{"id":423,"date":"2012-10-11T12:42:58","date_gmt":"2012-10-11T16:42:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/great-big-so-is-110-australia-for-solar-farm-deployment-in-georgia.html"},"modified":"2012-10-11T12:42:58","modified_gmt":"2012-10-11T16:42:58","slug":"great-big-so-is-110-australia-for-solar-farm-deployment-in-georgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/10\/great-big-so-is-110-australia-for-solar-farm-deployment-in-georgia.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Great, big&#8221; SO is 1\/10 Australia for solar farm deployment in Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<a title=\"Solar Megawatts 2012-10-11\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/98706376@N00\/8077385830\/sizes\/m\/\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" class=\"at-xid-6a0120a58214e4970b017d3ca49636970c\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017d3ca49636970c-pi.jpg\"  alt=\"Solar Megawatts 2012-10-11\"  \/><\/a>\nSo if Southern Company is a &#8220;great, big company&#8221; similar to Australia,\nwhy did Australia just deploy a solar farm ten times the size of\nthe biggest one SO has in Georgia?\n<\/p>\n<p>\nBack in May, Southern Company (SO) CEO\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/05\/big-bet-on-solar-power-sam-booher-shale-and-australia-so-ceo-thomas-a-fanning-so-2012-05-23.html\">\nThomas A. Fanning said:<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\nFrom an energy standpoint, Southern Company is a little bit smaller,\nbut similar to, the energy production profile of the nation of\nAustralia. We are a great, big company from an energy production\nstandpoint.\n<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CRM6CcrGjf4\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"480\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"390\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nMeanwhile in Australia,\nGiles Parkinson wrote for Clean Technica 10 October 2012,\n<a href=\"http:\/\/cleantechnica.com\/2012\/10\/10\/australias-1st-utility-scale-solar-farm-now-open\/\">\nAustralia&#8217;s 1st Utility-Scale Solar Farm Now On!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/cleantechnica.com\/2012\/10\/10\/australias-1st-utility-scale-solar-farm-now-open\/\">\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" class=\"at-xid-6a0120a58214e4970b017d3ca4963d970c\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b017d3ca4963d970c-pi.jpg\"   width=\"245\" height=\"145\"  \/><\/a>\nAt about 11am local time near the Western Australian town of\nGeraldton this morning, Australia&#8217;s first-utility scale solar farm\nwas officially switched on.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nIt was a suitably sunny day (blighted by three million flies) and\nalthough just 10MW in size, and built courtesy of funding from the\nlocal government, a state-owned utility and by one of the wealthiest\ncompanies on the planet, it may presage a dramatic change in the way\nthis country produces energy.\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nSo what&#8217;s SO or Georgia Power&#8217;s biggest solar plant in Georgia?\nYou remember,\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/07\/georgia-power-deploys-1-mw-solar-could-have-done-330-mw-by-now.html\">\n1 MW in Upson.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\nOK, to be fair, that&#8217;s just Georgia Power.\nSO does have larger solar farms elsewhere, including\n<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/07\/southern-company-deploying-solar-in-nevada-and-new-mexico-but-not-georgia.html\">\nthe 20 MW Apex Solar Plant in Nevada<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tristategt.org\/greenpower\/cimarron.cfm\">\nthe 30 MW Cimarron Solar Facility in New Mexico<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/story\/sunedison-sells-30mw-spectrum-solar-project-to-southern-company-and-turner-renewable-energy-2012-09-28\">\nthe &#8220;forthcoming&#8221; 30 MW Spectrum Solar Project<\/a> in Clark County, Nevada\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\nNow I know Georgia Power&#8217;s party line is that solar is only good in the U.S.\nsouthwest.\nBut I don&#8217;t know how that explains\n\n<!--more-->\nGermany being the world leader in\nsolar deployment,\nor Austin Energy deploying\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/03\/30-megawatt-solar-plant-opens-near-austin.html\">\na 30 MW solar farm<\/a> on a site with the same insolation as south Georgia,\nor\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/04\/were-just-ripe-for-solar-power-cobb-emc.html\">\nCobb EMC deploying 10 MW in Cobb County, GA<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nAnd it&#8217;s funny how\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/09\/company-to-build-90-mw-solar-and-become-a-utility.html\">\nGeorgia Solar Utilities (GaSU)<\/a>\ncan find land\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/09\/where-would-georgia-solar-utilities-inc-get-enough-land-for-80-mw-solar-generation.html\">\nright next to Georgia Power&#8217;s Plant Branch in Putnam County, Georgia<\/a>\nto build a 90 MW solar project.\nAnd GaSU&#8217;s proposal has a common feature with that Greenough River plant\nin Australia, private financing:\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\nMatt O&#8217;Connor, managing director of\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.geenergyfinancialservices.com\/press_room\/press_releases\/2012\/web\/GRSF%20MEDIA%20RELEASE%20FINALv2.htm\">\nGE Energy Financial Services,<\/a>\nwhich invests $2-$3 billion a year in energy projects each year,\nagrees. \u201cWe see incredible investment opportunities in\nAustralia and look forward to expanding on this successful project\nand applying our expertise to help the country&#8217;s renewable energy\nmarket grow.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\nYou know, if Georgia Power and Southern Company would get their\n<a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/04\/were-just-ripe-for-solar-power-cobb-emc.html\">\nthree-legged nuclear regulatory-capture stool<\/a> out of the way,\nGE might help Georgia&#8217;s renewable energy market grow.\n<\/p>\n<p>\nWe have an opportunity right now to elect some new Georgia Service\nCommissioners and legislators who might help with that.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n-jsq\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"So if Southern Company is a &#8220;great, big company&#8221; similar to Australia, why did Australia just deploy a solar farm ten times the size of the biggest one SO has in Georgia? Back in May, Southern Company (SO) CEO Thomas A. Fanning said: From an energy standpoint, Southern Company is a little bit smaller, but [&hellip;]","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":[606,1127,14,17,8,18,2,20,104,21,22,23,24],"tags":[8794,1594,8818,8704,8707,8701,8708,8699,1593,8702,8710,12,8737,8711,8712,1592,8713,8714,108,237],"class_list":["post-423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-austinenergy","category-cobb-emc","category-economy","category-ga-psc","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-government","category-law","category-nuclear","category-planning","category-politics","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","tag-austinenergy","tag-australia","tag-cobb-emc","tag-economy","tag-ga-psc","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-government","tag-greenough-river","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-nuclear","tag-planning","tag-politics","tag-putnam-county","tag-renewable-energy","tag-solar","tag-southern-company","tag-texas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-6P","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423","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=423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}