{"id":1005,"date":"2012-03-18T00:15:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-18T04:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/30-megawatt-solar-plant-opens-near-austin.html"},"modified":"2012-03-18T00:15:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-18T04:15:00","slug":"30-megawatt-solar-plant-opens-near-austin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/30-megawatt-solar-plant-opens-near-austin.html","title":{"rendered":"30 Megawatt solar plant opens near Austin"},"content":{"rendered":"While Georgia Power\n\ncontinues to block solar deployment in Georgia,<\/a>\nAustin Energy forges ahead in Texas with a utility-scale solar plant.\n

\nHere’s their PR,\n\nAustin Energy Activates 30 MW Solar Farm<\/a>,\n

\nAUSTIN, Texas , Jan. 6, 2012 \/PRNewswire\/ — Austin Energy\nalong with Austin City Mayor Lee Leffingwell , and Village of\n\n<\/a>\nWebberville Mayor Hector Gonzales today announced the activation of\na 30 megawatt (MW) solar power plant located within the Village of\nWebberville, Texas . The activation of the power plant marks the\nfirst utility-scale solar deployment for Austin Energy and helps\nbring the utility one step closer to achieving a 35% renewable\nenergy mix by 2020. It is the largest active solar project of any\npublic power utility in the country, the largest active project in\nTexas and among the largest of all operating solar projects in\nAmerica. The project was activated on December 20, 2011\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n\n<\/a>\n

\nThe key was a PPA:\n

\nThe utility-scale solar project was made possible through a 25-year\nsolar power purchase agreement in which Austin Energy will purchase\nthe energy at a fixed rate along with the renewable energy credits.\n<\/blockquote>\nIn Georgia, PPAs can be made with municipal governments,\nuniversities, companies, or even individuals,\n\nif SB 401 passes.<\/a>\n

\nAn opportunity for EMCs:\n\n\n

\nAs a publicly owned power company and a city department, Austin\nEnergy returns profits to the community annually. That money helps\nfund City services such as fire, police, EMS, parks, and libraries.\nThe utility has provided $1.5 billion in dividends to the community\nsince 1976.\n<\/blockquote>\nAnd that’s from the energy company with the first and largest\nsolar rebates in the country, and now one of the largest solar\nutility installations in the country.\nApparently there’s money in solar!\n

\n\n<\/a>\nWait,\n\nthat’s what Dr. Sidney Smith said!<\/a>\n

\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Georgia Power continues to block solar deployment in Georgia, Austin Energy forges ahead in Texas with a utility-scale solar plant. Here’s their PR, Austin Energy Activates 30 MW Solar Farm, AUSTIN, Texas , Jan. 6, 2012 \/PRNewswire\/ — Austin Energy along with Austin City Mayor Lee Leffingwell , and Village of Webberville Mayor Hector […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,14,8,18,312,23,24],"tags":[236,1249,8704,8701,2889,8708,2890,2887,1311,2888,8714,237,238,319],"class_list":["post-1005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-economy","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-lower-rates-for-customers-llc","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","tag-austin","tag-austin-energy","tag-economy","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-energy-trust-fund","tag-georgia-power","tag-lower-rates-for-customers","tag-megawatt","tag-sb-401","tag-sidney-smith","tag-solar","tag-texas","tag-travis-county","tag-utility"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-gd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}