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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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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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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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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The man who invented powdered peanut butter has inked a deal with the U.S. Dept. of Defense to produce oil and gasoline out of our waste.

J.C. Bell, an agricultural scientist in Tifton whom we’ve written about previously on Fresh Loaf, will build a pilot facility at Fort Stewart and several other military bases around the country to convert trash and biomass into fuel by using cloned bacteria found in — ahem — a cow’s hindquarters.

Read all about it here.

(Hat tip to Rogue109 at Peach Pundit)

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And they’re not even considering the wind potential off Georgia’s coast. From the office of Gov. George Ervin “Sonny” Perdue:

According to a recent Forbes article entitled “America’s Best Places For Alternative Energy,” the abundance of biomass in Georgia’s Bioenergy Corridor ranks third in the nation as a potential source of renewable energy. The article referenced the amount of privately owned forest in Georgia, more than any other state in the country, as a reason for the state’s ranking. Forbes also cited that “roughly 50 million tons of the state’s own timber end up in the state’s wood-products manufacturing plants every year” and the industry “returns nearly half of it in the form of primary mill wood debris.” Only Iowa and North Dakota ranked higher. Rounding out the top five were Mississippi and North Carolina.

“Georgia’s wealth of natural resources combined with our research institutions and a strong business climate create an ideal environment for the development of renewable energy,” said Governor Perdue. “We appreciate Forbes’ recognition of our ability to develop alternative energy sources.”

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Georgia is at the forefront of the nation’s development of cellulosic ethanol, a non-food feedstock for the production of ethanol from pine and other wood residuals. Range Fuels broke ground on the nation’s first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in Soperton on November 6, 2007. The facility is expected to be operational in 2009. In addition, the state’s research institutions including the Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Georgia and the Herty Advanced Materials Development Center are providing R&D in support of cellulosic ethanol and other renewable energy alternatives.

Full press release follows after the jump.

(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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