{"id":5693,"date":"2013-09-18T14:20:55","date_gmt":"2013-09-18T18:20:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=5693"},"modified":"2013-09-18T14:34:10","modified_gmt":"2013-09-18T18:34:10","slug":"nuke-overruns-already-causing-distributed-solar-in-south-georgia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/nuke-overruns-already-causing-distributed-solar-in-south-georgia.html","title":{"rendered":"Nuke overruns already causing distributed solar in south Georgia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nPeople are tired of\r\n\r\nirresponsible trash government<\/a> at the state level\r\ncolluding with monopoly utilities to hold Georgia back in distributed\r\nsolar power, and some of us are doing something about it;\r\nyou can, too.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/a>\r\n

\r\nJigar Shah\r\nwrote for SaportReport 15 September 2013\r\n\r\nSolar more viable as Georgia\u2019s new nuclear power plants face overruns<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n\r\nI am seeing Georgia’s nuclear financial woes starting to prompt a\r\nboon for distributed energy including solar, wind, biomass,\r\ngeothermal, low-impact hydro, high efficiency cogeneration, and\r\nother sources of electricity.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nBiomass?\r\n\r\nLet’s not go back to that carbon-polluting forest-destroying factory-exploding waste of time and resources<\/a>.\r\nSolar, wind, efficiency, and conservation are the main events, with solar increasingly leading the pack.\r\nAnd those nuke cost overruns are already driving solar up even faster:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nIn fact, the potential financial hit is so bad, that the AARP, the\r\nGeorgia Solar Energy Association, the Georgia Tea Party, and other\r\nunlikely bedfellows have found common ground — in solar\r\nenergy.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThe main driver uniting these unlikely allies is a mutual dissent\r\nwith the public utility’s lock on their energy choices.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe perplexing issue that I see time and again is that public\r\nutilities often “forget” that their first obligation is\r\nto the public. While the public utility is a private corporation, it\r\nhas a public supplied monopoly. They should remember that their\r\nobligation to the public is more important than their obligation to\r\nshareholders. The reason is that the minute the public can resist a\r\nmandated burden, it will.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nIn this case, Georgia Power’s desire to build an expensive nuclear\r\nplant rather than explore other, more reasonable options has\r\nprompted widespread resistance.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\nMoore’s Law for solar power<\/a>: it’s\r\n\r\nworking<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n

\r\nWhatever the reason, the antipathy to the local government\r\nsanctioned monopoly utility company has created an opening for solar\r\nPV (photovoltaic). And it is precisely this burning desire by the\r\npeople for choice that has elevated solar PV demand.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nWith radical cost reduction in solar PV, we are on the cusp of\r\nsomething truly transformational, a moment where electricity\r\ncustomers can generate electricity at a lower cost than the\r\nelectricity provided to them from the government sanctioned monopoly\r\nutility company.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThe writer maybe doesn’t realize just\r\n\r\nhow transformational<\/a>\r\nsolar is going to be,\r\nbecause unless\r\n\r\nyou’ve studied previous exponentially-growing industries like\r\nPCs, the Internet<\/a>, and\r\n\r\nmobile phones<\/a>,\r\neven with\r\n\r\nall the evidence<\/a>,\r\nit’s hard for many people to believe\r\n\r\neven how disruptive rooftop solar already is<\/a>\r\nto the cozy century-long baseload-monopoly electric utility industry.\r\nThe writer attempts to equate solar to other power sources:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nBut it is not just solar. Solar PV will be joined by wind,\r\ngeothermal, low-impact hydro, high efficiency natural gas\r\ncogeneration, and other sources of electricity. The reason we focus\r\non solar PV is not that it is “the answer” for all\r\npower, but it so succinctly summarizes the difference between the\r\ncorporate power of the utility and the desire on the part of\r\nratepayers for freedom of choice in the energy market.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nSo, if energy choice is the driver, the question is: “What’s\r\nthe future for solar in Georgia?” If it is not the end-all\r\nsavior, what is its role and how big can it become?\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nToday the lowest cost installations in the United States would make\r\nsolar cost effective without state incentives in Georgia. The\r\npartnership between the odd bedfellows of the Tea Party and the\r\nenvironmental organizations has resulted in a 525MW solar mandate\r\nfor Georgia Power.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\nGeorgia Sierra Club<\/a>\r\nand\r\n\r\nnational Sierra Club<\/a>\r\nhave been opposed to coal and nukes for years and\r\n\r\nfor solar and wind<\/a>.\r\nI’m a Democrat, and \r\nI<\/a>\r\nand\r\n\r\nother Democrats<\/a>\r\nspoke for solar power\r\n\r\nat GA PSC<\/a> before\r\n\r\nthat decision<\/a>,\r\nalong with many others of all political stripes.\r\nJust because the media have fixated on a single name doesn’t change\r\nthat reality.\r\nIs there any Georgian who doesn’t want jobs for Georgians?\r\nWho doesn’t want lower rates for customers?\r\nWho doesn’t want clean air and water for themselves and their children?\r\n

