Wisconsin’s First Solar Subdivision to Rise in New Berlin

by jboullion | May 26, 2017 | Uncategorized

For the first time ever in Wisconsin, prospective home buyers have the option of purchasing a brand-new house with a solar array sized to offset 100% of household electricity use. A trio of Wisconsin companies broke ground this week on a residential development in New Berlin that will integrate rooftop solar arrays into all 34 residences built there.

Representatives from Neumann Companies, SunVest Solar, and Tim O’Brien Homes break ground on May 23, 2017 at Wisconsin’s first net-zero planned community.

Developed by Pewaukee-based Neumann Companies, the home sites at Red Fox Crossing, located on the southwest corner of S. Sunny Slope Road and W. Grange Ave., will be oriented to fully capture the solar energy available. Madison-based Tim O’Brien Homes will design and construct the solar-ready houses, and Pewaukee-based SunVest Solar will design and install each solar system, ranging from six to eight kilowatts.

Households that purchase a new house in Red Fox Crossing will finance the solar array through a 30-year mortgage with a 4% interest rate. As the tables below show, the power of long-term financing enables home buyers to reap substantial savings with the first monthly payment.  Indeed, the return on investment for these solar arrays will range between 10% and 20% for the duration of the mortgage.

When fully built out, Red Fox Crossing will have between 200 and 260 kilowatts of behind-the-meter solar capacity in operation. It is on a path to become Wisconsin’s first net zero (electricity) community.

Members of the SunVest Solar team at the groundbreaking.

“It has always been our dream to offer an energy independent community,” said Matt Neumann, principal of Neumann Companies. “We are excited to have all three companies involved in creating Wisconsin’s first net zero community.”

* calculations based on We Energies current residential rates

According to a WTMJ-TV report, the Neumann team expects individual lots to be ready for permitting and construction sometime this fall, and the first home to be completed and generating electricity by next spring.

“Red Fox Crossing has the potential to be the turning point in building a more sustainable community and neighborhood in Wisconsin, versus focusing on only one home at a time,” said Tim O’Brien, president of Tim O’Brien Homes.

Neumann Companies’ new office in Pewaukee, which also features solar panels on the roof.

National Solar Company Sets Up Shop in Wisconsin

by jboullion | Mar 29, 2017 | Uncategorized

San Francisco-based Sunrun, the leading residential solar company in the nation, announced today its intention to venture into Wisconsin and begin offering customers several options for financing a new solar PV system.

The entrance of Sunrun into Wisconsin represents the first time a national rooftop solar company has ventured into the Midwest. Sunrun will target southeast Wisconsin counties from Sheboygan and Fond du Lac in the north to Kenosha, Walworth, and Rock in the south.

Says Amy Heart, Sunrun’s Director of Public Policy and a long-time solar advocate in Wisconsin: “We are excited to be the first national residential solar company to serve the Midwest, and I personally could not be more proud to help Sunrun call Wisconsin home. Wisconsin has an opportunity to lead the region with solar energy–leading to new jobs and a stronger economy.”

In an interview with Midwest Energy News, Sunrun’s Heart explains the reasoning behind her company’s decision to select Wisconsin as its point of entry into the Midwest.

For more information on Sunrun’s financing options and opportunities for employment, visit the full press release here.

Madison Embraces 100% Renewable Energy Future

by jboullion | Mar 22, 2017 | Uncategorized

Last night Madison’s Common Council unanimously approved a resolution establishing a goal of
100% renewable energy use and net zero carbon emissions community wide by a date to be specified. The same resolution authorizes city staff to spend up to $250,000 on an independent consultant to analyze different timelines and measures for transitioning the city’s buildings and transportation fleets to becoming net carbon-neutral.  With the benefit of that analysis, city staff will present a plan to the Common Council for achieving these objectives by January 2018. 

With this action, Madison is on track to join 23 other U.S. municipalities and cities–among them Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Rochester, Minnesota—committed to a full transition to renewable energy for its own operations. It is also the first Wisconsin municipality to commit to achieving a net zero carbon footprint.

According to Wikipedia, carbon neutrality, or having a net zero carbon footprint, refers to achieving net zero carbon emissions by balancing a measured amount of carbon released with an equivalent amount sequestered or offset, or buying enough carbon credits to make up the difference. It is used in the context of carbon dioxide releasing processes associated with transportation, energy production, and industrial processes such as production of carbon neutral fuel.

