by jboullion | Mar 10, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a post on Tom Content’s blog on JSonline:
The stimulus bill and what it could mean for Wisconsin’s energy future will be discussed at several forums during the Renewable Energy Summit on March 27 in Milwaukee.
Gov. Jim Doyle, U.S. Rep. Dave Obey (D-Wausau), a lead author of the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) are all scheduled to address the conference, organizers said. Gary Wolter, who heads MGE Energy Inc. and runs the state Office of Recovery and Reinvestment, has also been invited to speak.
The summit is planned for March 25-27 at the Midwest Airlines Center.
“I thought we were missing the boat if we didn’t focus on the stimulus bill and what’s going to happen,” said Art Harrington of Godfrey & Kahn, a conference coordinator. “We should focus one day on the opportunities created by the stimulus bill on renewable energy, and that morphed into the plenary session on Friday, March 27.”
by jboullion | Mar 9, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a post on Tom Content’s blog on JSonline:
The stimulus bill and what it could mean for Wisconsin’s energy future will be discussed at several forums during the Renewable Energy Summit on March 27 in Milwaukee.
Gov. Jim Doyle, U.S. Rep. Dave Obey (D-Wausau), a lead author of the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment and U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) are all scheduled to address the conference, organizers said. Gary Wolter, who heads MGE Energy Inc. and runs the state Office of Recovery and Reinvestment, has also been invited to speak.
The summit is planned for March 25-27 at the Midwest Airlines Center.
“I thought we were missing the boat if we didn’t focus on the stimulus bill and what’s going to happen,” said Art Harrington of Godfrey & Kahn, a conference coordinator. “We should focus one day on the opportunities created by the stimulus bill on renewable energy, and that morphed into the plenary session on Friday, March 27.”
by jboullion | Mar 9, 2009 | Uncategorized
“An astonishingly wide-ranging film. An informed and heartfelt examination of the tug of war between public health and private interests.” – New York Times
“Lively and engaging…Smartly Done” – Los Angeles Times
The Tomorrow River Chautuaqua presents FLOW, the award-winning documentary that investigates one of the most important political and environmental issues of the 21st century – The World Water Crisis. The movie will be shown on Friday, March 27 at 7:00 in the Lettie W. Jensen Center theater in Amherst, WI. Cost is $5.00. Running time is 84 minutes.
Discussion following the movie will be led by Jo Ellen Seiser, who was Portage county’s first ground water coordinator. Additional people, with expertise in issues relating to water, are being invited to take part in the discussion.
The producer of FLOW, Irena Salina, builds a case against the growing privatization of the world’s dwindling fresh water supply. Her interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale.
While the film introduces many of the world’s governmental and corporate culprits behind the “water grab,” FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround.
by jboullion | Mar 6, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Incentives to add solar panels on homes and small businesses are higher than they’ve ever been.
That stems both from a tax credit that Congress authorized last year as well as incentives from Focus on Energy and We Energies.
That doesn’t make solar power cheap, but it’s shortening the payback times for folks who are thinking about adding solar panels, said Michael Vickerman, executive director of Renew Wisconsin, a nonprofit group seeking to boost use of solar and wind power across the state.
We Energies of Milwaukee on Wednesday unveiled a new solar electric incentive after the old program basically sold out.
For more than two years, the utility’s incentive permitted customers to sell all of the renewable power generated by their home or business back to the utility at a high electricity price of 22.5 cents a kilowatt-hour. That’s nearly twice the amount We Energies charges to homeowners for electricity.
The new program amounts to an upfront payment to customers who install solar electric systems, said Carl Siegrist, senior renewable energy strategist at We Energies.
“It’s great news,” said Niels Wolter, who runs solar electric programs with the state Focus on Energy Initiative. “Probably the biggest thing is it helps people overcome that first cost, which is a big barrier, rather than paying people more over 10 years for the power.”
Instead of paying money each month to customers who install solar panels, the new incentive is upfront and based on the amount of power a home’s panels would generate during the first year.
The exact amount of the incentive is 75 cents per kilowatt-hour for all the kilowatt-hours generated by a solar system in a year.
by jboullion | Mar 6, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article in The Business Journal:
Alliant Energy Corp. said Thursday that its Iowa utility, Interstate Power and Light Co., has canceled plans to construct the proposed coal-fired Sutherland Generating Station Unit 4 in Marshalltown, Iowa.
The company said in a press release that the decision was based on “current economic and financial climate; increasing environmental, legislative and regulatory uncertainty regarding regulation of future greenhouse gas emissions and the terms placed on the proposed power plant by regulators.”
The decision follows Wisconsin regulators’ denial in December of a proposed 300-megawatt expansion of the Nelson Dewey Generating Station by Wisconsin Power and Light Co., Alliant’s Madison-based utility. The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin ruled that the $1.26 billion project was too costly when weighing it against other alternatives such as natural gas generation and the possibility of purchasing power from existing sources.
In a statement, Alliant Energy chairman, president and CEO Bill Harvey said the PSC’s decision and the cancellation of the $1.2 billion-to-$1.3 billion Iowa power plant project “removes the option of adding new coal-based capacity to meet our customers’ future energy needs.”
by jboullion | Mar 2, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Liz Welter in the Marshfield News-Herald:
There’s good news in the federal stimulus bill for homeowners — about $42 billion in energy-related tax credits.
The bill upped the ante on tax credits, from a 10 percent return to 30 percent return, on energy-efficient home improvements. It includes everything from new windows to air conditioners to solar energy systems.
“This is good. I’m glad this has been signed and approved, because one of my goals is to make sure energy and water are being used efficiently and responsibly,” said Jim Bensen, conservation specialist at Marshfield Utilities.
Bensen conducts free home energy audits for any customer of the utility.
“It’s a good way to see where you could save some money,” he said.
Audits usually take about one hour at the home and then several hours to enter the numbers into a computer, analyze the data and prepare a report.
“I’ll go through the report with the person and explain where to start on savings. A lot of this is weatherizing your home. Just one leak, like around your chimney, or the pipe that goes outside to the faucet, can make a different. Add those all up, and it’s a substantial savings,” he said.
It’s not just older homes that need weatherizing, he said.
“I did a home last week built in 2004, and there’s a lot of weatherizing the owner can do to save a lot of money. And a lot of it, you don’t need to hire someone to do,” Bensen said.
Through the state’s Focus on Energy program, Bensen said, there are resources available to residents to learn about the feasibility and possibility of using alternative energy sources. Bensen said he often refers residential, business and farming clients to Focus on Energy for assistance.
Wisconsinites are in a good position to take advantage of these energy-saving incentives, said Kathy Kuntz, director of energy programs at Focus on Energy.
“Our problem isn’t going to be that (Wisconsinites) couldn’t find the appliance or the installer, because we have the infrastructure,” she said.
Not all states have agencies such as Focus on Energy to help guide consumers, she said, and added that the state also has a variety of companies selling and installing solar, wind and geothermal energy technologies.
