Georgia Electric Co-ops, including Cobb EMC and Greystone, going more solar

[gpatt0n]

It is gratifying to report that solar power generation in Georgia is becoming a reality as Green Power EMC will be supplying its 38 members - EMC's like Greystone and Cobb EMC - with 676 MW of electric power gathered from the sun by 2020.  The real kicker is the cost of production for this power will be under three cents a KWH which promises to put pressure on the co-ops to lower the cost of electricity instead of increase its cost.

 

From the article:

 

 

“This solar expansion is a game-changer,” said Peter Heintzelman, President and CEO of Cobb EMC, one of Green Power’s member cooperatives. “It allows us to offer solar energy that is cheaper than most other energy sources, meaning our consumers will get the benefits of clean, renewable energy while paying less for it.”

 

 

 

Yesterday, Silicon Ranch announced a deal withGeorgia’s Green Power EMC to supply the utility cooperatives inits network with electricity from 194 MW-AC of solar projectsthat it plans to build, under 30-year contracts.

Silicon Ranchstates that it is still undergoing negotiations with localgovernments to secure four sites for the new projects in thecentral and southern parts of the state. The developer plans tobegin construction on these projects by the end of the year, andto put them online by 2021.

This is the second large deal between Silicon Ranchand Green Power EMC. Last June, Silicon Ranch announced that it would build 200MW-AC of solar for Georgia cooperatives, meaning thatGreen Power EMC will be supplying its 38 member cooperativeswith 394 MW-AC of solar by the end of 2020.

Silicon Ranch will own and operate all of theseprojects.

This is in addition to the 283 MW of renewableenergy capacity that Green Power EMC already has in place, afigure which it says puts it in the lead among cooperativesnationally.

The secret may be price. A press release by one of the membercooperatives mentions that the price for this latest round ofsolar contracts is less than thee U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour.

“This solar expansion is agame-changer,” said Peter Heintzelman, President and CEO ofCobb EMC, one of Green Power’s member cooperatives. “It allowsus to offer solar energy that is cheaper than most otherenergy sources, meaning our consumers will get the benefits ofclean, renewable energy while paying less for it.”

 

 

 

Of course costs could be even lower without the added burden of tariffs.  Projects slated for completion in 2020, according to PV Magazine, were projected to deliver power at less than 1.75 cents per KWH over the 25 year projected life of the project.

 

And to think there were some here who said not long ago that solar will never fly.

 

pubby

[CitizenCain]

If you listened to Trump you would know that Appalachian coal is the answer.

[gpatt0n]

If you listened to Trump you would know that Appalachian coal is the answer.

 

Translated, if you listened to trump you'd be stuck in the middle of the 19th century.

 

pubby

[mrshoward]

 

Translated, if you listened to trump you'd be stuck in the middle of the 19th century.

 

pubby

 

 

You're stuck in a mental prison of the past... Trump is all about the future.

 

[CitizenCain]

 

 

You're stuck in a mental prison of the past... Trump is all about the future.

 

 

 

[Stonewall]

While I have nothing against solar power. In fact I have made pretty good money off of solar sites from time to time. There are still drawbacks to solar at this time. The footprint for 676 MW is roughly 3400 acres so you are talking about rural areas and often the consumption of farm lands to allow for all the arrays required. The biggest issue is power storage or battery technology. While storage has gotten better and will continue to improve the technology is not there yet and won't be in the near future. Storage currently adds to the footprint by about two acres per MW so add 1350 acres plus major dollars to the original figure if storage is installed. The output of a solar farm drops considerably on a partly cloudy day and drops to zero on an overcast day or at night. The manufacturers will tell you otherwise concerning cloud cover but I have metered it personally and the output drops to zero under light overcast skies. I am all for alternative energy but solar, hydro, wind and wave all have limited/regional capabilities at this time. Personally nuclear is the way to go at this time. By the way Georgia EMC's have some of the lowest rates per kwh of any providers in the nation. One of the concerns from utilities is the possibility of back feeding circuits under upgrade and repair conditions. This can be very dangerous to line crews when generation is controlled by third parties.

