Fresh Loaf

Of course he signs it on Earth Day. The legislation, House Bill 473, creates a grant program that provides incentives to businesses that install solar panels, produce heat from geothermal heaters, and invest in energy efficiency.

From the governor’s office:

“HB 473 provides Georgia companies with additional incentives for investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy,” said Governor Perdue. “These clean energy grants will also help the private sector meet the state’s goal of reducing energy consumption by 15 percent.”

HB 473 will be administered by GEFA under similar terms and conditions of the current Clean Energy Property Tax Credit (HB 670) passed last year. Quality standards, such as Energy Star criteria for geothermal heat pumps and a high efficiency standard (exceeding ASHRAE 90.1.2004 by 30 percent) for lighting and buildings, determine eligibility for the grant program. The grants will be available on a first come, first served basis; installation of the qualifying clean energy property must be completed before a grant application can be submitted. The maximum grant for each applicant is limited to the lesser of 35 percent of the cost of the clean energy property or the statutory caps.

There’s a hitch though — the size of the grant program depends on how much stimulus cash our benevolent federal overlords decide to give us this summer.

While HB 473 authorizes Georgia to use ARRA funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy grants to non-residential consumers, the state will not know whether this is possible or how much will be available until its application for recovery funds is reviewed this summer by the U.S. Department of Energy. GEFA is expected to receive a total of approximately $82.5 million for the State Energy Program through ARRA, which will support many other efforts in addition to HB 473.

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Ajeet Rohatgi, the Georgia Tech professor who founded the Norcross-based solar power technology company Suniva, has been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and several other organizations for his life’s work in the clean energy field.

After over thirty years of innovative research and discoveries in photovoltaic (PV) technology, Dr. Ajeet Rohatgi, founder and CTO of Suniva, was recently recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) for a lifetime’s contribution to making solar technology a realistic, low-cost energy solution. The U.S. EPA will honor Dr. Rohatgi as an Individual Climate Protection Award Winner in a ceremony held today at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

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Dr. Rohatgi is a regents professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he founded the school’s PV research program and later established the first University Center of Excellence for Photovoltaic Research and Education (UCEP), a program funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. In 2007, he founded Suniva, a Norcross, GA-based company, to commercialize the world’s most advanced low-cost high-efficiency solar cells.

“This is a critical time in the history of solar research and deployment. Never before in my career have I seen today’s confluence of technological advances, political will and economic conditions necessary to bring solar into the mainstream. I’m honored to receive such recognitions as America and the world embrace photovoltaics as a practical energy solution,” said Rohatgi.

In last week’s Green Guide, we noted Suniva as one of metro Atlanta’s examples of a company that’s making strides to foster a green economy.

(Courtesy Suniva)

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From the Associated Press:

Salazar said ocean winds along the East Coast can generate 1 million megawatts of power, roughly the equivalent of 3,000 medium-sized coal-fired power plants. That’s nearly five times more than currently exist in the United States, according to the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department.

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From the AJC’s man in D.C.:

In moves that could potentially change the Georgia coast, the Obama Administration is making wind energy development off of Atlantic states a major priority.

At the same time, it also wants to update studies to determine the viability of oil and gas exploration in the Atlantic.

At a renewable energy conference here Thursday, Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar released portions of a new report that shows wind turbines off the Atlantic coastline could generate enough energy to supply one-fourth of the nation’s electricity needs.

“We know we have huge wind energy potential” in the Atlantic, Salazar told reporters afterwards. “This will be a high priority for us.”

The best potential for wind energy is probably off Delaware, Massachusetts and other Northeastern states, Salazar said.

But “there is significant potential in the Southern Atlantic states as well for wind energy,” he added.

In 2006, Georgia Tech and Atlanta-based Southern Co. discovered that wind power could be generated off the state’s coast but said it was cost-prohibitive.

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Big news for Suniva, a solar-cell company headquartered in Norcross.

Urvaksh Karkaria and Douglas Sams report:

Norcross, Ga.-based Suniva Inc. will supply solar cells to Aerotropolis Atlanta, a planned 130-acre mixed-use redevelopment of the former Hapeville Ford plant.

The deal could be worth “tens of millions of dollars,” said Jim Jacoby, developer of 6.5 million-square-foot aviation-intensive business district that is expected to include office, retail, restaurant, hotel and airport parking. The site is adjacent to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

Suniva, a Georgia Tech startup, claims to have a lower-cost way to make solar cells.

The company, which snagged nearly $1 billion in orders from Indian and European solar module makers, has developed technology to make solar cells that can transform more of the sun’s energy into the juice that powers today’s plugged-in world.

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The solar infrastructure is expected to satiate up to half of the development’s electricity needs. Longer term, Jacoby said, he plans to sell excess power generated at Aerotropolis to surrounding developments.

