by RENEW Wisconsin | Jan 23, 2023 | Events, RENEW Wisconsin
During its twelfth annual Renewable Energy Summit, RENEW Wisconsin, with presenting sponsors greenpenny and Invenergy, will honor individuals and businesses who have made significant and lasting advances in clean energy development in Wisconsin. The Summit will take place Thursday, January 26, 2023, at Monona Terrace in Madison.
RENEW’s 2023 Summit, titled “Sizing Up the Clean Energy Transformation,” will take a close look at the forces unleashed by the Inflation Reduction Act, the most important climate action ever undertaken by the federal government, and assess the impact of this landmark law on Wisconsin’s energy landscape. Featured speakers include Michelle Moore, CEO of Groundswell; Jennifer Bumgarner, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs; and Wisconsin Public Service Chairperson Rebecca Cameron Valcq.
The awards are grouped under four categories:
Clean Energy Policymaker:
State Senator Robert Cowles
Clean Energy Pioneer:
City of Madison
Clean Energy Warriors:
Will Kenworthy, Vote Solar
Tim Lindl, Keyes and Fox
Denny Wroblewski, Northwind Solar
Josh Stolzenburg, Northwind Soar
Jim Pullen, Eagle Point Solar
Erick Shambarger, City of Milwaukee
Amy Heart, Sunrun
David Bender, EarthJustice
Nick Hylla, Midwest Renewable Energy Association
Clean Energy Honor Roll:
EnTech Solutions, Middleton
Solar-powered renewable natural gas (RNG) production facility
UW-Platteville, Platteville
Solar-powered school campus
Bad River Tribe (Ishkinoge Nawadide), Odanah
Solar-powered microgrid – resiliency for the reservation
Dominion Properties/Arch Solar, Shorewood
Vertical solar installation serving an office building
Dynamic Renewables/BC Organics, Greenleaf
Large-scale RNG production facility
Friends Meeting House, Madison
All-electric building tapping into onsite energy
Alliant Energy – Wood County Solar Farm, Nekoosa
Utility-scale solar generation
Clean Energy Policymaker: Senator Robert Cowles
Representing the 2nd Senate district in the Green Bay and Fox Valley area since 1987, Sen. Robert Cowles has been a dedicated and productive champion of clean energy policy throughout his Senate career. Over the years, Sen. Cowles has sought to advance energy efficiency and renewable energy through legislation that balances economic and environmental interests. Among Sen. Cowles’ accomplishments are several comprehensive bills that (1) established Wisconsin’s energy resource priorities (1994), (2) expanded the state’s utility local aids law to promote in-state renewable power (2003), and (3) safeguarded the statewide Focus on Energy program from harmful budget raids (2006). Ongoing clean energy initiatives championed by Sen. Cowles include those to allow convenience store operators to sell electricity for electric vehicle charging purposes and to clarify the legality of third-party-owned renewable energy systems built on a customer’s property to serve that customer.
Clean Energy Pioneer: City of Madison
In March 2017, Madison adopted an ambitious climate goal: to achieve 100% renewable energy and net zero carbon emissions for city operations by 2030 and communitywide by 2050. The award salutes the City for its conscientious and systematic approach to advancing local clean energy and ensuring that its investments and programs benefit the entire community. By the end of 2022, the City’s accomplishments encompassed the following:
- Installing more than 1,800 kilowatts (kW) of solar generation on its own facilities, including approximately 500 kW in 2022. Unlike other local governments, the City designs and installs most of its solar installations. This initiative also provides a platform for a solar training program aimed at underemployed and unemployed residents to better prepare them for future job opportunities in the solar marketplace.
- Partnering with Madison Gas & Electric to purchase the output from the Hermsdorf solar farm in southeast Madison. The 8 MW array went live in April 2022 and now offsets 22% of the City’s electricity usage.
- Leveraging the installation of more than 300 solar PV systems on homes and multifamily buildings through its MadiSUN program, including 64 in 2022.
- Acquiring, by the end of 2022, 85 electric vehicles, more than 150 hybrid-electric vehicles, and the first all-electric fire truck operating in the United States. The City is also testing three all-electric buses.