The Sustainable Madison Committee (SMC), an official city body that meets monthly, spearheaded the changes to the city’s climate and energy goals. While these are the official goals for both the City of Madison and the broader community, the resolution directs City staff to address its own operations first for the purposes of leading by example. Stating that the “attainment of the goal is a budgetary and managerial priority,” the resolution requires the plan to include “interim milestones, budget estimates, and estimated financial impacts.”

City staff plans to issue a Request for Proposals for third-party expertise in May and hire a contractor in July. 

Madison’s decision to initiate a process for weaning itself off fossil fuels reflects the widening divide between municipalities and states over climate change. Frustrated by a polarized political environment and inaction at higher levels of government, cities are increasingly striking out on their own to adopt and implement clean energy policies that build in resilience, economic opportunity, and operational savings while improving air quality and slowing climate change.

On that theme the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters and partners will convene a full-day summit to empower local Wisconsin leaders to advance energy efficiency, renewable energy, and resilience across the state. The summit, titled How do we build resilient communities in Wisconsin?, set for April 5th in Fond du Lac, will include a panel showcasing the vanguard of local leadership on clean energy and resilience. For more information and to register for the summit, visit the website here.

Other links:
Wisconsin State Journal article

Channel 3 WISC-TV editorial

Midwest Energy News article

An excellent summary of the public engagement process that led to the resolution as well as the city’s expectations going forward can be found in the statement prepared by Raj Shukla, Chair of the Madison Sustainable Committee, supporting Council adoption of the resolution.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My name is Raj Shukla, Chair of the Sustainable Madison Committee and a father who is proud to live in a city that takes action on climate change not only for the future of our world, but for the health of our community right now.

By way of background, at the direction of the Common Council, the Sustainable Madison Committee undertook a series of public working sessions seeking to update community-wide goals on carbon emissions and renewable energy. From July through November, a work group of SMC members considered a range of information, received advice from experts, and weighed ideas from the public.

In the end, advances to our understanding of climate science and leaps forwards in technology led workgroup members to a clear conclusion: Madison should set its sights on 100% renewable, net-zero carbon energy.

The resolution before you does a few big things:

1.    Establishes a communitywide goal of 100% renewable, net zero carbon energy;
2.    Insists that city government lead the way and reallocate money for city agencies to start; and
3.    Provides a framework through which we’ll regularly assess and report on our progress.

We did not set a timeline for reaching these ambitious objectives within the resolution. To do so across the community reaches far beyond what city government can control. Energy policy is governed by state law and state regulators.

But city government can control how it operates, and this resolution empowers city staff to develop a plan—including target dates—for achieving 100% renewable, net-zero carbon goals for operations. Progress reports are built into the resolution and will keep us on track to meet community standards.

The vote you cast tonight is the culmination of eight months of community discourse and community leadership. But it is really just the beginning.

RENEW Takes on Energy Policy in Milwaukee Media Tour

by jboullion | Mar 9, 2017 | Uncategorized

RENEW’s Michael Vickerman joined Alex Bozmoski of RepublicEn, a right-leaning think tank housed in George Mason University, and WUWM reporter Susan Bence in a
lively exchange on the prospects for expanding clean energy and
confronting climate change in the new Trump administration. Bence’s
article, titled “Two Takes on Tackling Climate Change,” is now online, along with the interview that aired last week.  

The radio show, taped on February 23rd, was one of three conversations that day organized by Douglas Savage of the UW-Milwaukee Institute of World Affairs. Savage directs the Institute’s Fireside Forum series, which this year is titled “Wisconsin and the World in the Trump Era.” Savage invited Vickerman and Bozmoski to continue the conversation in a WMTV-Channel 36 interview (air date TBD) and in an evening in-person forum at the UWM Student Union, which drew more than 100 attendees.

A good part of all three discussions revolved around the efficacy of and prospects for a federal carbon fee and dividend, a policy proposal supported by RepublicEn as an alternative to the Clean Energy Plan, the Obama Administration’s signature climate change policy initiative. Bozmoski details this policy in an Op-Ed he wrote for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Vickerman pointed out that the economic case for clean energy has become very compelling in recent years, and will continue to become more mainstream regardless of how the Clean Power Plan or a carbon tax fares under a Trump administration.