\r\nDoubling Georgia Power’s tiny (\r\nless than New Jersey<\/a>)\r\nis just a tiny baby step.\r\nGeorgia Power still operates\r\n\r\nthe dirtiest coal plant in the country<\/a> at Plant Scherer near Macon\r\nwhile\r\nSouthern Company operates that plus #2 Plant Miller in Alabama.\r\n

\r\n

\r\nThis amount of solar PV is more than enough to produce 0.5 percent\r\nof total electricity while allowing Georgia installers to match the\r\nbest practices necessary to achieve cost effective solar PV by 2016.\r\nAll the while, electricity rates in Georgia will keep going up. Why?\r\nThe nuclear power plant is not yet completed and won’t be until at\r\nleast 2020.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nYep,\r\n\r\nGA PSC abdicated cost oversight<\/a> for those new nukes for years to come,\r\nwhile\r\n\r\nGeorgia Power continues to get a rate hike<\/a> about once a year.\r\nRemember last time, 30 years ago,\r\n\r\nPlant Vogtle nukes costs blew up more than 20 times the original estimates<\/a>.\r\n

\r\nAnd it’s not just nukes:\r\n\r\nnatural gas rate hikes are also on autopilot<\/a>.\r\nThat’s a big reason natural gas is not going to be a long-term\r\nleader in Georgia:\r\nit costs too much.\r\nMonopoly utilities do indeed levy\r\n\r\n“an absurd tax upon the rest of their fellow-citizens”<\/a>,\r\nas Adam Smith remarked more than 200 years ago.\r\n

\r\n

\r\nIn the end, most Georgians are not motivated by low-carbon\r\nresources, they are driven by choice. They are driven by the\r\n“hedge-value” solar PV provides against paying for the\r\nmistakes made by the local government sanctioned monopoly utility\r\ncompany.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nAnd then there are\r\nthe proven\r\n\r\nthe radiation-lying document-forging<\/a>\r\nparts of the nuclear industry, some of which supplied parts for Georgia\r\nPower’s new Plant Vogtle nukes.\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n\r\nDr. Sidney Smith<\/a>, a dermatologist and a longtime solar investor, has\r\ncalled solar the “new cotton of the South.” Time will\r\ntell whether solar will live up to the economic power of “King\r\nCotton,” but we can safely assume that no one will be praising\r\nnuclear that way anytime soon.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nWe need to insist on Georgia Power leading Georgia and\r\n\r\nSouthern Company leading the southeast, the country, and the world<\/a>\r\nin deploying rooftop solar and offshore wind,\r\nfor jobs, for lower rates for customrs, for profit, and for\r\nclean air and water for all Georgians.\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People are tired of irresponsible trash government at the state level colluding with monopoly utilities to hold Georgia back in distributed solar power, and some of us are doing something about it; you can, too. Jigar Shah wrote for SaportReport 15 September 2013 Solar more viable as Georgia\u2019s new nuclear power plants face overruns, I […]","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":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[120,141,216,264,265,16,8,18,2,6124,104,23,24,479,55,36],"tags":[8753,6129,6140,8707,8701,8708,8699,8702,12,7,25,562,8737,959,8713,1605,2888,8714,108,6957,8773,6,8716],"class_list":["post-5693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biomass","category-co2","category-coal","category-energy-conservation","category-energy-efficiency","category-environment","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-government","category-natural-gas-2","category-nuclear","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","category-trash","category-water","category-wind","tag-coal","tag-disruptive","tag-edison-electric-institute","tag-ga-psc","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-government","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-moores-law","tag-natural-gas","tag-nuclear","tag-offshore-wind","tag-renewable-energy","tag-rooftop-solar","tag-sidney-smith","tag-solar","tag-southern-company","tag-transformational","tag-trash","tag-valdosta","tag-wind"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1tP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5693","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=5693"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5700,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5693\/revisions\/5700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}