by jboullion | Nov 2, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by Focus on Energy:
MADISON, Wis. (November 2, 2009) — Focus on Energy, Wisconsin’s statewide resource for energy efficiency and renewable energy, announced new staffing grants today to help businesses, manufacturers, schools and government facilities throughout the state complete energy efficiency projects during the next calendar year.
“Businesses don’t need to let staffing issues become a barrier to energy savings,” said Ken Williams, Focus on Energy’s business programs director. “Focus on Energy is committed to helping companies overcome barriers that prevent them from completing energy efficiency projects.”
The grants will fund up to $100,000 for a full- or part-time employee or consultant to work onsite and manage energy efficiency projects that otherwise would not be completed due to a lack of human resources. Grant funding will go toward the salary and benefits of project staff who will oversee and engineer energy saving projects.
“The staffing grant is an excellent means to fund energy efficiency projects. It’s made the difference for us to pursue projects and make progress,” said Steve Keith, P.E., sustainability and environmental engineer at the Milwaukee County Department of Transportation and Public Works.
Keith’s organization received a staffing grant in 2009. “The grant helps take the edge off project costs when every dollar counts. Focus has been very responsive to help get us what we need to get our projects done.”
The grant is designed to help businesses hire new staff or retain existing employees who might otherwise be at risk of lay-off. Partnering or neighboring companies are encouraged to submit a joint application and share an employee or consultant between businesses.
Interested businesses should visit focusonenergy.com/competitive_incentives for more information. Applications must include a list of potential projects as funding is based on the energy savings from those projects and is paid when projects are completed. Applications must be received by December 4, 2009.
Completed energy efficiency projects are also eligible for Focus on Energy
financial incentives that can be found at focusonenergy.com/incentives/business.
by jboullion | Nov 2, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Nathaniel Shuda in the Wausau Daily Herald:
Officials hope efforts to market central Wisconsin as the state’s premier renewable and sustainable energy region will boost the number of middle-level jobs.
City leaders in Wisconsin Rapids released details for the first time Thursday of an agreement with Energy Composites Corp., which plans to build a $43 million manufacturing plant, creating about 600 local jobs. The plant will produce 40- to 55-meter-long industrial wind mill blades.
“What it allows us to do is to diversify further the industries we already have here,” Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Mary Jo Carson said. “ECC gives us the opportunity to bring in ‘green’ jobs and gives us another leg for our economic stool.”
In addition, officials in Port Edwards continue to work with Ballard Power Systems, a Vancouver-based fuel cell producer that, together in a proposed project with ERCO Worldwide, could turn the chemical producer’s excess hydrogen waste into power, making the site the first location in the state and one of only a few in the country to be home to such technology.
by jboullion | Nov 2, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by Focus on Energy:
AMERY, Wis. (Nov. 2, 2009) — Mobile home residents in the Polk County area who
purchase their gas or electric heating from utilities who participate in the Focus on Energy Program, including Xcel, We Energies, Northwestern Wisconsin Electric Company, Centuria Utilities and New Richmond Utilities, have the opportunity for a free home energy evaluation and possible free energy efficiency improvements. This initiative, called the Mobile Home Duct Sealing Pilot, is part of Focus on Energy’s Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® Program, and is designed to create cost effective energy savings in mobile homes by testing for and correcting a certain set of inefficiencies, primarily leaky duct work. All testing and work is free
to the mobile home owner.
The Mobile Home Duct Sealing Pilot, like Home Performance energy evaluations, uses
the most advanced, state-of-the-art equipment to test homes, identify problems and implement recommended improvements. Duct sealing and other improvements are then tested to ensure the work is done to program standards. Partnering consultants and contractors delivering the Pilot were selected through a competitive bidding process. All the services are free to the homeowner, and the entire process can be completed in one day. . . .
To find out more about the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR Program, visit
focusonenergy.com. For details on scheduling a mobile home energy evaluation call Aaron Riendeau of St. Croix Energy Solutions at (715) 220-4818.
by jboullion | Nov 2, 2009 | Uncategorized
A news release issued by Wisconsin Farmers Union:
Chippewa Falls, Wis. (October 30, 2009) – The Wisconsin Farmers Union and other Homegrown Renewable Energy Campaign partners will host a bus tour on Nov. 13 to highlight the benefits of four homegrown renewable energy policies promoted by the campaign and the opportunities for clean energy jobs in Wisconsin.
The four signature partners of the activities are Wisconsin Farmers Union, the Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, Clean Wisconsin and RENEW Wisconsin. The Department of Agriculture Trade and Consumer Protection and the Office of Energy Independence are co-sponsors of the event.
