{"id":2021,"date":"2011-05-17T11:43:58","date_gmt":"2011-05-17T15:43:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/wiregrass-solar-is-the-first-of-several-projects-sonny-murphy.html"},"modified":"2011-05-17T11:43:58","modified_gmt":"2011-05-17T15:43:58","slug":"wiregrass-solar-is-the-first-of-several-projects-sonny-murphy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/wiregrass-solar-is-the-first-of-several-projects-sonny-murphy.html","title":{"rendered":"Wiregrass Solar is the first of several projects —Sonny Murphy"},"content":{"rendered":"Let’s look at Sterling Planet’s own press release about the\nWiregrass Solar commissioning.\nWhat’s this about a first phase?\nAnd what’s the second phase?\n

\n\nSterling Planet announces completion of one of Georgia\u2019s largest solar generating projects:\nFirst phase of Valdosta solar project now supplies green energy to Georgia Power<\/a>.\n

\n\n<\/a>\nSterling Planet, the leading national retail provider of renewable\nenergy and other clean-energy assets, today announced at a commissioning\nceremony the completion of a 200 kWAC output solar generating project\nin Valdosta. One of the largest solar arrays in the state of Georgia,\nthe Wiregrass Solar, LLC project began commercial operation on April\n6 and is now generating annualized output of approximately 350,000\nkilowatt-hours. This is enough clean, emission-free electricity to power\n350 Georgia homes using the average amount of 1,000 kilowatt-hours of\nelectricity monthly.\n

\nDeveloped by Sterling Planet, Wiregrass Solar supplies green power for\nthe Georgia Power Green Energy program, an option for the utility\u2019s\ncustomers who voluntarily choose to support renewable power and help\ngenerate more of it in Georgia.\n<\/blockquote>\nOK, that’s all good. Congratulations!\n

\nAlso notice Sterling Planet doesn’t make the mayor’s mistake\nin saying this is the largest solar array in Georgia, like\n\nWCTV after Pete Marte of Hannah Solar corrected it,<\/a>\nSterling says “one of the largest”.\n

\nBut what’s this about “first phase”?\n\n\n

\n\n<\/a>\nWiregrass Solar is located on two acres owned by the city of Valdosta\nand leased to the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority. The site\nis adjacent to the Mud Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant and is also the\nfuture location of Wiregrass Biomass, LLC, a Sterling Planet project\nnow in development that would reclaim the wastewater treatment plant\u2019s\nprocessed water for cooling and would also use clean wood waste and the\nplant\u2019s industrial sludge as fuel, significantly reducing the amount\nof waste going into landfills.\n<\/blockquote>\nThat’s the stubborn part, the\n“It’s not over until it’s over”<\/a> part.\nBut it’s actually not the second phase.\n

\n\n<\/a>\nI promised to spell this out:\n\n“The very same people who are adamant about building the biomass plant have provided us with the carrots needed to make sure it’s never built.”<\/a>\nHere comes a carrot.\n

\nThis is the second phase:\n

\n\n<\/a>\n“Wiregrass Solar is the first of several projects we’re managing for\nthe benefit of the people, environment and economy of Georgia,” said\nTherrell “Sonny” Murphy, Jr., chairman of the board for Sterling\nPlanet. “We\u2019re hoping to develop a second phase, which would add 1\nmegawatt (1,000 kW) of capacity to the existing solar array and will most\nlikely make this solar project the largest in Georgia when complete. We\nestimate that Wiregrass Solar ultimately will have six times its current\ncapacity and will generate enough electricity to power 2,100 homes.”\n<\/blockquote>\nAll right! Go for it, Sterling Planet!\n

\nAnd Hannah Solar:\n

\n\n<\/a>\nHannah Solar, a full-service solar integrator based in Atlanta, designed\nand constructed the first phase of Wiregrass Solar at a cost of $1.2\nmillion, with $500,000 of the total coming from a Georgia Environmental\nFacilities Authority grant. While these grants are no longer available,\nstate legislators earlier this year approved a bill that extends the\nGeorgia renewable energy tax credit through 2014 and increases the total\nstatewide credit amount from $2.5 million to $5 million in each of the\nyears 2012-2014.\n

\n“Georgia is now poised to be a national leader in the adoption of\nsolar energy,” said Peter Marte, president of Hannah Solar, the\nSoutheast\u2019s fastest growing solar integrator, with 1.6 megawatts\nof new solar generating capacity installed statewide over the past\nyear. “We\u2019re just out of the starting block. With extension of\nthe tax credit for solar development and the state\u2019s vast untapped\nsolar potential, Georgia is well-positioned for what promises to be\nan exciting decade in the expansion of solar production and all the\nbenefits that will result — zero-emissions electricity production,\nnew jobs and increased tax revenues.”\n<\/blockquote>\nGo Hannah Solar! Go solar for jobs for south Georgia!\n

\n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Let’s look at Sterling Planet’s own press release about the Wiregrass Solar commissioning. What’s this about a first phase? And what’s the second phase? Sterling Planet announces completion of one of Georgia\u2019s largest solar generating projects: First phase of Valdosta solar project now supplies green energy to Georgia Power. Sterling Planet, the leading national retail […]","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":[97,120,14,3252,21,22,23,24,1794,178,1521],"tags":[8738,8704,2061,8868,847,8713,8714,215,8840,4557,8831],"class_list":["post-2021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-biomass","category-economy","category-hannah-solar","category-planning","category-politics","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","category-sterling-planet","category-vlcia","category-wiregrass-solar","tag-biomass","tag-economy","tag-electricity","tag-hannah-solar","tag-jobs","tag-renewable-energy","tag-solar","tag-south-georgia","tag-sterling-planet","tag-tax-revenue","tag-wiregrass-solar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-wB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021","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=2021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}