Tag Archives: Wind

Scorecard on Internet and Energy at the Bird Supper


Gretchen Quarterman, Dexter Sharper, Bill Slaughter, and others at the Bird Supper in Atlanta

On the 27th of February I posted

Internet and Energy at the Bird Supper
and Gretchen and I went to the Bird Supper in Atlanta and discussed
those four bills with legislators.
Our local elected officials were lobbying on the same side of many of
the same bills.
It’s past crossover day now, when bills are supposed to be
approved by one house of the Georgia legislature in order to be
taken up by the other.
How did that come out?
We all beat the mighty telcos and cablecos on two bills!
But Georgia Power is even mightier, and won on two bills.
Plus one legislator’s name is connected with 3 out of 4 of those bills.
And our local delegation cancelled itself out on the one vote
that actually went to the floor.

Internet Access: help stop two telecommunications bills

The local Industrial Authority, Chamber of Commerce, Valdosta City Council,
and Lowndes County Commission have recently realized that
fast Internet access is essential to attract businesses,
for their employees to work at home, for applicants to apply for jobs,
for students to submit assignments, and for general quality of life.
And there’s good news from the legislature!

Continue reading →

China regains lead in solar and wind investment —Financial Times



Pilita Clark wrote for Financial Times 14 January 2013,

China retakes renewables investment lead,

China has surged ahead of the US to regain its title as the world's
biggest investor in renewable energy, new figures showed on Monday.



The article continues by trying to downplay solar and wind because
of a drop in investment from other countries,
while not mentioning that solar and wind deployments continue to climb.
According to Todd Woddy in Forbes 22 January 2013, Chinese Solar Market Boomed In Q4, Accounting For Third Of Global Demand.
China has incentive and is doing something about it, as
Feifei Shen and Reed Landberg wrote for
Bloomberg News 30 January 2013,

China to Boost Solar Power Goal 67% as Smog Envelops Beijing.

How much are the Chinese investing?
The FT story continues:

Continue reading →

From 15 to 19 months late: Plant Vogtle nukes

Surprise!
The already-billing but not-built new nukes at Plant Vogtle
are going to be even later and cost even more.
In December they were to be
15 months late;
now it’s 19 months late,
and the cost overrun expected is $740 million.
History is repeating itself from

the last time Southern Company
and Georgia Power built nukes on the Savannah River.
How about we pass

HB 267 to stop Georgia Power from charging that cost overrun to customers?

Kristi Swartz wrote for the AJC yesterday,

Vogtle nuclear project to take longer, cost more,

Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion project will take
about 19 months longer to complete than originally expected and cost
about $740 million more than originally thought, the company said
Thursday.


Joseph A. “Buzz” Miller, Executive Vice President – Nuclear Development Southern Nuclear Operating Company
Georgia Power said its share of the estimated $14 billion project
will rise to $6.85 billion, up from $6.11 billion, because of
increased capital costs and additional financing costs. Customers,
who have been paying the financing costs since 2011, now will pay
them for a longer period of time.

And the amount Georgia Power customers have to pay
for

Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) keeps
ratchetting up:

Continue reading →

Internet and Energy at the Bird Supper

Dear Bird Supper attendees,

Two things could greatly help south Georgia:
better Internet access and solar power.
You could help stop two telecommunications bills
and help pass two energy bills for jobs and education
in south Georgia.

Internet Access: help stop two telecommunications bills

The local Industrial Authority, Chamber of Commerce, Valdosta City Council,
and Lowndes County Commission have recently realized that
fast Internet access is essential to attract businesses,
for their employees to work at home, for applicants to apply for jobs,
for students to submit assignments, and for general quality of life.


  • HB 282 against muni broadband

    This bill would prohibit local governments from providing Internet access
    if any local census block has 1.5Mbps access.
    Localities may or may not want to do it themselves, but they shouldn't
    be prohibited from using this option now that it is obvious to everyone
    that the commercial incumbents are not doing the job.
    Legislators please vote this bill down.


  • HB 176 for higher cell towers with less local government oversight

    This really bad bill would let cell telephone companies build towers
    wherever they want to at any height, taking away local government
    power to regulate that.
    It could even let private companies exercise eminent domain.
    Legislators please vote this bill down.

Energy: help pass two energy bills

Solar power can be a
distributed source of jobs in south Georgia.
Antique laws and a subsidized nuclear boondoggle are hobbling solar power.


  • GA SB 51, The Georgia Cogeneration and Distributed Generation Act

    Senator Buddy Carter has introduced a Senate bill for the current session
    of the legislature, SB 51, "The Georgia Cogeneration and Distributed
    Generation Act of 2001". It attempts to fix Georgia's special solar
    financing problem, the antique 1973 Territorial Electric Service Act,
    which says you can only sell power you generate to your one and only
    pre-determined electric utility, at whatever rate that utility sets.


  • HB 267 Financing costs; construction of nuclear generating plant

    Stop Georgia Power from charging customers for cost overruns for Plant Vogtle,
    already 15 months behind schedule and a billion dollars overbudget for power
    that nobody has received, yet Georgia Power has already billed customers about
    $1.7 billion.
    Bipartisan cosponsors are Jeff Chapman (R—Brunswick) District 167 and
    Karla Drenner (D—Avondale Estates) District 85.
    This boondoggle on the Savannah River is what Georgia Power and Southern Company
    are doing instead of deploying solar inland and wind off the coast.

