Highland Renewable Energy Strategy

Previously writing about biomass and carbon dioxide I said I'd supply an example of the sort of thing I'm looking for as a regional analysis for renewable energy, including biomass, solar, wind, wave, tides, and others. Here it is: the Highland Renewable Energy Strategy approved by the Highland Council at its 4 May 2006 meeting. It's a 58 page document about renewable energy strategy and planning guidelines, considering numerous types of renewable energy, pros and cons of each, power distribution, effects on environment, protected areas, etc., illustrated copiously with detailed maps. And updated:

In May 2008, the Council’s Planning, Environment & Development Committee agreed to begin a review of the spatial planning framework for onshore wind energy development, in response to Scottish Government’s Scottish Planning Policy 6 “Renewable Energy” (March 2007). Further details of that review will be given here as that review progresses.

A copy of the 2006 approved Strategy, which incorporates associated Planning Guidance material, can be downloaded as a .pdf file from the Current Documents section to the right, as can the supporting Renewable Energy Resource Assessment (RERA) and maps, at A1 size, showing prospective development zones for national and major scale (fig 6.2.4) and local scale (fig 6.2.7) onshore wind farms.

That RERA is an additional 75 pages of maps, graphs, and analysis.

South Georgia has somewhat less land area and several times the population of the Highlands of Scotland. We're seeing attempts to site biofuels plants all over the region and the state, as well as a couple of nuclear plants, and maybe some conversion of coal to biomass, and maybe wind off the coast and someday maybe solar inland. There is a state energy plan from 2006, but it's mostly about coal and nuclear, and says nothing specific about for example the proposed biomass sites.

In the same time frame, the Highland Council put quite a bit of effort into considering all these issues and laying them out in a form that provides enough traction that affected parties of all kinds can have something to start with in debating their positions.

Where is the south Georgia (or all of Georgia, or southeast) equivalent of this Highland Council renewable energy strategy and planning guidelines?

If it doesn't exist, who should be responsible for producing it?

I have discussed these questions with Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority (VLCIA) Project Manager Allan Ricketts and Executive Director Brad Lofton, and they have said they will look for equivalent materials. I'm not saying they should be responsible for producing such things (well, unless the VLCIA's sponsoring councils, the Lowndes County Commission and the Valdosta City Council, say they are). More likely, the state of Georgia should do this.

Maybe somebody else out there knows of such materials? If so, please let us all know.

That Highland Council is thorough:

Also availabe is a CD-ROM containing map-based software which facilitates selection of any 1km grid square in Highland and interrogation of the underlying layers which were used to arrive at the policy decision for that square. The CD also contains as a copy of the Strategy and suppporting RERA.

So, where's the equivalent for south Georgia, Georgia, or the southeast, and who is responsible for it?

-jsq