The bus tour will begin at 9 a.m. at the Montfort Wind Farm, 254 Highway 18, Montfort, Wis. The wind farm is an example of one way to reduce carbon emissions and emphasizes the campaign’s advocacy for a Low-Carbon Fuel Standard. A LCFS calls for a reduction in carbon emissions from transportation fuels, based on the carbon content of all fuels, and the transformation of the market.
The Fuels for Schools and Communities Program and the Biomass Crop Reserve Program will be addressed at the second stop on the tour – at the Meister Cheese Plant, 1160 Industrial Drive, Muscoda, Wis. The cheese plant uses a wood-chip heating system. Research at the University of Wisconsin will also be highlighted demonstrate the prospects for Wisconsin farmers to grow biomass crops.
Providing funding for schools and communities to install renewable energy projects that use biomass crops will create demand for renewable energy. The Biomass Crop Reserve Program provides incentives for farmers to meet that demand by growing biomass crops.
The third stop will be at the Cardinal Glass factory in Mazomanie, Wis. Cardinal Glass is one of the leading suppliers of glass for solar panels. The stop is an example of how homegrown renewable energy can provide jobs for Wisconsin.
Renewable energy buyback rates, the fourth component of the Homegrown Renewable Energy Campaign, will set utility payments for small renewable energy producers who want to feed energy into the electric grid. The tour will stop at a residential home in Ridgeway, Wis. using solar panels to feed electricity into the grid.
The bus will return to the Montfort Wind Farm at 5 p.m.
To register for the Homegrown Renewable Energy Campaign Bus Tour, contact Mike Stranz, WFU Government Relations Specialist, by Nov. 9 at 608-256-6661 or email mstranz@wisconsinfarmersunion.com. A $10 registration fee, payable by cash or check the day of the event, covers the cost of the tour, lunch and snacks.
CLICK HERE for more information on the Homegrown Renewable Energy Bus Tour.
by jboullion | Nov 2, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Christine Won from The Journal Times (Racine):
TOWN OF PORTLAND – Several residents living near a Dodge County processing plant that converts manure into electricity said they don’t notice odor problems or have any complaints.
The dairy farm near Waterloo that has an anaerobic digester, like the one being proposed for Yorkville in Racine County to convert organic waste into methane gas to produce electricity, has gotten a positive response from its surrounding community since its installment in 2007, both residents and farm owners agree.
Robert and Ruth Yerges live about half a mile east of the dairy farm. They smell about a fourth of the odor from manure than they did before the digester, Robert Yerges said. The digester was one of the best things for the dairy farm, Ruth Yerges added.
“We estimate that we eliminate about 85 percent of the smell (of manure) by having it go through the digester,” said Thomas Crave, one of the four owners of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese.
The three Yorkville Town Board members toured the Crave Brothers Dairy Farm, W11555 Torpy Road, on Friday morning.
DF-1 Associates, the business group proposing a processing plant at the former Maple Leaf Farms site on Highway U in Yorkville, organized the tour so board members can see and smell what they would be dealing with.
However, a key difference between the Portland and Yorkville plants is feedstock, said Dave Duerson, spokesman for the group. The Portland plant uses cow manure where the Yorkville one would use food waste.
Town Chairman Jim Moyer, himself a farmer, said he was impressed with the Crave plant but “the jury’s still out” for Yorkville.
Yorkville residents were not sold when the group presented its proposal before the Town Board on Oct. 12, saying that bringing in trucks of garbage through their neighborhoods would depreciate property values and create odor, noise, traffic and safety concerns.
Crave said there have not been any electrical or methane gas-related problems.
by jboullion | Oct 30, 2009 | Uncategorized
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 30, 2009
MORE INFORMATION
Michael Vickerman
RENEW Wisconsin
608.255.4044
mvickerman@renewwisconsin.org
Madison, WI (October 30, 2009) RENEW Wisconsin today hailed the decision by the Public Service Commission to approve a utility’s plan to repower an aging northern Wisconsin coal-fired plant with locally available wood fuel.
The approval allows Northern States Power Company-Wisconsin (NSPW), a subsidiary of Xcel Energy, to install the state’s first biomass gasifier. The system will produce synthetic gas from a variety of wood sources to produce electricity at the company’s Bay Front Power Plant in Ashland, Wisconsin.
“This project will yield multiple dividends to the utility’s ratepayers and the local economy in and around Ashland,” said Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a statewide advocacy group for renewable energy.
“Capital projects are few and far between in northern Wisconsin. Rather than closing down an inefficient plant that relies on imported fossil fuel, NSPW is extending its life and improving its environmental performance with this switch to a sustainable energy source,” Vickerman said.
“This proposal is an excellent resource fit for this part of the state. The money spent to acquire wood fuel will remain in the local area, instead of being exported to western coal states,” Vickerman said.
END
RENEW Wisconsin (www.renewwisconsin.org) is an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that acts as a catalyst to advance a sustainable energy future through public policy and private sector initiatives.