-jsq

Let the Sun Shine: Fact versus Fiction —Michael G. Noll

LTE in the VDT today. I’ve added a few links. -jsq



Fox News recently claimed that “solar won’t work in America because
it’s not as sunny as Germany”. Such statements are common for a
network that has long lost its credibility. Unfortunately too many
take such gibberish at face value. Thus columns like

“environmentalism or obstructionism?” are not
surprising, but in the end it’s the facts that matter:

  • Global warming is real. For years we have been experiencing record
    heat waves, droughts, wild fires, etc., and while seawater levels
    are rising, storms like hurricane Sandy become major threats

    to low lying areas along coast lines    .
  • The main culprit for global warming are greenhouse gases like
    carbon dioxide, resulting from the burning of fossil fuels,
    especially coal and oil.
  • While China overall emits more than we do, the US leads in per
    capita emissions. The average US citizen produces three times more
    carbon dioxide than the average Chinese citizen.

Continue reading →

Want to finance solar? Call GA Sen. Jack Murphy today about SB 51



A Georgia Senate committee needs to take it up
a bill that would greatly ease financing
solar power for your housetop or business roof.
Sen. Jack Murphy is the chair, and you can contact him today.

GA SB 51,

The Georgia Cogeneration and Distributed Generation Act,
was read to the Senate 16 January 2013
and referred to the Committee on

Regulated Industries and Utilities.
Here’s contact information for the Chair of that Committee:

Continue reading →

Renewable energy much needed in Georgia —John S. Quarterman

My op-ed in the VDT today; I’ve added links, plus some more after the op-ed.



Finally! Kewaunee, Calvert Cliffs, and now Crystal River
permanently closing say it’s time for Georgia to stop wasting money
on Southern Company’s already over-budget and increasingly-late
nukes and get on with solar power and wind off the coast: for
jobs, for energy independence, and for clean air and plenty of
clean water.

February 2013:

Duke Energy is closing the Crystal River nuclear
reactor

(Tampa Bay Times, 6 Feb 2013),
160 miles south of us, because

nobody wants to pay to fix it:
between “$1.5 billion and $3.4 billion,
plus what it costs to buy power to replace
what Crystal River would have produced while it is
being repaired”

[Charlotte Business Journal, 11 Jan 2013].
November 2012:

NRC terminated Maryland’s Calvert Cliffs 3

(NRC 1 Nov 2012)
after

Constellation Energy dropped out because the cost “is too high
and creates too much risk for Constellation”

[Bloomberg 10 Oct 2010].

Continue reading →

Return of water misinformation by Forrest H. Williams in the VDT

Seen today on the
WACE facebook page
is an image of an op-ed in the VDT, and alongside it I include here
Michael Noll’s initial comments, plus a few links.


There is good reason why Stephen Hawkins once said “the greatest
enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of
knowledge.” When entities like Fox News can claim that “solar won’t
work in America because it’s not as sunny as Germany”, we shouldn’t
be surprised by the results of such “educational” efforts. The fact
is that we have a number of clean and renewable forms of energy
(e.g. wind, solar, geothermal) that already work. Just go to

Spain,

Germany,

Denmark, Iceland, or simply stay in the US and visit places
like from

New Jersey
and

New York
to

California
and

Arizona. Combine
these pieces of a larger energy puzzle with meaningful initiatives
of

energy conservation and energy efficiency, and we find a way out
of our current predicament (i.e. continuing dependence on finite and
dirty sources of energy), while saving money (see

solar vs. nuclear),
preserving our natural resources (e.g. water, forests),
and providing clean, healthy and safe environments to live in (e.g.
wind and solar do not produce radioactive waste, pollute our air and
groundwater).

The guest columnist appearing above is the same individual who
thought

Continue reading →

HB 267 Financing costs; construction of nuclear generating plant






As promised,
a bipartisan bill was filed Thursday to stop Georgia Power from
charging for nuclear cost overruns on Plant Vogtle; this could free up some financing for Georgia to move ahead on solar and wind power.


2013-2014 Regular Session – HB 267
Financing costs; construction of nuclear generating plant; change calculation that utility can recover from customers,

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 46-2-25 of the
Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the procedure for
changing any rate, charge, classification, or service and the
recovery of financing costs, so as to change the calculation used
under certain circumstances to determine the costs of financing
associated with the construction of a nuclear generating plant that
a utility may recover from its customers; to provide for related
matters; to provide an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws;
and for other purposes.

The bill would add this text to Georgia Code:

…provided, however, that in the event the amounts recorded in the
utility’s construction work in progress accounts plus the amount of
all financing costs accrued on any construction work in progress
accounts exceeds the costs approved by the commission in the
original certificate of the nuclear generating plant granted under
Code Section 46-3A-5, the cost of equity portion of the financing
costs shall be calculated using a rate no higher than the utility’s
actual cost of debt.

Let’s see what Georgia Power does to fight this one.
So far, it’s

Continue reading →

Duke Energy is closing Crystal River nuclear reactor



Finally!
The reactor
only 160 miles from here
that

nobody wanted to pay to fix
is closing for good: Duke is closing Crystal River.
After Kewaunee and Crystal River closing, which one is next?
San Onofre?
The never-opened Vogtle 3 and 4?

Ivan Penn wrote for Tampa Bay Times today,

Duke Energy announces closing of Crystal River nuclear power plant,

Duke Energy announced early Tuesday it will permanently close the
Crystal River nuclear plant that has been shut down since late 2009.



The company said it is reviewing alternatives, including building a
new natural gas plant, to replace the power produced by the nuclear
facility.

Duke's four coal-fired plants will remain in service at the same
Citrus County complex where the nuclear plant, known as CR3, is
located.



How about they build
offshore wind farms
and solar farms
instead, like

TEPCO is doing near Fukushima?
Those can be built on time and on budget, use no fuel, and cause no pollution.
And how about

rooftop solar for jobs and energy independence?

There's more in

the article,
including this:

Continue reading →