{"id":5704,"date":"2013-09-21T09:12:50","date_gmt":"2013-09-21T13:12:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=5704"},"modified":"2013-09-21T09:14:34","modified_gmt":"2013-09-21T13:14:34","slug":"which-first-to-get-more-solar-fight-big-money-or-new-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/09\/which-first-to-get-more-solar-fight-big-money-or-new-technology.html","title":{"rendered":"Which first to get more solar: fight big money or new technology?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nIn Georgia we’re still below 1% electric power generation from solar,\r\nand we can get to 20-30% with no new technology whatever.\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nGeorgia Power’s nuke overruns are\r\n\r\nalready causing a reaction of still more distributed solar<\/a>.\r\nYet even that good news gets the usual reaction:\r\n“This is necessary but not sufficient: a breakthrough in energy storage technology is required.”\r\nWhich just ain’t so;\r\ndistributed rooftop solar alone is plenty to move Georgia way ahead.\r\nThat’s why\r\n\r\nEdison Electric Institute calls distributed solar<\/a>\r\na massively disruptive influence on the utilities’\r\ncentury-old cozy baseload model.\r\nWhat’s holding solar back is those same big utilities, who understandably\r\ndon’t want to change their long-time cash cow.\r\nBut they’re going to change, and pretty quickly.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nPeople unfamiliar with the sunny south (which is most of the world\r\nsouth of, oh, Germany), still say things like this:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nMaybe breakthrough is the wrong word, there are some interesting\r\ndevelopments in air batteries for instance. Certainly there needs to\r\na similar improvement (to above) in storage technology to make\r\ndistributed work for first world countries. In third world countries\r\nwithout sunk costs in legacy infrastructure and monopolist\r\nestablished cartels there’s everything to play for with current\r\nstate of the art in a huge range of fields, not just energy.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThe\r\n\r\n15 kilowatts on my farm workshop<\/a> already work just fine, thanks.\r\nNo new technology or wires or anything at the utility to make them work, either,\r\nand no batteries required.\r\n

\r\n\r\nThe sunny south has\r\n\r\nmany rural areas<\/a> where people pay $200, $300, or\r\neven $600 a month for electricity, where solar on their roofs would\r\ncut that to $50 or so while generating most at peak load in the\r\nafternoon when air conditioners run: plus jobs to plan, transport, install, and study\r\nall those rooftop solar installations!\r\nNo new lines, nothing new at the utility, no new technology.\r\nCity slickers take heart: your rooftops work just as well for solar.\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nEven if they’re shaded by trees, you can\r\n\r\nbuy into solar on your\r\nlocal church or business or community center roof<\/a>.\r\nOr you could, if not for Georgia’s antiquated\r\n\r\n1973 Territorial Electric Service Act<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nOnce we get up to 20-30% solar in Georgia and the southeast, then we\r\nneed a smarter grid. Southern Company has the biggest private R&D\r\noutfit in the country, and\r\n\r\nis already working on that<\/a>. With wide\r\nenough rooftop distribution, we still don’t need storage technology.\r\nWe’ll get much faster benefit from\r\n\r\nenergy efficiency and conservation<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nAt 20-30% solar,\r\n\r\npopular demand for a grid with a million rooftops<\/a>\r\nwill be so large even Southern\r\nCompany will have to finish studying it to death\r\nand do something. Well before\r\nthen, I think.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThat something still isn’t storage:\r\n\r\nit’s distributed solar, wind, the same hydro we’ve already got<\/a>,\r\nand far less natural gas, with zero coal and nukes.\r\n

\r\nSo the real issue we have to deal with to get more solar quickly\r\nis the entrenched electric utilities holding us back, with thinks like\r\n\r\nSouthern Company getting GA PSC to abdicate oversight of cost overruns<\/a>\r\nat Plant Vogtle, letting them soar to ridiculous levels by the time\r\nthe first of those is finished.\r\nHey, I’ve got an idea!\r\nLet’s demand GA PSC stop Southern Company from wasting any more of our\r\nresources on that boondoggle and get on with rooftop solar and wind offshore!\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nAt\r\n\r\n63% annual increase<\/a>\r\nin deployed solar capacity, it’s already happening, and it’s going to\r\nkeep happening faster, like money in the bank growing by compound interest.\r\nThe question is how much of our time and money can entrenched utilities\r\nwaste on sideshows like nukes and natural gas and delaying closing coal plants\r\nwhen they could and should just get on with solar and wind and a smart grid?\r\nMaybe if enough of us ask that question the utilities or the public service\r\ncommissions or the legislatures will figure out the right answer.\r\nAnd we can elect new people to those last two,\r\nplus to local and national offices.\r\n

\r\nThe\r\n\r\ncloudy day will not last forever<\/a>.\r\nThe\r\n\r\nsun will rise on the south (and the north)<\/a>,\r\nso fast doubters’ jaws will drop, just like with PCs and the Internet\r\nand mobile phones before.\r\nLet’s elect some people who get that, and\r\nlet’s get those already in office to get on it.\r\n

\r\nPS: Owed to John Pate and Harry DeLano.\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In Georgia we’re still below 1% electric power generation from solar, and we can get to 20-30% with no new technology whatever. Georgia Power’s nuke overruns are already causing a reaction of still more distributed solar. Yet even that good news gets the usual reaction: “This is necessary but not sufficient: a breakthrough in energy […]","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":[216,49,264,265,8,18,6124,104,23,24,36],"tags":[2092,8753,8721,8754,8755,8707,8701,8708,8702,12,7,562,8737,8713,8714,108,4604,6,8716],"class_list":["post-5704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coal","category-elections","category-energy-conservation","category-energy-efficiency","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-natural-gas-2","category-nuclear","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","category-wind","tag-battery","tag-coal","tag-elections","tag-energy-conservation","tag-energy-efficiency","tag-ga-psc","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-natural-gas","tag-nuclear","tag-renewable-energy","tag-solar","tag-southern-company","tag-storage","tag-valdosta","tag-wind"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1u0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5704","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=5704"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5706,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5704\/revisions\/5706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}