Fresh Loaf

(Sad horn)

From the Savannah Morning News:

The sun won’t be generating significant electricity any time soon in Chatham County – plans for the biggest solar projects were delayed when Georgia Power announced last month that it was out of funds to produce solar and other “green” power.

“We had to cap the amount we would buy back, because there’s only so much the program would bear as we rolled it out and it started to be developed,” said Ervan Hancock, Georgia Power’s renewable and green strategy manager.

…

“Just at the time alternative energy is beginning to take root, they are stifling these initiatives by artificially putting a cap on it,” [Savannah-based solar advocate Jack Star] said. “This is unbelievable at a time when the rest of the country is moving forward with alternatives.”

Georgia Power’s Green Energy Program, launched nearly three years ago, has enrolled about 4,400 customers among a total customer base of 2.3 million. Those enrolled voluntarily purchase nearly 19,000 blocks of 100-kilowatt-hours each per month for an extra $3.50 to $4.50 per block. That money funds the premium that Georgia Power pays to producers of solar and other green power.

The Morning News has the full story.

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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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The answer: 540,000 metric tonnes, equivalent to the household energy use of 150,000 Atlanta residents or 98,000 passenger vehicles. That’s according to Georgia Tech professors and students who helped the city analyze its annual greenhouse gas emissions.

Mayor Shirley Franklin announced the city’s carbon footprint in conjunction with the inaugural report by Sustainable Atlanta, the city’s partner project with a consulting firm. Franklin has set a goal to reduce the city’s carbon emissions seven percent by 2012. The next step involves creating an Atlanta Climate Action Plan.

Some goals — as well as some hopes for Obamabucks — are after the jump.

(more…)

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Something to keep in mind when you go into the voting booth. The pro-conservation nonprofit organization gives its seal of approval to the following candidates:

UPDATE: An eagle-eyed viewer reminds me via e-mail that Jacobs is no longer a Democrat.

Senate
District 6 – Doug Stoner (D)
District 29 – Seth Harp (R)
District 42 – David Adelman (D)
District 46 – Bill Cowsert (R)

Public Service Commission
District 4 – Jim Powell (D)

House
District 8 – Charles Jenkins (D)
District 11 – Barbara Massey Reece (D)
District 13 – Katie Dempsey (R)
District 28 – Jeannette Jamieson (D)
District 34 – Rich Golick (D)
District 44 – Sheila Jones (D)
District 80 – Mike Jacobs (D) (R)
District 81 – Jill Chambers (R)
District 85 – Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D)
District 177 – Mark Hatfield (R)

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At Manuel’s Tavern on Tuesday night, there were chicken wings, some hummus, lots of beer, and a roomful of residents who were tired of Georgia’s reputation as a coal-dependent embarrassment when it comes to energy. In other words, it was a typical night at Manuel’s. But on this night, the crowd was talking with someone who says he can change the state’s filthy energy ways.

Jim Powell, the Democratic nominee for the Georgia Public Service Commission — the quasi-judicial state agency that helps determine how much it costs to keep your lights turned on and your house toasty warm — was amongst nearly 50 well wishers at the Tuesday night fundraiser held in his honor at the political pub in Poncy-Highland.

Organized by some of the city’s leading environmental activists, the benefit was one of several scheduled around the state to give Powell, a former executive with the U.S. Department of Energy, a financial advantage over his well-financed opponent on Nov. 4, Bubba McDonald.

Powell, in contrast to McDonald, has pledged not to accept contributions from  lawyers and lobbyists who represent the industries he’d regulate should he win the  general election. (”How could I be objective and make decisions on your behalf — and my behalf — if I’m taking money from them?” he asks the crowd.) While a boon for his integrity, that promise has left Powell in a lurch when it comes to cash. He’s just now getting the chance to widely distribute yard signs. Television commercials, considered one of the best ways to reach voters in any race, may prove too costly, he says.

So what does a guy who wants to run for one of the state’s most powerful — yet misunderstood — agencies  do?

(Photo courtesy Jim Powell for Georgia Public Service Commission)

(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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Trash talk can be taken as a good sign for the environment — at least when it’s between competitors on the trade-show floor at the annual Greenprints conference on sustainable building.

And all it took was a little prodding.

“Geothermal cannot get you a good return,” Jay Sampat, who manufacturers solar water-heating panels, declared when asked why someone should select solar over the competing technology of geothermal heat pumps.

Humbug, geothermal installer Kenny Libby shot back when told what Sampat said: “Those poor, poor solar guys.”

All of which makes Atlanta’s lead pied piper for green building somewhat happy. “That is great. … It’s the free market system,” the Southface Energy Institute’s Dennis Creech said last week during the conference at the Westin Peachtree Plaza. He notes that one in 10 new commercial projects now seeks eco-certification, when only a few years ago green building usually was considered just a “demonstration project.” “This is not just a movement. This is now a smart way of doing business.”

The meeting displayed loads of cool devices designed not only to save the world but also to get green-geeks like me excited. And it was truly startling to witness dozens of presentations from green builders who literally are changing Atlanta’s landscape daily.

Above: TOILET TALK: Denise Grimm (left) grabs a card from Andrea Paulinelli of Eco Transitions. Paulinelli was at Greenprints to extol her water-efficient commodes. Photo shot by: Joeff Davis

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Georgia Power, the largest subsidiary of energy juggernaut Southern Company, announced that it’s accepting proposals from wind- and solar-power providers, which the company will in turn sell to its Georgia customers. Yippee! Zero-emission energy for we!

Well, possibly. According to a Georgia Power representative, there are few providers in the state, as Georgia has historically been a region not too suitable for solar- and wind-power generation. (The company did recently find, however, that wind power would be feasible along the coast.) You’ve got until October of next year to hook those pretty pinwheels in your garden up to a battery and make our world a clean and spiffy place. And yourself a buck. Click on the link above to get the 40-page proposal.
Has Georgia Power not thought about contacting the Manns? That 45-foot-tall eco-monster of a turbine they built in Grant Park might just pay off.

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