Solar Panel Luddites
Woodland, North Carolina rejected a proposal to rezone land just outside its borders for the use of a solar farm. Three solar farms have already been approved in the area, but local residents are not impressed. The council defeated the motion for the rezoning of an area on US Highway 258 for an additional solar farm after a public comment period, where members of the town could give their opinions.
Retired science teacher (?) Jane Mann sighted rising risk of cancer deaths in the area (despite reports showing cancer rates in NC fell over the 2008 to 2012 period) as that no one could tell her solar panels were not causing the cancer.
She’s also concerned photosynthesis would slow due to solar panels stopping plants from growing in solar farm fields. “I want to know what’s going to happen. I want information. Enough is enough. I don’t see the profit for the town,” Mann said at the meeting, according to The Roanoke-Chowan News Herald.
“People come with hidden agendas. Until we can find if anything is going to damage this community, we shouldn’t sign any paper,” she added. Bobby Mann (it’s not clear if he’s related to Jane), said that he was worried local communities would dry up. “You’re killing your town,” he said. “All the young people are going to move out.”
He also argued that solar farms would suck up all the energy from the Sun, and new businesses would not come to Woodland. (Editors Note – If he’s that wrong about something so basic, he should not have a say in anything).
The area just outside Woodland is a popular spot for solar farm developers, because it has an electrical substation, which means the panels can be hooked up to the national grid. While construction has started on one of the three farms that have already been approved for the area, it’s unlikely this forth one will get the go-ahead.
Unfortunately, this dislike of solar is not new. The New York Times reported in 2011 that when Oradell, New Jersey began putting up solar panels on power poles, many residents were unhappy. “I hate them,” Eric Olsen told The New York Times. “It’s just an eyesore.”
Other residents were also reported as calling the panels “ugly” or “hideous”, and said they were worried about their property value declining because of it.
However, these panels pushed New Jersey closer to their renewable energy target, which is one of the highest in the US. As of earlier this year, New Jersey also approved a bill that requires the state to get at least 80 percent of all its energy from renewable sources by 2050.
And not all New Jersey residents have been against these changes, with some seeing the panels as a badge of pride representing their switch to clean energy.
Hopefully, with increased exposure and better education, we can outline the positives of having solar panels installed in both big cities and country towns. We don’t want another fiasco like this Wind Turbine Syndrome travesty.
Quoted from: http://www.sciencealert.com/us-town-rejects-solar-farm-amid-worries-it-would-suck-up-all-the-energy-from-the-sun
Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, ManagedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
Michigan energy policy is moving forward….to higher costs under full monopoly control
As previously noted, the MI House Energy Committee voted on three bills without reading them. These bills were sent to the full House for a vote.
Where do they stand now:
- Electric Energy Choice: currently, 10% of MI customers can choose an electric energy supplier. The result has been millions of $$ dollars in savings. House Bill would have imposed non-commercial requirements on the energy marketers causing them to withdraw from offering customers an alternative to the utility.
- As of now, 10% would stay in place BUT customers would be barred from switching for 15 YEARS! What choice is this?
- Energy suppliers will face additional regulatory requirements that would do nothing more than raise their cost to provide service, thereby limiting customer savings.
- Thirty percent (30%) renewable energy goal by 2025. This “goal” has no enforcements. Currently, MI is achieving a 1.5% efficiency gain per year. So this a net increase of 5%. A token nod to a cleaner environment and improved energy efficiency.
MI must hope that the MI Senate counters this energy policy with a policy that encourages market competition and clean energy production.
Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, ManagedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
Additional information
Could a superman leap this wind turbine?
The tallest U.S. wind tower is under construction in Iowa. At 377 feet from ground to hub, the wind tower is as high as a 40 story building. The tower is attempting to show that concrete can be used as the tower base for wind turbines. Typically, steel is used in tower construction.
MidAmerican Energy will own and operate this tower as part of a 154 megawatt wind farm. Each 1 megawatt can supply about 800 homes.
Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, ManagedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
Additional information
http://midwestenergynews.com/2015/11/16/tallest-u-s-wind-tower-under-construction-in-iowa/
Energy policy passes house energy committee without being read
Rep Gary Glenn of Michigan has attempted to stop a freight train.