Clean Energy Pioneer – Warriors
The recognition ceremony will also honor businesses and individuals who, at various times, led the campaign to enable Wisconsin electricity customers to access third-party-financed renewable energy systems installed on their property. This has been a long-standing policy priority for RENEW, stretching back to 2012. After years of being stalemated at the Public Service Commission, Wisconsin’s solar industry finally received some good news. In December 2022, the Commission affirmed the legality of a private contract between a utility customer and a solar energy provider. This will allow, on a limited basis, electricity customers to access solar energy onsite through leases or service agreements, so long as the contract meets certain criteria.
The ceremony will conclude with the 2022 Clean Energy Honor Roll, in which RENEW will recognize seven clean energy projects in Wisconsin that recently commenced operation. Whether on the basis of their productivity, innovativeness, attention to detail, scale, resourcefulness, or efficacy in reducing carbon emissions, these seven projects showcase the skills and know-how Wisconsin stakeholders bring to the clean energy marketplace in the Badger State.
This annual event features an exposition hall, breakout sessions, and industry professionals discussing current and future opportunities for advancing clean energy in Wisconsin.
Click here for more information on the 2023 Summit program agenda, speakers, and registration. For press passes, please email Jodi Jean Amble (jodi@renewwisconsin.org).
by Andrew Kell | Dec 27, 2022 | Electric Vehicles, Electrification, Energy Storage, Health, Netzero Wisconsin, Renewables, Solar, Wind
This past year, a Project Team consisting of RENEW Wisconsin, Clean Wisconsin, and GridLab commissioned Evolved Energy Research and Cambridge Econometrics to provide modeling, analysis, and reporting for a Wisconsin Zero Carbon Study. The recently released Summary Report provides an excellent overview of the Study results and policy recommendations. This RENEW blog provides additional context and insight into the next steps.
The Technical Report, titled Achieving 100% Clean Energy in Wisconsin, was completed this past summer and provides a first-of-its-kind, economy-wide modeling approach to envision a Wisconsin transition to a zero-carbon future by 2050. The modeling included 1) a baseline scenario as a comparison reference, 2) a 100% Clean Electricity scenario, 3) a Net Zero Economy-wide scenario (also referred to as NZEW), and four additional sub-scenarios that envisioned the NZEW scenario with policy and economic constraints. With NZEW by 2050 as a base assumption, these sub-scenarios further explored scenarios including a) No Transmission Expansion, b) Accelerated Clean Electricity, c) Delayed Action (of electric vehicle and building electrification), and d) Limited Coal and Gas.
The modeling results show a viable zero-carbon future by 2050, but it is a future that requires collaborative planning, supporting policies, and economy-wide investments.
A Grid Evolution
Wisconsin’s current resource portfolio relies heavily on fossil fuel-generating capacity. The figure below, which provides the baseline 2022 capacity assumptions from the model, shows that about 70% of Wisconsin’s current generating capacity relies on coal or fossil gas as fuel sources.
The following pie chart is listed in Gigawatts (GW).
In order to achieve a carbon-free future, clearly existing fossil fuel-generating capacity needs to be replaced with clean energy resources. However, when contemplating the decarbonization of all sectors of the economy, there also needs to be an expansion of generating capacity to serve Wisconsin’s electricity needs by 2050 – a lot more clean energy capacity.
Modeling of the NZEW scenario estimates that when Wisconsin decarbonizes the transportation, building, and other sectors, electricity use will increase by over 160% by 2050, well over doubling Wisconsin’s demand for electricity. Electrification of these sectors is often referred to as ‘beneficial electrification’ as the transition implies moving away from fossil fuels to decarbonized electricity as a fuel source.
To be truly beneficial, the timing of electric vehicle (EV) charging will be essential for load balancing and efficient use of utility infrastructure. This way, while overall electricity usage goes up dramatically, price signals, automatic controls, and utility programs will all allow EVs to charge optimally throughout the year. Currently, it is most economical to charge EVs at night when prices are low. In the future, it may also make sense to send signals to charge during peak solar production during the summer noontime.
The figure below illustrates the capacity expansion needed on the supply side to meet electricity demand growth.
