LCC meeting, and his remarks were covered in the Valdosta Daily Times. Mr. Ricketts said he was not aware of Chairman Paulk’s remarks.