ATLANTA, Georgia, Mar 31, 2010 (IPS) The Atlanta Progressive News, updated, Friday, April 9, 2010
As citizens, businesses and non-profit organizations seek to transition to cleaner power sources like solar and wind, some big energy firms whose business models rely on polluting sources are standing in the way.
In Georgia, the energy company Georgia Power has lobbied for, and gotten, public policies at the Public Service Commission (PSC) and State legislature that are making it difficult for the state’s residents to transition to solar power. The Dekalb County school system wanted to put solar panels on their schools, but could not do it because of state policies like the Territorial Electric Service Act of 1973 which gives Georgia Power a monopoly over the purchase of energy.
“In Georgia, we have about a dozen state policies preventing creation of solar energy,” James Marlow, vice chair of the Georgia Solar Energy Association, told IPS. “One of those is the Territorial Act.”
“If you’re looking at a school, one of the common ways [of setting up solar panels] is using a power purchase agreement or PPA,” Marlow said.
Typically, one of the biggest obstacles for businesses and organizations to switch to solar energy is the initial cost of obtaining and installing the panels. A PPA allows a school system, for example, to obtain the panels for no cost from a solar installation company which finances the panels.
Then, the school can purchase the energy from the solar installation company, which would own the panels, for a 20-year period. Marlow said that a PPA client typically pays for the panels after the first five years and then saves money on energy for the next 15, all the while avoiding the use of dirty energy.
However, because of Georgia’s Territorial Act, individuals, organizations, and businesses with solar panels can only sell their energy to Georgia Power. This means they cannot enter a PPA with a solar installation company
For those who are able to buy or lease their own solar panels, selling that energy to Georgia Power–the only allowed buyer–is subject to the rules of Georgia Power’s net metering program, and there’s a waiting list and it’s limited.
Georgia Power charges more for solar power than it does for coal-based power, so there’s no incentive for most customers to purchase it. Many of the purchasers of blocks of solar energy are government agencies that need to comply with government mandates to support clean energy, Marlow said.
Georgia Power lobbied for those policies to be enacted in the first place. “The utilities are opposed to solar and they’re not working to foster its development,” Marlow said.
In addition to regulatory road-blocks, there are more direct ways in which big energy companies like Georgia Power are blocking solar and wind power. “They are trying to block clean energy by trying to flood the market with cheap, dirty energy,” said Erin Glynn, director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, referring to companies attempting to build two new coal plants and two new nuclear reactors in Georgia alone. As previously reported by IPS, numerous coal and nuclear plants are in planning stages throughout the U.S. South.
“If you build these giant power plants, there will be no demand for clean energy. The clean technologies are here today. People have solar panels. The companies are blocking the market,” Glynn said.
Big energy companies are lobbying at the state and national levels to prevent public policies from shifting towards renewable energy production as well. Georgia Power’s parent company, Southern Company, employed 63 lobbyists to fight the recent federal clean energy bill.
A recent report from the Centre for Public Integrity (CPI) shows that many big utility companies employed two dozen or more lobbyists to oppose the clean energy bill, while Southern Company had far more lobbyists than any other company.
Southern Company argues that pursuing renewable energy or taking steps to address carbon dioxide’s recent classification as a pollutant will drive up the cost of energy to consumers. However, Marlow believes that dirty and clean energy are quickly approaching “cost parity,” and he said there are indirect costs of dirty energy such as high asthma rates near coal plants.
Twenty-nine states have a renewable portfolio standard, which requires that a certain percentage of the state’s energy will be renewable by a certain date.
“California and Colorado will require 30 percent comes from renewable by 2020,” Marlow said. “North Carolina requires 12 percent. Georgia has no requirement. North Carolina is the only state in the Southeast that has a renewable portfolio standard.”
–Matthew Cardinale is the News Editor for Atlanta Progressive News and is reachable at matthew@atlantaprogressivenews.com.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Georgia Power Co., criticized for being hesitant in its embrace of renewable energy, plans to build its first small-scale solar power development – one that could light up about 1,250 homes. Solar projects of the size Georgia Power is proposing are launched weekly in places like California and New Jersey, said Jigar Shah, founder of solar energy services company SunEdison and CEO of Carbon War Room, a Richard Branson-backed Washington, D.C. nonprofit. “[It’s] a deliberate move to delay the full implementation of renewable energy in Georgia,” Shah said, referring to the proposed solar development. “Georgia Power is among the most hostile utilities in the country to renewable energy.” For example, Florida Power Light (FPL) has, or is planning, more than 100 megawatts of solar-related projects.