Jacoby also plans to install solar cells in other projects, including at Atlantic Station — the developer’s best know redevelopment project.

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Georgia Public Service Commissioner Stan Wise told Congress today that the state lacked sufficient wind, solar and biomass potential — which means it’s unable to meet proposed renewable energy standards.

Not so, says Stephen Smith, the executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. After hearing the commissioner’s testimony, Smith said Wise — who has been accused before of being too close to the utilities he regulates — was “doing the bidding of Southern power companies” and singing the same ole song when it comes to Georgia’s energy potential. Smith also takes issue with U.S. Congressman John Barrow’s claim that Georgia doesn’t have enough trees for a robust biomass program.

Smith’s full statement, with links to research included, is after the jump.

(more…)

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State tax credits for a variety of energy-efficiency improvements and installations on homes and businesses are now available. The eligibility criteria is available for viewing at the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority’s website.

The perks cap out at $2.5 million each year and will be pro-rated among the applicants. The credits sprang from HB 670, a piece of legislation that Pam Davidson, one of the Republican candidates for the Public Service Comission, helped push through the notoriously un-progressive General Assembly this past session.

Here are some facts from a GEFA press release.

Consistent with Governor Perdue’s commitment to the Conserve Georgia campaign and the Governor’s Energy Challenge, the tax credit creates an income tax credit for a variety of energy efficient and renewable energy technologies including:

• Active solar space heating;

• Solar electric and solar thermal electric;

• Wind;

• Certain bio-electricity facilities (non-residential only);

• Geothermal heat pumps;

• Efficient lighting (non-residential only); and

• Energy efficient buildings (non-residential only).

“The Georgia Clean Energy Property Tax Credit is part of our state’s investment in a clean energy future,” said Chris Clark, executive director of the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority (GEFA). “This incentive will accelerate Georgians’ adoption of energy efficient technologies and will help them to meet the Governor’s Energy Challenge.”

Most credits are capped at 35 percent of the cost of the property or a certain dollar amount established by the statute. There are different credit limits for residential and non-residential installations. The bill also provides tax credits for wood residuals delivered to qualified renewable biomass facilities. The Georgia Forestry Commission will establish the value of the biomass credits.

A total of $2.5 million in tax credits are available each calendar year from 2008 to 2012. The Department of Revenue will provide quarterly updates about the amount of available credits via its website – www.dor.ga.gov. GEFA will provide annual reports on the energy and economic benefits of the tax credit.

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Sounds strange, but bear with me.

J.C. Bell, an agricultural researcher who lives in Tifton, recently made Internet headlines as the mysterious man who holds the answers to the nation’s energy problems. He didn’t shoot a hole in the ground and up came a’bubblin’ crude. He stood downwind from a gassy cow and smelled opportunity.

“Let me tell you, cows have a great ability to make gas,” Bell says during a phone interview.

The key to the cow’s talent, he says, is a bacteria living in its body that produces hydrocarbon. When it interacts with waste, it produces gas. After four years of under-the-radar research, Bell says he’s identified the bacteria and now plans to genetically modify and produce it on a mass scale, and in turn use it to convert waste into fuel. Bell’s operation is building several pilot plants and production facilities capable of pumping our 500-1,000 barrels per day from each.

He says the result, which he hopes to see by October next year, wouldn’t require a change in the energy infrastructure. Unlike electric cars, which would necessitate a sweeping retrofit of charging stations and a reexamination of the power grid, Bell claims his idea could be pumped directly into your gas tank. It wouldn’t replace our need for fossil fuels, he says, but it would ease our dependence on them. (more…)

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Energy experts are saying that Georgia’s potential to become a clean-technology leader is best realized in pine ethanol. The state’s abundant arboreal resources, they argue, could give us an alternative to gasoline as well as a revenue stream.

But there’s also wind. Studies conducted by Dr. Sam Shelton of Georgia Tech discovered that breezes off the state’s coast were sufficient enough to generate power. The turbines would be located more than 12 miles from shore and beyond the horizon, far out of eyesight of landowners and beachgoers. The ocean floor is shallow enough and the proposed turbine locations are outside hurricanes’ paths and migration patterns of the endangered right whale. Problems: It costs a lot of coin to run transmission cables along the ocean floor and takes a lot of time to obtain the permits to do so.

Maybe it’ll take raising public awareness to get Georgians to tell the utilities and EMCs to invest in wind power. Maybe this European commercial showcasing how wind feels so damn lonely just blowing in this world, adrift and without a purpose, might convince us to put out the call. (Warning: There is a brief shot of Mr. Wind using his supernatural powers to momentarily lift a woman’s skirt . That sentence I just wrote makes it sound worse than it is.)

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