Tag Archives: Wind

A mix is the way to go —Dr. Noll

This comment from Dr. Noll came in today on

San Antonio promises to shut down a coal plant:

Of course we can! And “a mix of energy efficiency, [energy conservation,]
and new renewable energy projects” (e.g. solar, wind, geothermal)is the
way to go. We simply need the political will and communal support to
make such a transition possible.



I am still in Germany and am amazed to see just how much progress has been
made here in these past couple of years. Solar thermal and solar voltaic
installations abound on private residences; wind mills can be seen in
many regions; cars are more fuel efficient, houses better insulated,
public transportation accessible and affordable, recycling thoroughly
organized, etc.

We may still have a long way to go, but until

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This is what a mayor with vision sounds like

Mayor Julian Castro of San Antonio

speaks at 44:25
about



…the nexus between sustainability and job creation.
Every now and then, perhaps once in a generation,
there presents itself a moment, an opportunity,
for those cities that are willing to seize it,
to truly benefit the region for generations to come.

Here’s
the video:

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San Antonio promises to shut down a coal plant

We could do something like this.
We’ve already made a start with Wiregrass Solar.


San Antonio, the Clean-Energy City?
Look out Austin, SA Mayor Julian Castro promises to shut-down a coal plant by 2018.



At an event this afternoon at UT-San Antonio, Mayor Julian Castro
announced a suite of green energy projects that he said would position
San Antonio as the nation’s “recognized leader in clean energy technology”
and help fulfill his aggressive environmental goals.

Most notably, Castro and leaders from CPS Energy, the city-owned utility,
pledged to shut down one of its coal-fired power plants 15 years ahead
of schedule. By 2018, the city would mothball the 871-megawatt J.T. Deely
Power Plant — a bold move in a growing state that’s seemingly addicted
to coal.

So what are they going to use for energy?

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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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Renewable Energy Network at Opportunity Central

Renewable energy for jobs: that’s something that would interest
a Chamber of Commerce.

Partly due to

MAGE SOLAR at Lowndes High School


(thanks, Jerome Tucker!), the Valdosta – Lowndes County Chamber of Commerce (VLCoC) has taken an interest in renewable energy.
ReKasa Deen,

Business Development Director,
already heads the Chamber’s

Opportunity Central:



The Valdosta-Lowndes Chamber is positioning Metro Valdosta as Opportunity
Central with opportunities for business to grow and thrive, career
opportunities for well-educated young professionals and opportunities
for cultural interests and active lifestyles.



The key phrase I keep hearing from

VLCoC president Myrna Ballard
is

“knowledge-based businesses and jobs.”
As it says on a recent

Opportunity Central blog post:

New jobs follow bright and creative professionals…

Ms. Ballard and Ms. Deen have repeatedly said they see renewable energy
as a source of jobs for graduates of our local high schools and colleges.

What do they mean by renewable energy?

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Americans overwhelmingly want clean energy and environmental protection —Pew



Climate Progress points out that

a new Pew poll, “Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology”,
shows that

Public support for alternative energy transcends political barriers:

71% of Americans believe “This country should do whatever it takes to
protect the environment.” And 59% believe that “strongly.”

Quoting from
Pew’s summary:

In light of this diversity it is interesting to note a couple of areas
where almost all of these groups agree. The first is on support for
alternative energy. Overall, the public prioritizes developing alternative
energy over expanding oil, coal, and natural gas by a 63-29 margin. And,
as shown in the chart below, seven of Pew’s eight active typology
groups support this position, including a whopping 40-point margin
among the Main Street Republican group. Only the staunch conservatives
(9 percent of the public) dissent from the rest.
Conservatives usually act like progressive ideas have no purchase in
“their” part of the political spectrum. These data suggest otherwise.

And no, conservatives are not the political type the south
has the most disproportional percentage of: those would be
Hard-Pressed Democrats and Disaffecteds.

And no, by “alternative energy”
people don’t mean polluting biomass:

63% of Americans say “EPA needs to do more to hold polluters accountable
and protect the air and water”.
What Americans want is clean renewable energy:
solar, wind, and hydrogen.

-jsq

Neither wind nor solar power “need to be purchased by Halliburton”

Continuing to see what “the indigenous” think about solar power:

Today, a number of Native tribes, from the Lakota in the Dakotas to
the Iroquois Confederacy in New York to the Anishinaabeg in Wisconsin,
battle to preserve the environment for those who are yet to come. The
next seven generations, the Lakota say, depend upon it.

“Traditionally, we’re told that as we live in this world, we have
to be careful for the next seven generations,” says Loretta Cook. “I
don’t want my grandkids to be glowing and say, ‘We have all these
bad things happening to us because you didn’t say something about it.’

Part of this family and spiritual obligation to preserve

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Georgia clean energy tax credits: yes, they are available

Inquiring minds want to know if Georgia still has its energy rebate program.
The answer is yes.



The usual place to look for state tax incentives is

DSIRETM
(Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency).
That database shows for Georgia not only state
financial incentives but also a local loan program for
Athens-Clarke County
and a local rebate program for Atlanta.
There’s a thought!
Valdosta or Lowndes County could do a loan program for real clean renewable energy!
or the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) could do that
using some of its $15 million in bonds and other debt, assuming it hasn’t
already spent all of it on locking up land.

Or Georgia Power or Colquitt Electric could do that,

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Wind produces much energy

According to
Herald Scotland 2 May 2011,

Row after wind farms ‘turned off’:



Six wind farms were given six-figure payments to switch off their turbines
because the Scottish grid network could not absorb all the energy being
produced, it has emerged.

Research by the Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) found energy companies
were paid a total of £900,000 for stopping the turbines for several
hours between April 5 and 6 this year.

The REF said some of the payments were as high as 20 times the value
of the electricity which would have been generated if the turbines
kept running.

The National Grid makes constraint payments to power stations that agree
to stop generating in order to stabilise the network.

It happens when the grid system or a section of the system is unable
to absorb all the electricity being generated, and some generators that
are contracted to generate are asked to stand down.

Sounds like they just need to fix their prices.
Adding some local storage of some kind would also help.

-jsq

A real national strategy —Jim Dwyer



What say we make a real national security strategy,
one based on energy independence and a sustainable economy?

Jim Dwyer write 3 May 2011 in the NY Times,

A National Security Strategy That Doesn’t Focus on Threats

“Poorly fitted air conditioners cost New York City 130 to 180 million
dollars a year in extra energy consumption,” one of the strategists,
Capt. Wayne Porter of the Navy, said Tuesday. “They generate 370,525
extra tons of carbon dioxide.”

Suppose, he says, you fixed them. And then you got the 40 states
that waste the most electricity to match the 10 most efficient. The
likely benefits are no surprise — less foreign oil, cost savings,
job creation, decreased pollution.

Now follow that thread to

“A National Strategic Narrative,”
a paper
written by Captain Porter and Col. Mark Mykleby of the Marines, which
calls on the United States to see that it cannot continue to engage the
world primarily with military force, but must do so as a nation powered
by the strength of its educational system, social policies, international
development and diplomacy, and its commitment to sustainable practices
in energy and agriculture.

“We must recognize that security means more than defense,” they
write. After ending the 20th century as the world’s most powerful
country, “we failed to recognize that dominance, like fossil fuel,
is not a sustainable form of energy.”

An army without an economy defends nothing.

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