The Michigan House Energy Committee voted to forward energy legislation to the entire House of Representatives BEFORE it WAS READ. That’s right; they voted on energy policy that wasn’t even reviewed, understood or had a chance to be read by the committee members. It will now go to the full House for review.
The bill they passed, by a majority, will in fact limit if not eliminate MI electric customer choice.
- The 10% of energy users will have to return to the utility default service.
- Customer Choice marketers will withdraw as the requirements put upon providing service ARE NOT commercially available.
o Since MI Electric Customer Choice began every energy marketer has delivered its energy, never a default
- Michigan will continue to have the HIGHEST electric costs in the Mid-west
- Michigan will have some of the most polluting power plants in Mid-west
We salute Rep Gary Glenn for trying to bring reason to a process that has been dominated by lobbyist and utility donations to politicians.
Unfortunately Rep Gary Glenn, could not stop this runaway train that carried this bill forward.
Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, ManagedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
Additional information: www.realgyenergyservices.com
Supporting Video: https://youtu.be/J-ssV31O8Ig
Utilities spent over $500,000 on lobbying politicians…guess who they were lobbying against?
Michigan utilities are monopolies; they have no competitors. So, why spend $1,600,000 (one million six hundred thousand dollars):
1. $500,000 in donations to political office holders
2. $800,000 in TV ads
3. 39 registered lobbying firms
4. 30 lobbyist agents
Who is this lobbying action against…. in a word, US. Anyone who uses energy in Michigan.
The utilities are attempting to prevent cleaner energy, expanding customer choice programs and allowing competition.
Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, ManagedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
Additional information: www.realgyenergyservices.com
Supporting Article:
http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2015/11/utility_influence_in_michigan.html
MI Lawmakers target electric cars to fund roads
So, the theory is; that state and federal taxes on gasoline purchases fund road construction and maintenance. Yes, that is theory.
In practice, the gas tax goes to the general fund and is used at the discretion of lawmakers.
So, it’s interesting that the some 5% of car owners that own electric or hybrid vehicles would be targeted for a tax increase.
Yes, some MI lawmakers think of these car owners as not paying their share for road maintenance because they do not purchase gasoline (or purchase less of it).
Ah, theory…..
In reality; there are not enough electric or hybrid cars to make a real difference and taxing them with the idea that it would actually contribute to road maintenance…. sounds like a dead end to me.
Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, ManagedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
Additional information: www.realgyenergyservices.com
Supporting Article:
http://www.htrnews.com/story/news/2015/11/02/lawmakers-target-electric-cars-fund-roads/75049254/
MI utilities are misleading you….
MISO area of electricity control is shown below in Green
If you don’t have a cup of flour but your neighbor does, can you still bake your cookies? Sure, you borrow a cup and share the cookies.
A Michigan marketing group, on behalf of two MI electric utilities, is running advertisements trying to say that the closing of state coal fired power plants will leave MI without energy. This statement is WRONG. Michigan like most of Illinois, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Louisiana and Iowa are all interconnected with Michigan. That is; each state’s energy generation and electric consumption is shared amongst all. A shortfall in one state is met by a surplus in another state. The electric transmission system ensures the power is delivered.
So MISO, which stand for Midwest Independent System Operator, is responsible for the electricity throughout the Midwest. Their forecast; a surplus of energy for the foreseeable future.
MI utilities want to retain coal generation to improve their companies economics. It has nothing to do with supplying power. In fact, retaining those coal fired power plants will prevent cleaner and renewable energy resources from generating electricity.
So don’t believe the scare tactics that you might see. If MI utilities want to retain coal generation, they can choose to do so. Modernize them and keep them viable. That way, they can serve the public and their companies honestly.
Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, ManagedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
Additional information: www.realgyenergyservices.com
Supporting Article:
We live in a dumb grid, but we can drink Smart Water!
Smart water right; filter it, juice it up with some vitamins and its smart. Not sure paying more for it qualifies as smart, but you don’t have to buy vitamins separate from water ….