MGE plans $107 million wind farm in northeast Iowa

by jboullion | Feb 22, 2017 | Uncategorized

An article on Madison Gas & Electric’s announcement to build, own, and operate a 66 megawatt wind farm in Saratoga, Iowa appeared in today’s Wisconsin State Journal. 

Excerpt from the article below: “Tyler Huebner, executive director of the Madison renewable energy advocacy nonprofit RENEW Wisconsin, praised MGE’s Saratoga project. ‘We’re happy to see MGE move ahead on their Energy 2030 framework and identify a large, renewable energy project,’ he said.”

MGE plans $107 million wind farm in northeast Iowa

Madison Gas & Electric plans to build a wind farm in northeast Iowa that could generate up to 66 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 47,000 homes.

The Madison utility company said Tuesday the Saratoga wind farm in Howard County, Iowa, would consist of 33 turbines, each nearly 500 feet tall. That’s 100 feet taller than turbines at MGE’s Top of Iowa wind farm in Worth County, in north-central Iowa, installed in 2008.

If regulators approve the proposal, it will be built next year and will begin operating by the end of 2018. The estimated cost is $107 million.

“This is an exciting opportunity for our customers and continues the progress we’ve made in reducing carbon emissions and increasing renewable energy,” Gary Wolter, MGE chairman, president and CEO, said in a written statement. “With recent advances in technology, this project represents a long-term, cost-effective strategy for MGE to continue to transition to cleaner energy sources.”

The announcement came one week before Wolter is slated to retire as president and CEO, to be succeeded by Jeffrey Keebler, senior vice president of energy supply and planning, on March 1.

Wolter will remain chairman of the boards of MGE and parent firm MGE Energy.

Tyler Huebner, executive director of the Madison renewable energy advocacy nonprofit RENEW Wisconsin, praised MGE’s Saratoga project. “We’re happy to see MGE move ahead on their Energy 2030 framework and identify a large, renewable energy project,” he said.

Huebner was not surprised about the Iowa location. “Right now, southwest Wisconsin is a little transmission-constrained. That is hurting the ability to develop wind power (in Wisconsin),” he said.

The Sierra Club also is glad to see MGE “taking the much needed initiative to invest in wind power,” said spokeswoman Elizabeth Katt Reinders, in Madison. “We’d like to see MGE commit to large-scale clean energy investment with the goal of replacing, not augmenting, dirty fossil fuels.”

In its Energy 2030 plan, released in November 2015, MGE said it plans to supply 25 percent of its electric sales from renewable resources by 2025 and 30 percent by 2030.

MGE said it started searching for sites for a wind farm in summer 2015. It began negotiations for the northeast Iowa site in summer 2016 and obtained rights to the location last year from initial site developer RPM Access.

If approved, it will be MGE’s largest wind farm. The utility also gets wind-generated power from five other farms in Wisconsin and Iowa.

Tuesday’s announcement about the Saratoga project comes on the heels of a meeting held Monday night by RePower Madison, a citizen group formed in 2014 to oppose MGE’s rate increase plans.

About 100 people attended the session at the Madison Central Library at which RePower Madison encouraged residents to send postcards to the utility calling for MGE to commit to 100 percent renewable energy.

RePower program manager Mitch Brey said the timing of MGE’s Saratoga announcement could be more than coincidental, though the project has been in the works for a while.

“We hope this will be the first of many clean energy projects for MGE’s incoming CEO, Jeffrey Keebler, and that he will embrace a goal of 100 percent renewable energy as he takes on his new leadership role,” Brey said.

The MGE proposal is the latest in a series of wind generation projects announced in the past year. Alliant Energy, Madison, will build at least 500 megawatts in Iowa by 2020 and Dairyland Power Cooperative, La Crosse, said it will buy power from a wind farm under construction near Platteville and another, already operating, in north-central Iowa.

Commentary: When will Wisconsin utilities finally embrace solar?

by jboullion | Feb 15, 2017 | Uncategorized

RENEW’s Michael Vickerman wrote a piece for today’s Midwest Energy News on the growth of solar in Wisconsin, and why investor-owned utilities should follow the leadership of co-ops and residents:

By: Michael Vickerman, RENEW Wisconsin Policy & Program Director

One of the Dairyland Power Cooperative arrays at  Taylor Electric Cooperative in Medford, WI.

