{"id":6274,"date":"2013-10-23T06:16:58","date_gmt":"2013-10-23T10:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=6274"},"modified":"2013-10-23T06:30:26","modified_gmt":"2013-10-23T10:30:26","slug":"dominion-buying-up-solar-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2013\/10\/dominion-buying-up-solar-projects.html","title":{"rendered":"Dominion buying up solar projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\nA Virginia electric utility bought a solar project near Georgia Power’s\r\nnuclear plant Vogtle, and has been busily buying up four more,\r\nin Indiana and Connecticut.\r\nThe Georgia electric customer is\r\n\r\nrecent coal-to-solar convert Cobb EMC<\/a>, not Georgia Power.\r\nThis is the same Dominion Power that got Virginia to legalize its\r\n\r\n“standby charge” of a monthly fee for individuals to connect solar to its grid<\/a>.\r\nIs Dominion trying to beat \r\nEdison Electric’s warning of the disruptive challenge of rooftop solar<\/a>\r\nby building large solar plants?\r\nIf so, it’s a start, with quite a few construction jobs.\r\nAnd all of this new solar power is expected to be online this year,\r\na lot faster than nuclear….\r\n

\r\nDominion says of its\r\n\r\nAzalea Solar Power Facility<\/a>:\r\n

\r\n

\"LocationDominion announced on March 1, 2013, that it has acquired a solar energy development project in Georgia from Smart Energy Capital and Jacoby Development. The expected start of commercial operations is Dec. 1, 2013. (> View our news release<\/a> for complete details.)<\/p>\r\n

Dominion’s Azalea Solar Power Facility is planned to produce approximately 7.7 megawatts (AC) using photovoltaic technology. Dominion will select a contractor and oversee the construction of the project. The 40-acre project is located on 100 acres of farm and forest land about 60 miles southwest of Augusta, Ga.<\/p>\r\n

The project has a 25-year power purchase agreement with Cobb Electric Membership Corp., one of the largest electric cooperatives in Georgia, serving roughly 200,000 customers.<\/p>\r\n

\r\n

As of July 2013, construction is well underway, and the photo below shows some initial solar panels that have been installed.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nDominion currently summarizes its\r\n\r\nSolar Projects<\/a>:\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n

We recently announced the addition of Dominion’s first major generation-scale solar project in Georgia<\/a>, a 7.7 megawatt facility capable of powering more than 1,900 homes. We since have acquired three solar-power development projects<\/a> near Indianapolis, Ind., known as Indy Solar I, Indy Solar II and Indy Solar III. The projects will generate a peak combined output of 28.6 megawatts of electricity.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThat’s an interesting start.\r\nBut Dominion is still naming solar installations with small numbers,\r\nlike nuclear reactors.\r\nWhen electric utilities get on with installing so much rooftop solar\r\nthey have to use large numbers and they stop bothering to make\r\npress releases for each one, we’ll know they’re serious.\r\nYou know, like\r\n\r\nAustin Energy already started back in 2003<\/a>.\r\n

\r\n

The addition of these facilities is consistent with our philosophy to balance our generation portfolio<\/a> with of all types of fuel sources: nuclear, clean coal, biomass, natural gas, hydro-power, wind and solar.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nAnd there’s more.\r\nYesterday Power Engineering reported\r\n\r\nDominion acquires solar project in north-central Connecticut<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\n

Dominion (NYSE: D<\/a>) has acquired a solar project\r\nin Somers, Ct., capable of producing approximately\r\n5 megawatts (AC) of electricity, from Kyocera<\/a> (NYSE: KYO) in a deal that closed Tuesday\r\nfor an undisclosed sum.<\/p>\r\n

Kyocera and CleanPath, a San Francisco-based clean-energy company,\r\nhad jointly developed the Somers project, which is expected to begin\r\ncommercial operation within the 4th quarter of 2013.<\/p>\r\n

The Somers Solar Center will use Kyocera Solar Inc.’s,\r\nphotovoltaic technology to produce enough electricity to supply\r\nnearly 1,400 homes. The electricity will go to Connecticut Light & Power Co.<\/a> under a 20-year\r\npurchased-power agreement.<\/p>\r\n

Somers Solar Center is located on 90 leased acres in north-central\r\nConnecticut, roughly 4 miles south of the Massachusetts state\r\nline. Prime Solutions Inc., a Connecticut-based company, is the\r\ncenter’s engineering and construction contractor. The project provided\r\nabout 80 jobs during the peak of construction, most of which came from\r\nlocally-owned companies. Once in operation, the center will be serviced\r\nby a contractor.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nSo 7.7 + 28.6 + 5 is 41.3 megawatts of solar power Dominion\r\nhas bought this year.\r\nAll of which is expected to be online this year.\r\nHm, solar seems to get installed a lot quicker than nuclear….\r\n

\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Virginia electric utility bought a solar project near Georgia Power’s nuclear plant Vogtle, and has been busily buying up four more, in Indiana and Connecticut. The Georgia electric customer is recent coal-to-solar convert Cobb EMC, not Georgia Power. This is the same Dominion Power that got Virginia to legalize its “standby charge” of a […]","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":[1127,14,18,104,23,24],"tags":[7123,8818,749,8704,8701,8708,7124,8702,12,7,8737,8713,8714,7125,6],"class_list":["post-6274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cobb-emc","category-economy","category-georgia-power","category-nuclear","category-renewable-energy","category-solar","tag-azalea-solar","tag-cobb-emc","tag-dominion-power","tag-economy","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-indy-solar","tag-lake","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-nuclear","tag-renewable-energy","tag-solar","tag-somers-solar-center","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-1Dc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6274","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=6274"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6279,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6274\/revisions\/6279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}