As a result of decarbonization of the grid and beneficial electrification, Wisconsin's demand for electricity in 2050 would be supplied by an estimated 31 Gigawatts (GW) of solar, 21 GW of wind, 7 GW of storage, 7 GW of clean gas, 2 GW hydrogen electrolyzer capacity, and 3 GW of dual fuel electric industrial boilers located in Wisconsin. Of the 31 GW of solar, the model assumed about 2.5 GW would come from rooftop solar based on information from a solar rooftop potential study. Utilities would need to import additional clean energy capacity from outside Wisconsin. The model estimated that imported clean energy would come from about 9.3 GW of solar and 6.3 GW of wind from out-of-state resources.
The figure below provides a snapshot of the clean generation portfolio serving Wisconsin by 2050 under the Net Zero Economy-wide modeling results.
The following pie chart is listed in Gigawatts (GW).
Utility-scale clean energy resources at this scale also require the expansion of transmission investments. For each of Wisconsin’s interties with Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois, the model estimates that 6 GW of transmission interties are needed for each of these three state interties. This equates to 18 GW of new transmission interties, which is about 3-to-4 times the amount of current Wisconsin transmission interties.
While gas capacity remains in all scenarios, gas serves as a reliability resource operating at just a 5% capacity factor and burning entirely clean, carbon-neutral fuels. In the ‘Limited Coal and Gas’ scenario, existing and less efficient gas units must remain online much longer and operate at much higher capacity factors because new, more efficient gas units are not allowed in this scenario.
In the ‘No Transmission Expansion’ scenario, in-state clean energy resources would have to expand by about 36% above the Net Zero Economy-wide scenario. In this scenario, all new generation capacity must be developed in Wisconsin, as higher capacity factor resources in other states cannot serve Wisconsin’s electricity needs. This scenario would also necessitate the expansion of ‘intrastate transmission’ within the borders of Wisconsin and add $1 billion in costs above the NZEW scenario.
Taking Emissions Down to Zero
In relation to a baseline scenario, the 100% Clean Electricity scenario will reduce total economy-wide carbon emissions by 24% by 2050. In this scenario, while the grid becomes carbon-free, transportation, building, and other sectors realize only modest decarbonization and still rely on fossil fuels to power cars, homes, and some industrial processes.
It is important to note that concentrating on the decarbonization of the electric grid by 2050 alone only gets Wisconsin to about a quarter of all reductions needed for a carbon-free future across all sectors of the economy. Additionally, in the Net Zero scenario, carbon sequestration and bunkering measures are needed to reduce emissions that come from marginal fossil gas resources. By 2050, a small segment of industries will still emit carbon, either because it is too costly to do otherwise or not technically feasible to eliminate completely. To achieve the target of zero emissions by 2050, the model chooses to rely on carbon sequestration, in which carbon is captured before being released into the atmosphere and then piped via pipeline to appropriate geologic sequestration areas in the country, safely sequestering the carbon.
A Real Benefits Plan
Following the Technical Report, Cambridge Econometrics released a report on The Economic Impacts of Decarbonization in Wisconsin. In combination with health outcomes modeled by Evolved Energy Resources, benefits of the Net Zero Economy-wide scenario include:
- $2 to $4.4 billion in avoided healthcare costs in 2050,
- 28 to 63 fewer deaths per million people from air pollution by 2050,
- 3% growth in Wisconsin’s Gross State Product by 2050, adding around $16 billion to Wisconsin’s economy,
- 68,000 additional Wisconsin jobs, and
- Lower energy costs for Wisconsin’s residents.
The benefits of a zero-carbon future outweigh the costs of the transition per the modeling results. Focusing on energy costs alone, economy-wide investments in renewable resources, heat pumps, EVs, etc., increase by about $111.1 billion in present value. However, the benefits of avoiding fossil fuel costs are about $110.6 billion in present value. When you add the health and economic growth benefits listed above, the net-zero investment makes sense from a business case perspective.
Jenna Greene, RENEW’s Energy Policy Fellow, is currently performing a cost-benefit analysis of the modeled scenarios using the Technical Report and Economic Impacts Report results. When cost-benefit results are available, this blog will be updated.
How We Get There
The transition to a zero-carbon future won’t be easy, as infrastructure build-out, technological innovation, and market development will be needed over the next few decades. As a result, we will need to form public-private partnerships, enact and implement policies, and design cross-sector planning processes that support this transition to ensure it is cost-effective. For quick reference, below is a set of key recommendations from a figure on page 19 of the Summary Report. A complete list of policy actions is provided at the conclusion of the Summary Report.
