{"id":1039,"date":"2012-03-06T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-06T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/why-and-how-you-can-help-bring-solar-power-to-georgia.html"},"modified":"2012-03-06T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-06T14:00:00","slug":"why-and-how-you-can-help-bring-solar-power-to-georgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/03\/why-and-how-you-can-help-bring-solar-power-to-georgia.html","title":{"rendered":"Why and how you can help bring solar power to Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"Foot-dragging utilities have stalled SB 401, which would facilitate\ngenerating and selling of solar power in Georgia.\nHere’s why and how you can help fix that.\n

\n\nJohn Sibley wrote for SaportaReport Sunday,\nSolar power bill would give Georgians more choices<\/a>\nHave you gotten used to thinking you have no choice on your power\n

\nTimes are changing. More and more of us are discovering choices for\n\n<\/a>\nmanaging our power costs. Beyond the time-honored practice of\nturning off the lights leaving the room, we can find light bulbs\nthat pay for themselves in a year or so; and we can find appliances,\nwater heaters, and air conditioners that pay for themselves in a few\nyears. After that, the savings are like getting part of your power\nfree.\n

\nNow, on-site solar power has become an economical option for many.\nDeals for rooftop solar panels can be done in Georgia today that\nwill provide power for 25 years for as little as 10 cents per\nkilowatt-hour. Many Georgians can save money from day one. Since\nrates in Georgia have gone up 49 percent in seven years, they can\nalso protect themselves against increases.\n

\nMore and more Georgians are choosing on-site solar, but\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n

\nnot all can.\nThe upfront costs are too high for some. The cost is usually too\nmuch for schools, churches, governments and other non-profit\norganizations, which often have perfect locations for solar\ninstallations, because they cannot take advantage of tax incentives\navailable to others.\n

\nAcross the country, free enterprise has responded by doing what it\ndoes best. It has come up with a financing product, called a power\npurchase agreement, or PPA, that makes solar power available to\nthose who are otherwise excluded from the market.\n

\nUnder a typical PPA, the installer retains ownership of the solar\nequipment, and the customer makes monthly payments that are based on\nthe output of the panels. A PPA allows the customer to choose solar\npower without any upfront costs or maintenance risks, and it makes\nthe tax incentives available to private parties who can use them. A\nPPA can reduce the cost of solar for schools, churches, governments,\nand non-profits by 40 to 50 percent.\n

\nPPAs can be used in most states.\n

\nIn Georgia, however, the power companies say that they are against\nthe law. The utilities concede that a solar system for on-site use\nis perfectly legal if the customer pays cash upfront or can get a\nloan or a lease with a flat monthly payment.\n

\nBut if the monthly payment is based on output (as it would be in the\nlease of a copier based on the number of copies), the power\ncompanies will object to the deal and threaten a lawsuit to stop it.\n<\/blockquote>\nBecause the utilities\n\nthink they own the sunshine.<\/a>\nGeorgia Power\n\nopposes SB 401 and Lower Rates for Customers<\/a>.\nSB 401 is the Georgia Senate Bill that proposes to\nfix these problems,\n\nenabling a commodity market in distributed solar power<\/a>.\nUtilities could profit by taking a percentage,\n\nprivate investment could build big generating plants<\/a>,\nand\n\ncounty and city governments could become self-supporting from the sun.<\/a>\n

\nHow can a customer’s\nchoice to manage energy on the customer’s private property become\nagainst the law because a lease payment is based on output instead\nof a flat amount?\n<\/blockquote>\nBecause\nGeorgia Power is\n\nstill peddling the same old disinformation.<\/a>\n
\nThe legislation in the General Assembly, originally proposed as SB\n401, just allows one additional choice to manage rising power costs\nby private contract on private property. It creates no risks for\npower companies or other customers that are different from when\ncustomers now choose energy efficiency or solar for cash.\n

\nThe General Assembly should find a way to pass this legislation.\n<\/blockquote>\nI agree.\nYou can help by\ncalling\n\nyour state senator<\/a>\nor\nby signing the\n\npetition.<\/a>\n

\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Foot-dragging utilities have stalled SB 401, which would facilitate generating and selling of solar power in Georgia. Here’s why and how you can help fix that. John Sibley wrote for SaportaReport Sunday, Solar power bill would give Georgians more choices Have you gotten used to thinking you have no choice on your power Times are […]","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":[97,14,264,265,8,18,2,23,24],"tags":[8701,8708,8713,1311,8714],"class_list":["post-1039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-economy","category-energy-conservation","category-energy-efficiency","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-government","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-renewable-energy","tag-sb-401","tag-solar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-gL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039","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=1039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1039\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}