Southern CEO: Renewable energy still not competitive – Atlanta Business Chronicle

Renewable power will not get a major share of Southern Co.’s energy portfolio anytime soon, even as the Atlanta-based utility makes forays into wind and solar power, CEO Tom Fanning said Thursday.

Southern is the parent company of Atlanta-based Georgia Power Co., which announced last month plans to buy 250 megawatts of wind energy from a wind farm in Oklahoma. Another Southern affiliate, Alabama Power Co., has made an even larger commitment to wind power.

Georgia Power also is undertaking the largest voluntary solar power construction program in the nation, while Southern Co. and Turner Renewable Energy bought a 139-megawatt solar project in California last month, the fifth solar purchase completed through Southern’s partnership with Ted Turner.

But as Southern moves toward less reliance on coal because of looming federal regulation of carbon emissions, most of the shift in its portfolio is going toward natural gas.

Fanning said renewable sources of energy like wind and solar tend to be available in sparsely populated areas, requiring expensive transmission lines to distribute the electricity.

Renewables rely heavily on federal tax credits, making the industry vulnerable if those go away, he said.

Fanning said renewable energy also is intermittent by nature.

“What do you do when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine?” he said.

via Southern CEO: Renewable energy still not competitive – Atlanta Business Chronicle.