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<\/a>\r\nIt’s the sun, the sol of our solar system, to which everything that\r\nlives and moves, including the wind, owes its existence. Without the\r\nsun, there is no us, no Earth. You can’t miss it. It’s the biggest\r\nthing in the sky, the biggest thing for at least 24 trillion miles,\r\nand at 4.5 billion years old it is middle-aged and remains the most\r\nabundant source of power between here and Alpha Centauri, zapping\r\nour planet every minute with more energy than humanity can consume\r\nin a year.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nThe best thing is, the sun is free. Still, for most of those eons,\r\ncapturing the sun’s energy for human consumption has been like\r\npicking crops with a catcher’s mitt.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nBut over the past few years, photovoltaic technology\r\n(“photo” for light, “voltaic” meaning\r\nelectricity) has gotten way more efficient, and the previously\r\nprohibitive price has fallen dramatically, setting the stage for\r\nwhat’s happening now in Georgia: Solar deployment and interest are\r\nincreasing dramatically.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n“This is a very dynamic time for solar energy, and it\r\ndemonstrates a pent-up demand and interest in solar energy for\r\nGeorgia,” says Mark Bell, chair of the Georgia Solar Energy\r\nAssociation (GSEA) and president of Atlanta-based Empower Energy\r\nTech-nology. “There’s a great potential here for real,\r\nsustainable economic development.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
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<\/a>\r\nGrillo was pretty thorough in getting a range of points of view\r\n(with the notable exception of\r\n\r\nGeorgia Sierra Club<\/a>),\r\nand\r\n\r\nthe whole article<\/a>\r\nis well worth reading.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nAmong the things I told Grillo back at the beginning of May,\r\nI’m especially glad he included this:\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\n\r\nThe idea grew out of GaSU’s frustration with Georgia Power’s (and\r\nother utility companies’, like the EMCs’) geographic monopoly,\r\n\r\n
<\/a>\r\n as\r\nprescribed under the 1973 Georgia Territorial Electric Service Act,\r\nwhich protects utilities from competition within their defined\r\nservice areas.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n“That territorial act is the biggest hurdle we have for\r\ndeploying a real solar industry in Georgia,” says Quarter-man,\r\nwho likes the fact that HB 657 focuses on rural solar development,\r\nbut he doesn’t like the idea of another regulated utility monopoly,\r\nwhich is what the bill suggests.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nIt’s hard to find anyone who does like the idea of a new monopoly.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nHere’s\r\nHB 657 annotated<\/a>.\r\nAnd here’s\r\nSB 51<\/a>, also flawed, much closer to what we actually need.\r\n
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<\/a>\r\nThat plus\r\nHB 267<\/a> would stop Georgia Power from\r\ncharging its customers for cost overruns on Plant Vogtle,\r\nwhich would\r\n\r\nlikely cause S&P to downgrade Southern Company like it did for Kemper\r\nCoal’s cost overruns<\/a> once SO couldn’t charge those to the customers\r\nor the state or federal governments.\r\nIf SO and Georgia Power couldn’t keep wasting our resources on\r\nthat boondoggle at Plant Vogtle, they’d get on with solar faster.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
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<\/a>\r\nAs\r\n\r\nEdison Electric Institute recently spelled out<\/a>,\r\ndistributed rooftop solar power\r\n\r\nis the real disruptive challenge<\/a>\r\nto the century-old cozy baseload capacity business model\r\nof the electric utilities,\r\nand rooftop solar, unlike a centralized monopoly,\r\ncould bring jobs and lower electric bills\r\n\r\nto rural Georgia\r\nwhere they’re needed most<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
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<\/a>\r\n\r\nTen times more solar by 2015 through Georgia Power’s efforts is nothing compared\r\nto what will happen once that 1973 law is out of the way.\r\nAnd GA PSC could do a lot more about that right now.\r\nThe Georgia legislature could do even more in January.\r\n<\/p>\r\n