{"id":18304,"date":"2017-03-30T17:42:50","date_gmt":"2017-03-30T21:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=18304"},"modified":"2017-03-30T17:50:46","modified_gmt":"2017-03-30T21:50:46","slug":"southern-company-shareholder-meeting-renewables-more-than-doubled-in-one-year-2017-05-24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2017\/03\/southern-company-shareholder-meeting-renewables-more-than-doubled-in-one-year-2017-05-24.html","title":{"rendered":"Southern Company Shareholder meeting: renewables more than doubled in one year 2017-05-24"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\r\nWhile its natural gas percentage remained flat, and coal and nuclear decreased, Southern Company (SO) more than doubled its renewable energy generation percentage in one year.\r\nMaybe I&#8217;ll mention that at the annual shareholder meeting in May.\r\n<p style=\"float:right;width:300px;text-align:center;font-weight:bold\">\r\n2017 Mix:\r\n<br>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/investor.southerncompany.com\/information-for-investors\/corporate-governance\/sec-filings\/sec-filings-details\/default.aspx?FilingId=11954460\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none;width:300px\" width=\"300\" alt=\"2017 Energy Mix\" src=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/29ba21ef1480ca694c249f11c6e295bd.jpg\"><\/a>\r\n<br>\r\n2016 Mix:\r\n<br>\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/investor.southerncompany.com\/information-for-investors\/corporate-governance\/sec-filings\/sec-filings-details\/default.aspx?FilingId=11283804\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none;width:300px\" width=\"300\" alt=\"2016 Energy Mix\" src=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/de58dc0aec0896d6cde3edc756dc8870-1.jpg\"><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left:3em;text-indent:-3em\">\r\n<strong>When:<\/strong>\r\n10:00 a.m., ET\r\n<br>Wednesday, May 24, 2017\r\n<p style=\"padding-left:3em;text-indent:-3em\">\r\n<strong>Where:<\/strong>\r\nThe Lodge Conference Center\r\n<br>\r\nCallaway Gardens\r\n<br>\r\n4500 Southern Pine Drive\r\n<br>\r\nPine Mountain, GA 31822-2593\r\n<p style=\"padding-left:3em;text-indent:-3em\">\r\n<strong>Event:<\/strong>\r\nAnnual Southern Company\r\n<br>\r\nShareholder Meeting\r\n<p>\r\n\r\nSouthern Company has all its\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/investor.southerncompany.com\/information-for-investors\/investor-information\/sec-filings\/default.aspx\">\r\nSEC filings<\/a>\r\nonline,\r\nincluding<!--more-->\r\n\r\n the\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/investor.southerncompany.com\/information-for-investors\/corporate-governance\/sec-filings\/sec-filings-details\/default.aspx?FilingId=11283804\">\r\n2016<\/a>\r\nand\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/investor.southerncompany.com\/information-for-investors\/corporate-governance\/sec-filings\/sec-filings-details\/default.aspx?FilingId=11954460\">\r\n2017<\/a>\r\n&#8220;PRE 14A Proxy Statement &#8211; Notice of Shareholders Meeting (preliminary)&#8221;.\r\nThose include the date and place of the annual meeting,\r\na letter from CEO Tom Fanning, and some interesting graphs and statistics.\r\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/investor.southerncompany.com\/information-for-investors\/corporate-governance\/sec-filings\/sec-filings-details\/default.aspx?FilingId=11954460\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none;width:300px;float:right\" width=\"300\" alt=\"Dividends since 1948\" src=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/b6c51f7b82f59901b3415bdae74be55e.jpg\"><\/a>\r\nAmong those graphs is one showing SO&#8217;s dividend ratcheting up almost every year\r\nsince 1948.\r\nI&#8217;ll readily admit that&#8217;s why I own Southern Company stock.\r\nSure, I enjoy the annual meeting at Pine Mountain,\r\nbut one share would do for that.\r\nAnd those dividends are why SO stockholders care about SO&#8217;s\r\nenergy mix.\r\n<p>\r\nIn his letter, SO CEO Tom Fanning emphasises natural gas:\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\n2016 was a year of great growth and change as we continued to fill\r\nin the energy value chain to sustain growth.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li>\r\nWe proudly welcomed more than 6,000 new colleagues and over 4.5\r\nmillion customers with the addition of Southern Company Gas\r\n(formerly AGL Resources Inc.).\r\n<li>\r\nOur wholesale electric subsidiary, Southern Power Company (Southern\r\nPower), continued to acquire solar, wind and natural gas generation\r\nfacilities, investing over $4.5 billion.\r\n<li>\r\nWe acquired a 50% equity interest in the Southern Natural Gas pipeline system.\r\n<li>\r\nWith the acquisition of PowerSecure International, Inc.\r\n(PowerSecure) and its strategic alliance with Bloom Energy for the\r\ndeployment of fuel cell and battery storage technologies, we&#8217;re\r\ndeveloping behind-the-meter infrastructure for customers across the\r\ncountry.