{"id":17476,"date":"2016-10-09T12:14:43","date_gmt":"2016-10-09T16:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=17476"},"modified":"2016-10-09T12:14:43","modified_gmt":"2016-10-09T16:14:43","slug":"valdosta-to-add-solar-power-to-both-wastewater-treatment-plants-2016-10-06","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/valdosta-to-add-solar-power-to-both-wastewater-treatment-plants-2016-10-06.html","title":{"rendered":"Valdosta to add solar power to both wastewater treatment plants 2016-10-06"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nValdosta just leapfrogged the rest of the state in solar power for wastewater treatment plants.\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nCouncil Tim Carroll expanded beyond the laconic summary of Thursday’s Valdosta City Council action,\r\nwhich itself expanded on a July action.\r\nTurns out Valdosta is one of several cities across Georgia with solar power for their wastewater treatment facilities, and maybe not the largest nor the earliest, but apparently the earliest large one.\r\nThe main point is clear from all of them: solar power for wastewater plants pays for itself in only a few years and can save millions of dollars over decades.\r\n

\r\n\r\nSummary of Actions<\/a>,\r\nRegular Meeting, \r\nValdosta City Council,\r\nThursday October 6th 2016,\r\n\r\n\r\n

\r\n
    \r\n
  1. \r\nBids, Contracts, Agreements and Expenditures<\/strong>\r\n
      \r\n
    1. \r\nConsideration of a request to approve Agreements with Hannah Solar for a Solar \r\nProject at both Withlacoochee Wastewater Treatment Plant sites on Wetherington Lane. \r\n
      \r\n\r\n— Approved (4-0)\r\n<\/strong>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

      \r\nVia email yesterday, Council Carroll added that it’s not just at the old and new WWTP sites on Wetherington Lane:\r\n

      \r\n

      \r\n…the solar array project at both the Mudcreek and Withlachoochee\r\nPlants were approved by council on Thursday night. 50kW project at\r\nMudcreek and a total of 150kW at the Withlachoochee plant. Part of\r\nthe power these solar panels will generate will go directly towards\r\nthe power needs of the plant itself.\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

      \r\nJohn Stephen, VDT, 8 October 2016,\r\n\r\nCity expands use of solar energy<\/a>,\r\n

      \r\n

      \r\nIn July, Valdosta City Council approved a contract with Hannah Solar\r\nto install solar panels at the city’s Mud Creek Water Treatment\r\nPlant. In exchange for building and maintaining the panels free of\r\ncharge, Hannah Solar is allowed to build a separate solar array for\r\nits use without having to pay the city to lease the land.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

      \r\nNow, in a similar agreement, Hannah Solar will build two more solar\r\narrays at the WWTPs, which will be used to power plant operations\r\nand to provide Hannah Solar with energy to sell to Georgia Power.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

      \r\n\r\nSummary of Actions<\/a>,\r\nRegular Meeting, \r\nValdosta City Council,\r\nThursday July 7th 2016,\r\n

      \r\n
        \r\n
      1. \r\n\r\nBids, Contracts, Agreements and Expenditures\r\n<\/strong>\r\n
          \r\n
        1. \r\nConsideration of a request to approve an Agreement with Hannah Solar\r\nfor a Solar Project at the Mud Creek Water Treatment Plant.\r\n
          \r\n\r\n— Approved (6-0)\r\n<\/strong>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

          \r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nOn the telephone with Tim Carroll,\r\nI pointed out that\r\n\r\nDarien, Georgia already put solar panels at its wastewater treatment plant five years ago<\/a>.\r\n

          \r\nHe included his answer in the rest of his email:\r\n

          \r\n

          \r\nIt will be the first large\r\nscale WWTP solar power project in the state. Based on estimates,\r\nthese solar panels will save the city over $1M in power costs over\r\nthe next 30 years.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

          \r\nPretty cool I think!\r\n
          \r\nThanks,\r\n

          \r\nTim Carroll\r\n
          \r\nCouncilman District 5\r\n
          \r\nCity of Valdosta\r\n
          \r\n229.244.0928 w\r\n
          \r\n229.671.1392 h\r\n
          \r\ntcarroll@valdostacity.com\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

          \r\nI suppose it depends on your definition of big.\r\nGEFA, blog, 8 April 2016,\r\n\r\nChatsworth Water Works Commission installs solar panels<\/a>,\r\n

          \r\n

          \r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThe Chatsworth Water Works Commission (CWWC) is committed to\r\nproviding the best water and wastewater services at the lowest\r\npossible rates for its customers. Between the CWWC’s main office and\r\nthe Judson Vick Wastewater Treatment Plant, was a 5-acre, untouched,\r\novergrown field. The CWWC decided that using the field for solar\r\npower would be an efficient way of serving their customers. Given\r\nits hours of operation coincide with the peak hours for solar power\r\ngeneration and the potential for long-term savings, the CWWC decided\r\nto turn the empty field into a 5-acre array of solar panels.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

