Peach Bites

Cox Enterprises and Georgia Power Produce Green Energy for Georgia (bNet) - On April 20th, Cox Enterprises announced the completion of the largest solar power facility in Georgia. This facility is the largest of its kind in Georgia Power's alternative energy program here in Georgia. The facility will produce 150 megawatts annually. It is located on the roof of Cox's Manheim DRIVE facility in Stockbridge.

Southeast Positioned for Renewable Energy, WRI Report Says (Environmental Protection) - The Southeast could generate over 25% of its power from renewable energy by 2025 according to a report released in April by the World Resources Institute (WRI), Southern Alliance for Clean Energy and the Southface Institute. The estimate combines potential power from biomass, solar, wind and hydroelectric.

Coca-Cola to use Green 'PlantBottle' (Atlanta Business Chronicle) - Coca-Cola will introduce a partially plant based plastic bottle in its Dasani water bottles later this year. They plan to begin using it in their vitamin water line in 2010. Their vision is for 100% recyclable and renewable packaging. It's great to see this type of move from one of the Atlanta's and the world's most popular companies.

Georgia Submits Request for Clean-Energy Stimulus Money (Atlanta Business Chronicle) - If the request is approved, the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority will get roughly 2x as much money to aid business in solar, wind and efficiency projects as is available through state tax programs.

2008 Solar Tour - This Weekend

This Saturday, The Georgia Solar Energy Association is hosting the 2008 Solar Tour which is a part of the National Solar Tour organized by the American Solar Energy Society. This is the largest Solar Tour yet in Georgia with 32 homes or organizations particpating. Metro Atlanta has 19 homes or organizations that will be open to the public. The tour goes from 9am through 4pm with most houses open for several hours throughout the day. You can find the schedule on the GSEA website. The tour is self guided so you will need to plan your route and which homes and/or locations you will want to visit. Following the tour, there will be a reception held at Southface Energy Institute. There will also be a keynote address by John Baumstark, CEO of Suniva, Atlanta's leader in PV technology. The reception does require tickets and are $25 for GSEA friends and $15 for GSEA members

We are very excited about this tour and are looking forward to visiting several of the homes and the Georgia Tech Solar Decathlon exhibit. It is great to know that there are a record number of participants in this year's tour and it looks like some big players are getting involved as sponsors. The future of Solar Energy appears to be bright in Georgia.

Tour Sponsors Include

Platinum Sponsors

Alston & Bird, LLP

Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP

Radiance Energies, LLC

Southface Energy Institute

Gold Sponsors

Georgia Solar Power Company

Hannah Solar

OneWorld Sustainable, Inc.

Rheem/Solahart
Suncatcher of Atlanta

Xantrex Technology