[glassdogs]

Isn't all that global warming gonna melt the solar panels?

[The Sound Guy]

I'll believe that price when ;they start delivering at it. Ga Power told us that Plant Vogel would cost half of what's it's costing at this stage of the process as well.

 

If you believe everything a marking guy tells you, you are doomed for disappointment.

[Rose Luxemburg]

Isn't all that global warming gonna melt the solar panels?

You so funny!!!

[gpatt0n]

I'll believe that price when ;they start delivering at it. Ga Power told us that Plant Vogel would cost half of what's it's costing at this stage of the process as well.

 

If you believe everything a marking guy tells you, you are doomed for disappointment.

 

The nuclear energy field, because it is intertwined with government, operates under different market circumstances than solar. You know this. The beginning point on the open market solar industry is one that has dropped tremendously and promises to drop further - if you don't tax the industry out of competitiveness in order to favor legacy energy sources (coal, oil, gas, nuclear).

 

At that, the cost per watt of power from panels is getting insanely low.

 

Global PV module prices collapse

by Christian Roselund

 

Well, that didn’t take long.

 

Only days after the Chinese government announced a substantial withdrawal of support for solar PV on May 31, Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) responded with a report forecasting that global PV module prices would fall 34% over the course of 2018, estimating that monocrystalline silicon modules would cost only $0.24 per watt by the end of the year.

 

The note also predicted “market panic” in the short term. Only a few weeks later both dynamics to appear to be at play, according to data by PV Insights and EnergyTrend.

 

As of June 20, PVInsights estimated that average PV module prices had fallen to $0.278 per watt for standard multicrystalline modules, with multi-PERC modules coming in at an average of $0.337 per watt, and mono-PERC modules at $0.363 per watt.

 

Credit: PVInsights

 

These numbers represent declines from 0.3% to 2.1% over the course of the last week, with the greatest fall for standard multicrystalline products.

 

PVInsights is not the only company reporting this information. EnergyTrend is also reporting average prices from $0.295 per watt to $0.367 per watt as of June 20, depending on the type of module. However EnergyTrend is seeing these numbers as the result of a much steeper weekly fall, describing price falls of up to 12.5%.

 

Again the steepest declines were for standard multicrystalline products.

 

Credit: EnergyTrend

 

Both of these appear to be global estimates, however in Europe Martin Schachinger of pvXchange is also reporting collapsed prices. "After a lack of cheap modules due to artificially induced bottlenecks caused by the market regulations in the USA and in Europe and the resulting stagnating prices, we now look forward to a module glut which inevitably causes prices to tumble," notes Schachinger in a post on the pvXchange site (in German).

 

There is less information available about U.S. prices, where module imports are affected both by Section 301 tariffs and also anti-dumping and countervailing duties imposed on solar cells and modules from Taiwan and China in 2012 and 2014.

 

The affects of these global price declines on the U.S. market are less clear. At the Renewable Energy Finance Forum Wall Street earlier this week JinkoSolar’s Jeff Juger stated that due to tariffs Chinese module price declines were not being translated to the United States. However, BNEF had previously forecast that they would, noting the liquid nature of global module supply and ample capacity in Southeast Asia, Korea and Taiwan to serve the U.S. market.

 

GTM Research has stated that it expects U.S. module price declines to somewhat offset the effects of the Section 201 tariffs and boost demand, and this rosy market prediction has been echoed by Tony Clifford of Standard Solar.

 

Earlier this spring I explored the cost of a 12kw solar installation. On the cost of the panels - which is about 40% of the cost - one of the quotes was at .77 cents a watt. For a comparison, Harbor Freight's little 100 watt system sells for about $1.87/watt. The point is megawatt solar plants are stunningly cheap to build and getting cheaper. The energy 'harvested' is from the sun.

 

Stonewall's comment

 

While I have nothing against solar power. In fact I have made pretty good money off of solar sites from time to time. There are still drawbacks to solar at this time. The footprint for 676 MW is roughly 3400 acres so you are talking about rural areas and often the consumption of farm lands to allow for all the arrays required. The biggest issue is power storage or battery technology. While storage has gotten better and will continue to improve the technology is not there yet and won't be in the near future. Storage currently adds to the footprint by about two acres per MW so add 1350 acres plus major dollars to the original figure if storage is installed. The output of a solar farm drops considerably on a partly cloudy day and drops to zero on an overcast day or at night. The manufacturers will tell you otherwise concerning cloud cover but I have metered it personally and the output drops to zero under light overcast skies. I am all for alternative energy but solar, hydro, wind and wave all have limited/regional capabilities at this time. Personally nuclear is the way to go at this time. By the way Georgia EMC's have some of the lowest rates per kwh of any providers in the nation. One of the concerns from utilities is the possibility of back feeding circuits under upgrade and repair conditions. This can be very dangerous to line crews when generation is controlled by third parties.

The land commitment for the solar cell farm may or may not be accurate but you have to remember that energy storage is on the brink of a revolution in large-scale storage. For reference though, the city of Atlanta owns 9500 acres -

double the size of all the land

 

Batteries continue to increase in capacity and continue to fall in cost and certainly have proven effective in large arrays capable of storing many megawatts of power. There are also other kinds ways to store the energy including hydrogen which has a multitude of applications from energy generation, uses in fuel cells to even direct use in ICE cars converted to run pollution-free on hydrogen.

 

As far as issues regarding cloudy skies, that is all figured into the outputs of the plants. The current power grid is capable from obtaining power from a variety of power sources from hyroelectric, nuclear, natural gas and coal. Currently the coal power generating plants, which are typically the oldest and most polluting, are being rapidly replaced by a combination of natural gas (cheapest full-time delivery and good supplies) and solar and wind.

 

Control over the backfeed issue is averted if the system is tied to the grid by the state's electric code. There are switches that automatically disengage the solar power from the grid often resulting with the house going dark but with more sophisticated battery-enabled systems the home actually switches to a powered off-grid configuration.

 

And as stated in the reply to sound guy, nuclear is a highly government regulated industry and a somewhat problematical one as well as no one has yet figured out how to efficiently store the spent nuclear fuel.

 

Dozens of cities are going fossil fuel free in their operations including transportation (as they opt for electric busses and trains.)

 

The biggest obstacle to all this in the USA is the heaping of taxes on the industry in the form tariffs in an effort to provide protection to the single most powerful industry in the world - fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal aka: koch.)... all of which got outrageous tax cuts on top of continuation of their preexisting suite of loopholes and breaks.

 

Regardless, despite the aggressive tactics of the fossil fuel industry, which controls countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Iraq, Pakistan and the United States in within states, disruptive cheap solar power is coming.

 

pubby

[Guard dad]

Photo-voltaic power is still more expensive that conventional power generation. The only reason they can quote these figures (that will probably not pan out) is because of government subsidies. Meaning....the federal government is subsidizing it with even more borrowed money.

Only in the illogical mind of a Socialist is this something to be excited about.

But someday the efficiency will high enough to make it economically feasible.

[CitizenCain]

Photo-voltaic power is still more expensive that conventional power generation. The only reason they can quote these figures (that will probably not pan out) is because of government subsidies. Meaning....the federal government is subsidizing it with even more borrowed money.

 

Only in the illogical mind of a Socialist is this something to be excited about.

 

But someday the efficiency will high enough to make it economically feasible.

 

It's all subsidized by the government oil is subsidized with special tax breaks, the nuclear industry basically hands us the bill .

[glassdogs]

 

The land commitment for the solar cell farm may or may not be accurate but you have to remember that energy storage is on the brink of a revolution in large-scale storage. For reference though, the city of Atlanta owns 9500 acres -

double the size of all the land

 

 

 

pubby

 

 

OMG!!!!!!!!

 

Delta is going to put a solar farm at Silver Comet Field!!!!

 

They will steal all of Paulding County's sunlight!!

 

And everybody in Post 2 will be in the dark! Oh, wait... nevermind. They already are.

[Rose Luxemburg]

 

 

OMG!!!!!!!!

 

Delta is going to put a solar farm at Silver Comet Field!!!!

 

They will steal all of Paulding County's sunlight!!

 

And everybody in Post 2 will be in the dark! Oh, wait... nevermind. They already are.

Look like you need to re-aquaint yourself with the Post 2 primary election results. More voters decided to come towards the light than vote to remain in the dark with Todd... Just saying...

[Guard dad]

 

It's all subsidized by the government oil is subsidized with special tax breaks, the nuclear industry basically hands us the bill .

When something is economically feasible, the government doesn't need to subsidize it. Private industry will make the investment because it has profit potential.

 

As of yet, photo-voltaic energy is not profitable on large scale. The government uses our tax dollars to push it because they think it's green energy. But in reality it's not that green.

[Foxmeister]

Solar farms kill thousands of birds. http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-solar-bird-deaths-20160831-snap-story.html

[CitizenCain]

Solar farms kill thousands of birds. http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-solar-bird-deaths-20160831-snap-story.html

 

Really ?

 

[Guard dad]

 

Really ?

 

Is this some of the famous "Whataboutism" you guys on the left whine about so much?

[gpatt0n]

Here's a fact:

 

 

Kaua’i to near 70% renewables with massive solar + storage project
by Christian Roselund

Hawaii has been described as a “postcard from the future” in terms of deployment of renewable energy, with an unprecedented level of rooftop solar on an isolated grid. But the rest of the island state has nothing on Kaua’i, which got 42.6% of its power from renewables last year, including 22.8% from solar alone.

This progress is particularly impressive given that Kaua’i has very challenging characteristics for integrating high levels of renewable energy. The island's public utility is addressing these challenges through massive deployment of energy storage, including both pumped hydroelectric power and battery projects paired with solar generation.

Last Friday Kaua’i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) announced a further step towards its ambitious energy transition, by securing approval from state regulators to buy power from a 19.3 MW solar project paired with a 70 MWh battery.

70 MWh is one of the largest solar-paired battery projects known to pv magazine staff, and this massive energy storage system means that the solar project will be able to deliver power from the sun overnight.

The solar + battery project will be built by AES on land leased from a U.S. Navy base, and will provide power to KIUC for 10.83 cents per kilowatt-hour under a 25-year power contract. Given the relative capacity of the battery to the solar, this is in impressively low price, and KIUC notes that this will be one of the lowest-cost power sources on an island that has been traditionally dependent on expensive imported fuel.

The project at Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands is expected to be online by the end of 2019, and will join several other renewable energy projects that are already underway on the island. These include 25 MW of solar and battery storage and 5 MW of hydro, which will bring the island to roughly 70% renewable energy by the end of next year.

“KIUC’s Board of Directors set an aggressive goal of reaching 70 percent renewable by 2030,” stated KUC CEO David Bissell. “Once this project is complete, we will be very close to that mark a decade early.”

Also, the benefits are not only for Kaua’i. An ironies of this system is that on an island, the system itself will be able to “island”, to ensure that the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility, Barking Sands will be supplied with electricity even in the event that the power goes out on the rest of Kaua’i.



Getting to 90% renewable energy

But KIUC does not plan to stop there, and Kaua’i is setting a real-world example of what is possible with renewable energy. Bissell notes that this project and a pumped hydro storage project on the west side of the island will enable the island to approach 90% renewable energy by 2023.

This is more than the 80% of renewable energy that was modeled for the United States in a study led by Climate Scientist Ken Caldeira, using either 12 hours of energy storage or a continent-scale transmission network.

However, if anything it may be more difficult to deploy high levels of variable renewable energy in Kaua’i than in the United States, due to a unique set of circumstances on the island. First, on Kaua’i there are no electrical interconnections to other islands. This means that supply and demand must be balanced on the island.

Second, due to a largely tourist economy demand on the island’s grid starts to peak at around 6 PM, which is when solar is providing limited output. But perhaps the greatest challenge is that unlike nations such as Germany that balance wind with solar on both an daily and seasonal basis, due to concerns about endangered seabirds no wind can be deployed on Kaua’i. (Read pv magazine’s interview with KIUC to learn more about these challenges)

When KIUC reaches its goals, it will redefine what is possible with renewable energy - for the island and the world.