The release of our Zero Carbon Study is just the start of a dialog on how Wisconsin can reach zero carbon emissions by 2050. The Project Team is further collaborating with partners, businesses, legislators, and state and local government officials on the next steps. For further information, please contact Andrew Kell, Policy Analyst at RENEW Wisconsin, at andrew@renewwisconsin.org.
by RENEW Wisconsin | Dec 16, 2022 | Community, Local Initiatives, Press Release, Solar for Good
MADISON, WI – The Solar for Good grant program has awarded over $120,000 in grants and solar panel donations to Wisconsin nonprofit organizations. Thirteen nonprofits will install approximately 460 kilowatts of solar electricity, leading to more than $1.2 million in renewable energy investments in Wisconsin.
The following organizations have been offered Fall 2022 Solar for Good grants to install new solar energy systems:
Chequamegon Humane Association – animal shelter, Ashland
Cinnaire Solutions – affordable housing, Lac du Flambeau
Clyde Community Center – community service, Avoca
Friends of Sauk Prairie Parks & Recreation – community service, Prairie du Sac
Harry and Rose Samson Family JCC – religious, Mequon
Peace Lutheran of Pigeon Falls – religious, Pigeon Falls
People’s United Methodist Church – religious, Oregon
Racine Dominican Eco-Justice Center – community service, Racine
Rotary Club of Greater Portage County – community service, Stevens Point
Shirley M. Wright Memorial Library – community service, Trempealeau
St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church – religious, Madison
WAFER Food Pantry – meal distribution, La Crosse
* One organization has asked to remain anonymous at this time.
The nonprofit grant recipients from the Fall 2022 round represent a wide range of organizations across Wisconsin. Cinnaire Solutions, an affordable housing provider, will install 100 kilowatts of solar at their Forest Edge development in Lac du Flambeau, which will directly provide energy to 40 low-income tenants. The Rotary Club of Portage County is working with students from Mid-State Technical College to install a 7-kilowatt solar system on top of the Salvation Army Hope Center in Stevens Point. And the Shirley M. Wright Memorial Library will install 60 solar panels at the public library in Trempealeau.
“The Solar for Good grant is a transformative addition to this project,” stated Elizabeth Rask of Cinnaire Solutions. “Solar infrastructure is rarely included in affordable housing developments due to cost. With Solar for Good’s support, we will be able to install photovoltaic infrastructure, which will reduce the cost to residents and ensure long-term sustainability.”
The main stipulation of the grant requires each organization to highlight its solar project in the community and educate its members about the benefits of renewable energy.
“This project is a true community collaboration involving the Rotary Club of Greater Portage County, the Salvation Army, Mid-State Technical College, the Community Foundation of Central Wisconsin, and the local community of professional solar installers,” said Ben Nusz of the Rotary Club of Portage County. “The completed installation will leave a lasting impact on an organization in great need.”
The 13 nonprofits are a part of Solar for Good’s 11th round of funding. The program has offered solar grants to 161 Wisconsin-based nonprofits since it began in 2017. When all projects are complete and energized, Solar for Good grant recipients will add over 7.6 megawatts of renewable energy to Wisconsin’s electric grid, providing enough electricity to power approximately 1,600 Wisconsin households.
###
About Solar for Good RENEW Wisconsin’s Solar for Good initiative fosters the expansion of solar power among mission-based nonprofits and houses of worship in Wisconsin. Through a generous partnership with Couillard Solar Foundation, RENEW Wisconsin awards grants and solar panels to nonprofit organizations, helping them switch to clean, renewable, solar energy.
About RENEW Wisconsin RENEW Wisconsin is a nonprofit organization that promotes renewable energy in Wisconsin. We work on policies and programs that support solar power, wind power, biogas, local hydropower, geothermal energy, and electric vehicles. www.renewwisconsin.org.
About Couillard Solar Foundation the Couillard Solar Foundation is a 501c3 nonprofit whose mission is to further the urgent path to decarbonization for Wisconsin and create a cleaner, safer environment for everyone, regardless of socio-economic status. The Couillard Solar Foundation helps schools and nonprofits gain vital access to solar power by providing solar panels, programs, and education through the Solar for Good and Solar on Schools grant programs. For more information, please visit www.CouillardSolarFoundation.org