\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nAccording to <a href=\"https:\/\/southerncompany.mediaroom.com\/2016-07-01-Southern-Company-and-AGL-Resources-complete-merger-create-a-leading-U-S-energy-company\">\r\na Southern Company press release of 1 July 2016<\/a>,\r\nSO paid $8 billion for AGL.\r\nAccording to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.naturalgasintel.com\/articles\/107020\">Natural Gas Intel 11 July 2016<\/a>,\r\nSO paid KMI $1.47 billion for Southern Natural Gas, plus assuming $600 million of debt.\r\nSo SO spent upwards of $9.47 billion on natural gas pipeline companies in 2016.\r\nYet the amount of natural gas in SO&#8217;s energy mix went down.\r\nMeanwhile, according to Tom Fanning&#8217;s letter, SO spent less than\r\n$4.5 billion on solar and wind, and the renewable energy percentage\r\nof SO&#8217;s mix more than doubled.\r\n<p>\r\nMaybe it would be worth evaluating what source of power is most cost-effective.\r\nSure looks like it could be solar power.\r\n<p>\r\nEspecially since we know\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/new-solar-up-95-in-2016-more-installed-than-gas-or-wind.html\">\r\nin 2016 solar power added more new electric\r\ngenerating capacity than any other source<\/a>, and\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/u-s-electric-power-source-projections-solar-still-most-by-2023.html\">\r\ntotal U.S. solar capacity is more than doubling every two years<\/a>\r\nwhile coal and nuclear are crashing, and natural gas isn&#8217;t increasing even as fast as formerly projected.\r\n<p>\r\nAs Tom Randall pointed out for Bloomberg 15 December 2016,\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2016-12-15\/world-energy-hits-a-turning-point-solar-that-s-cheaper-than-wind\">\r\nWorld Energy Hits a Turning Point: Solar That&#8217;s Cheaper Than Wind:\r\nEmerging markets are leapfrogging the developed world thanks to cheap panels<\/a>.\r\n<p style=\"text-align:center;font-size:80%\">\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2016-12-15\/world-energy-hits-a-turning-point-solar-that-s-cheaper-than-wind\">\r\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:none\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.bwbx.io\/images\/users\/iqjWHBFdfxIU\/iePGNSkzIDjQ\/v0\/1600x-1.jpg\"><\/a>\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\nAlmost two years before that, Tom Randall, Bloomberg, 14 April 2015,\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2015-04-14\/fossil-fuels-just-lost-the-race-against-renewables\">\r\nFossil Fuels Just Lost the Race Against Renewables:\r\nThis is the beginning of the end<\/a>,\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nThe race for renewable energy has passed a turning point. The world\r\nis now adding more capacity for renewable power each year than coal,\r\nnatural gas, and oil combined. And there&#8217;s no going back.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<p>\r\nSince SO seems to be doing better in renewable generation increase\r\nthan even the very rapid U.S. solar exponential growth rate,\r\nand for less than half what SO spent on natural gas companies,\r\nmaybe a smart Southern Company Big Bet would be on solar power.\r\n<p>\r\nOr not, and wait until some Indian or Brazilian company outcompetes SO\r\nin its home market.\r\n<p>\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align:center;font-style:italic\">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 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/donate\">donate to LAKE today<\/a>!<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While its natural gas percentage remained flat, and coal and nuclear decreased, Southern Company (SO) more than doubled its renewable energy generation percentage in one year. Maybe I&#8217;ll mention that at the annual shareholder meeting in May. 2017 Mix: 2016 Mix: When: 10:00 a.m., ET Wednesday, May 24, 2017 Where: The Lodge Conference Center Callaway [&hellip;]","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":true,"_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":[120,216,18,6124,104,24,55,36],"tags":[8738,8753,8701,8708,1623,8702,12,562,8737,8328,8714,108,6339,8727,8716],"class_list":["post-18304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biomass","category-coal","category-georgia-power","category-natural-gas-2","category-nuclear","category-solar","category-water","category-wind","tag-biomass","tag-coal","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-hydroelectric","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-natural-gas","tag-nuclear","tag-renewables","tag-solar","tag-southern-company","tag-tom-fanning","tag-water","tag-wind"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-4Le","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18304","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=18304"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18312,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18304\/revisions\/18312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}