For solar energy in Wisconsin, the last 24 months have been nothing short of electrifying.  After the best-year-ever in 2015 led by installations on businesses and homes, 2016 started with a jolt when La Crosse-based Dairyland Power Cooperative committed to 14 large projects scattered across the full length of western Wisconsin. About half of these projects will be fully operational by the end of February, and the remainder before July.

Projects by Alliant Energy, Bayfield Electric Cooperative and Madison Gas & Electric delivered the next pulse of sun-generated power. Their installations span the state from Iron River near Lake Superior in the north to Beloit by the Illinois border in the south.

Large arrays placed on 16 Wisconsin stores owned by national retailer Target also contributed to the ongoing surge of solar generation. Located principally in southeast Wisconsin, Target’s rooftop systems encompass the largest customer commitment to solar energy to date in the Badger State.

When the final project in this wave is energized this spring, Wisconsin’s solar portfolio will stand at 60 megawatts (MW), producing enough electricity to supply 7,000 households each year. A year ago that number was only 25 MW.

Notwithstanding Target’s remarkable initiative, Wisconsin electric providers have accounted for most of this recent growth, driven primarily by cooperatives responding to the desires of their owner-members. As impressive as these numbers appear to be, however, a comparison between our solar marketplace and those of the other 49 states places Wisconsin in 34th place, behind our Midwestern neighbors Minnesota, Iowa, and Indiana.

Given Wisconsin’s second-division status in this area, it came as a shock to many when WPPI Energy and NextEra Energy Resources announced plans in late January to jointly pursue a 100 MW solar power plant adjacent to the Point Beach nuclear plant north of Manitowoc. As presently planned, NextEra’s project would supply WPPI’s 51 member municipal utilities with clean electricity under a 20-year contract beginning in 2021.

A recently completed NextEra Energy solar project of similar size provides a glimpse into the economic benefits we anticipate from the Point Beach solar project. Located in Alabama, the River Bend plant, which supplies electricity to the Tennessee Valley Authority, created about 350 jobs during construction, with most of the workers coming from the local area.

In addition to being a job generator, River Bend will provide tax payments for schools and local services adding up to nearly $10 million over the life of its current contract. So too will the Point Beach solar project, to the tune of $400,000 per year while producing safe, clean, and renewable electricity for municipalities like nearby Two Rivers.

The Point Beach announcement highlights another positive attribute of solar power in Wisconsin, which is that our state has an abundance of locations well-suited to accommodating large projects, including brownfield sites such as the former Kewaunee nuclear station now undergoing decommissioning. Closed since 2013, Kewaunee is a mere 15 miles away from Point Beach, and has the infrastructure in place to host a similar-size installation. Local officials should take a cue from WPPI’s action and press Dominion Energy, Kewaunee’s owner, to explore re-energizing the 900-acre site with solar power.

Indeed, nothing demonstrates the cost-effectiveness and low-risk nature of a generation source as emphatically as a 20-year power purchase contract. Now that it has become cost-competitive with new wind and natural gas generators, shouldn’t solar power be the default resource going forward with all Wisconsin utilities?

It’s worth remembering that Dairyland and WPPI are unregulated power suppliers and as such do not need approval from state regulators to pursue large-scale solar for their members. But Wisconsin’s largest power providers are investor-owned utilities, and do not have the same latitude. They need approval from the Public Service Commission (PSC) to build solar projects of any size for their ratepaying customers. PSC Chairwoman Ellen Nowak recently stated, “Right now, there’s not a need for a lot a new generation of any source in Wisconsin,” indicating investor-owned utility-scale solar proposals may encounter tougher sledding.

While suppliers for municipal and cooperative electricity providers can go big on solar power today, investor-owned utilities have yet to come up with a strategy for persuading the PSC why large-scale solar is needed and is in the best interests of all ratepayers. And until they do, they will remain largely bystanders to this build-out, hampered in their ability to pursue installations apart from the occasional shared solar array or demonstration project.

Now is the time for Wisconsin’s larger investor-owned utilities to capitalize on the solar leadership of Dairyland Power Cooperative and WPPI Energy. While the solar development we have today is creating jobs and helping businesses manage their energy costs and compete for new customers, it can do so much more for Wisconsin.

For years, organizations like ours have been presenting the public policy case for solar energy, with modest success. But if the state’s largest utilities decided to make the case for an expanded build-out based on simple economics, the chances of convincing policymakers will improve dramatically.