          \r\nThe CWWC received a Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA)\r\nloan of $3 million at 1.3 percent interest and $300,000 in principal\r\nforgiveness to finance a 1 megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic farm.\r\nSince the project conserved energy, CWCC also received a 1 percent\r\ninterest rate reduction (reduced from the standard rate of 2.03\r\npercent). This was the first solar project associated with a water\r\nor wastewater treatment plant financed by GEFA in the state.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

          \r\nOnce ground broke on the project, it only took six weeks for the\r\nsolar panels to start producing power. The solar array is capable of\r\ngenerating up 1 MW hour of electricity a day, enough to run the\r\nutility’s main office and the wastewater treatment plant. The solar\r\npanels produce more electricity than the utility needs and the\r\nsurplus is sold to Georgia Power. The projected total savings over\r\nthe next 25 years are approximately $5.5 to $6 million.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

          \r\nThe solar project has benefitted the CWWC’s operations, and set an\r\nexample for other water and sewer utilities to follow. With a little\r\nhelp from the sun, utilities can better manage rising energy costs\r\nto keep rates as low as possible for their customers.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

          \r\nHowever, Council Carroll is still not wrong, because Valdosta’s Mud Creek WWTP already had more than a megawatt of solar power installed \r\nthree years ago<\/a>.\r\n

          \r\nBut there’s more.\r\nGeorgia Power, Dalton Solar Plant, 13 May 2016,\r\n\r\nThird Phase of Dalton Solar Plant Now Online<\/a>,\r\n

          \r\n

          \r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nLeaders from Georgia Power, Southern Wholesale Energy, United\r\nRenewable Energy, LLC and Dalton Utilities gathered for a\r\nribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the latest expansion of the Dalton\r\nSolar Plant in Dalton, Ga. With more than seven megawatts (MW) of\r\nnew generation capacity, this expansion adds to the approximately\r\n700 kilowatts from two previous phases, which came online in 2011\r\nand 2012, respectively.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

          \r\n“Georgia’s status as a national solar leader, as well as the ability\r\nto develop projects like this in communities across the state, is\r\nthanks to continued collaboration by utilities, government and solar\r\ndevelopers,” said Murry Weaver, Northwest Region Vice President for\r\nGeorgia Power at the event. “We’re proud to be able to expand our\r\npartnership with Dalton Utilities so that they may serve their\r\ncustomers’ energy needs with new solar generation produced right\r\nhere in Dalton.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n

          \r\nGeorgia Power leases property for the solar facility from Dalton\r\nUtilities, and Dalton Utilities purchases 100 percent of the output\r\nfrom the solar plant under a 25-year wholesale power purchase\r\nagreement with Georgia Power. Dalton Utilities will maintain all of\r\nthe renewable energy credits associated with this transaction.\r\nDalton Utilities provides potable water, electric, natural gas,\r\nwastewater, stormwater and telecommunications services to customers\r\nin Dalton and surrounding counties.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

          \r\nSo seven megawatts is much bigger than one megawatt.\r\nDalton’s solar project is not strictly for wastewater treatment,\r\nso that’s different.\r\nOn the other hand, why should solar power be limited to wastewater?\r\n

          \r\nAnd the bottom line is the same with all these projects: solar power for municipal utilities pays for itself in a few years and saves millions over decades.\r\n

          \r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>\r\n

          Investigative reporting costs money, for open records requests, copying, web hosting, gasoline, and cameras, and with sufficient funds we can pay students to do further research. You can donate to LAKE today<\/a>!<\/blockquote>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Valdosta just leapfrogged the rest of the state in solar power for wastewater treatment plants. Council Tim Carroll expanded beyond the laconic summary of Thursday’s Valdosta City Council action, which itself expanded on a July action. Turns out Valdosta is one of several cities across Georgia with solar power for their wastewater treatment facilities, and […]","protected":false},"author":3,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,18,24,54,55],"tags":[9454,9455,3131,8881,8704,8701,8708,8702,12,7,9456,9453,5220,2076,6617,8714,63,6,8726,294,8727,295,6257],"class_list":["post-17476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-georgia-power","category-solar","category-valdosta-city-council","category-water","tag-chatsworth-water-works-commission","tag-cwwc","tag-dalton","tag-darien","tag-economy","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-mcintosh-county","tag-mcwtp","tag-mud-creek-wastewater-treatment-plant","tag-payoff","tag-savings","tag-solar","tag-tim-carroll","tag-valdosta","tag-valdosta-city-council","tag-wastewater","tag-water","tag-withlacoochee-wastewater-treatment-plant","tag-wwtp"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-4xS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17476","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\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17476"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17480,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17476\/revisions\/17480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}