The distribution systems, those complex networks of pipes and wires that delivery natural gas and electricity, are called grids.
Putting meters on them and connecting them to the internet; smart right?
Utilities get paid based upon measuring how much energy you use and charging you for it; in fact, energy marketers receive the same information from the utilities. However, does collecting information on your usage every 15 minutes instead of every month make anyone a better energy consumer, utility or energy marketer?
Certainly, putting measurement devices (not called meters anymore) in the grid is expensive and the utilities want you to pay for it. Is it cost effective; that is, do the measurement devices provide a benefit that is equal to or match to the investment? The answer at present is definitely no.
So why proceed? That answer lies in the realm of politics and utilities earnings based on spending money (see link for more on utility operation of metering) http://realgyenergyservices.com/chicago-homeowners-get-zapped/).
Evolving toward measuring energy consumption in near real-time will mean that consumers will be exposed to market pricing with little to no damping by the utility or energy marketer. This, of course, is what we are used to; supply and demand in an e-commerce world. However, it might be different with utilities as it is with water.
Realgy supports the investment by utilities in technology that is cost effective and provides benefits to the consumer.
Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, MangedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM as well as Index, Fixed pricing.
Additional information: www.realgyenergyservices.com
Supporting Documentation:
Weekly Basis Report
Here is the weekly basis report which is representing the future price change when trading natural gas, the quoted price is the difference between the Henry Hub price and a specific location’s price – called the basis price. A basis position is one that has exposure to two different locations: the Henry Hub and separate location’s price.
Here are some basic understanding on how to measure natural gas:
A BTU is the amount of heat required to increase the temperature of a pint of water (which weighs exactly 16 ounces) by one degree Fahrenheit.
Since BTUs are measurements of energy consumption, they can be converted directly to kilowatt-hours (3412 BTUs = 1 kWh) or joules (1 BTU = 1,055.06 joules).
MBTU stands for one million BTUs, which can also be expressed as one decatherm (10 therms). MBTU is occasionally used as a standard unit of measurement for natural gas, and provides a convenient basis for comparing the energy content of various grades of natural gas and other fuels.
One cubic foot of natural gas produces approximately 1,000 BTUs, so 1,000 cu.ft. of gas are comparable to 1 MBTU.
MBTU is occasionally expressed as MMBTU, which is intended to represent a thousand thousand BTUs
Cogeneration is not Deregulation
Indiana is in the midst of trying to address its high cost of electricity. Two trade associations are facing off; the industrial trade association wants to be able to build cogeneration plants (very efficient plants that produce electricity and heat) while the utility trade association doesn’t want competition on other energy sources. Both trade associations miss the evolution of energy deregulation.
Energy deregulation started during the oil crisis (late 1970s early 80s) and initially the “deregulation” manifested as competition on constructing new power plants. That is: before a utility could build a new power plant, it had to put out to bid what it was going to build and the price and see if others could build it for less and with different fuels.
The second phase of energy deregulation occurred with energy supply to customers (natural gas and electricity). First came large energy users followed over time by residential consumers. During this phase of energy deregulation, the utility became a delivery company and the energy supply (natural gas or electricity) could be purchased from the utility or other energy suppliers.
A review of the facts of energy deregulation over the last 30+ years illustrates:
- The utility model of regulated competition has been demonstrated to cost more than direct competition.
- Power plants should be sited to allow for the efficient use of its output (both the heat and the electricity)
- Customer should be allowed to choose their energy supply. Competition for retail customers in energy supply has demonstrated lower costs, improved efficiency and greater service options.
- Utilities should continue to operate their monopoly on energy delivery
Hopefully, the Indiana legislators review the history and benefits from energy deregulation.
Realgy Energy Services is a registered Retail Energy Marketer in the states of Illinois, Michigan and Indiana. We offer Service Plans that will provide electric and natural gas at wholesale pricing direct to customers without any utility markup. Our Service Plans work with the local utility to provide seamless service and annual energy savings. Service Plans include Guaranteed SavingsTM, MangedPriceTM, ManagedGreenTM and Index, Fixed pricing.
Additional information: www.realgyenergyservices.com
Supporting Article: