April 25th, 2013 () Wind energy › Simon Mahan › No Comments
Georgia Power has just joined other southern electric utilities by announcing a decision to buy wind energy. If the Georgia Public Service Commission agrees to the deal, the Peach State will be receiving up to 250 megawatts of wind power – enough power for about 50,000 Georgia homes – from Oklahoma around the 2016 timeframe . In doing so, Georgia Power will follow in the footsteps of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Alabama Power and the Southwestern Electric Power Company in buying wind energy from the midwest.
March 21st, 2013 () Offshore Wind, Wind energy › Anna Cayce Smit › 3 Comments
Yesterday, SACE hosted the first ever Wind Energy Day at the Georgia State Capitol. This event was sponsored by Senator Lester Jackson (D-Savannah). The first day of spring started with the senator speaking about the benefits of wind energy from the Senate floor and letting other Senators and gallery attendees know about the exciting presentations we had planned for the day. Senator Jackson also used this opportunity to give recognition to SACE and the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators (NCEL) for our participation in Wind Energy Day. Several days before Wind Energy Day, Senator Jackson introduced a resolution lauding the benefits of wind energy – a first of its kind in Georgia.
February 12th, 2013 () Clean Energy, Wind energy › Jimmy Green › No Comments
Simon Mahan, SACE’s Renewable Energy Manager, contributed to this blog. The plains have corn, but here in the south, we have rice. Both grains have the potential to serve a role in the 21stCentury’s electrical grid. A few weeks ago, rice farmers and other interested stakeholders met in Marked Tree, Arkansas, population 3,100, to talk [...]
December 12th, 2012 () Offshore Wind, Wind energy › Simon Mahan › 2 Comments
The Obama Administration announced today a major milestone in advancing offshore wind in North Carolina. Tommy Beaudreau, Director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), announced that BOEM will issue a Call for Information and Nominations for commercial offshore wind development in three wind energy areas off North Carolina. Those three areas, which were developed in close coordination between BOEM and the North Carolina Renewable Energy Task Force, represent approximately 1,441 square miles of area potentially available for offshore wind development. With this BOEM announcement, North Carolina effectively more than doubles the amount of area potentially available for offshore wind development in the United States.
November 26th, 2012 () Clean Energy, Green Economy, Offshore Wind › Chris Carnevale › 1 Comment
On November 19, the City of North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina officially became a “wind-powered economic zone” by proclamation of a City Council resolution. This resolution represents true leadership in the realm of clean energy and a genuine effort to better the community through economic development, community pride, and environmental protection. By becoming a wind [...]
October 26th, 2012 () Extreme Weather, Wind energy › Simon Mahan › 10 Comments
But here’s the good news – Hurricane Sandy is unlikely to do any major damage to wind turbines. Currently, Sandy is expected to hit the coast as a low-level Category 1 storm with winds around 80 miles per hour. Modern wind turbines are designed to protect themselves in extreme weather – including shutting down when winds get too high, even up to a Category 3 hurricane. And that’s exactly what the turbines in Delaware and New Jersey did with Hurricane Irene last year.
September 10th, 2012 () Clean Energy, Renewable Energy › John D. Wilson › 2 Comments
Recently, Michael Noble of Fresh Energy offered a terrific post out about how renewable energy growth has far outpaced what everyone thought possible over the past decade or so. He’s writing from a Minnesota perspective: How wrong we were to think that a $2 billion renewable energy investment would be ambitious. Today, the region supports [...]
August 24th, 2012 () Offshore Wind, Wind energy › Simon Mahan › 5 Comments
Updated information now shows that offshore wind farms are at a lower risk from catastrophic hurricane damage than previously stated. A study published earlier this year by a suite of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University was spread widely through the mainstream media. Unfortunately, both the media, and the researchers, got the information wrong. We highlighted some of the problems of the study in a previous blog post, but it has now come to light that the researchers severely overstated the risk of hurricanes to wind farms.
August 21st, 2012 () Biopower, Other Reports, Renewable Energy, Solar, Wind energy › Guest Post › Comments Off
In June, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) released a groundbreaking new study showing that the United States could generate 80 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2050 with commercially available technologies, while meeting electricity demand in every hour of the year and every region of the country.
July 12th, 2012 () Offshore Wind, Wind energy › Simon Mahan › 2 Comments
Yesterday, Senator Mark Udall (D-CO) made a heroic speech on the floor of the Senate to save American wind energy jobs. As the seventh in a series of speeches focusing on wind energy jobs throughout the United States, Senator Udall spoke at length about wind jobs in South Carolina and the production tax credit.
