by jboullion | Nov 14, 2008 | Uncategorized
More Wisconsin residents may now be eligible for Focus on Energy’s assistance program which offers limited-income homeowners low-cost efficiency improvements to improve the comfort, safety and affordability of their homes. The assistance program called Targeted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR®, is now seeking applications from homeowners with incomes between 150-250 percent of the poverty level, which is a significant increase from the past maximum of 200 percent. To put the new maximum into perspective, a family of four’s maximum eligible annual income increased to $53,000 from the previous $42,400. . . .
Targeted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR, is part of Focus on Energy, Wisconsin’s energy efficiency and renewable energy program. Targeted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR offers qualifying homeowners a no-cost energy evaluation performed by a qualified program provider. Depending on the results of the evaluation, the home may receive energy efficiency improvements, such as adding insulation, finding and eliminating drafts, replacing an inefficient heating system, installing compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and more. Targeted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR will pay 90 percent of the costs of the energy efficiency improvements – the homeowner pays just 10 percent.
Energy efficient homes save energy and money all year long. In summer, a home that’s properly sealed and insulated stays cooler and more comfortable, reducing the need for fans and air conditioners during hot daylight hours. In winter, energy efficient homes keep warm air inside, improving comfort and reducing heating costs during Wisconsin’s coldest months.
Homeowners wishing to apply for Targeted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR are encouraged to call Focus on Energy at (800) 762-7077 or visit focusonenergy.com to download an application.
by jboullion | Nov 14, 2008 | Uncategorized
From a media release issued by Focus on Energy:
More Wisconsin residents may now be eligible for Focus on Energy’s assistance program which offers limited-income homeowners low-cost efficiency improvements to improve the comfort, safety and affordability of their homes. The assistance program called Targeted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR®, is now seeking applications from homeowners with incomes between 150-250 percent of the poverty level, which is a significant increase from the past maximum of 200 percent. To put the new maximum into perspective, a family of four’s maximum eligible annual income increased to $53,000 from the previous $42,400. . . .
Targeted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR, is part of Focus on Energy, Wisconsin’s energy efficiency and renewable energy program. Targeted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR offers qualifying homeowners a no-cost energy evaluation performed by a qualified program provider. Depending on the results of the evaluation, the home may receive energy efficiency improvements, such as adding insulation, finding and eliminating drafts, replacing an inefficient heating system, installing compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and more. Targeted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR will pay 90 percent of the costs of the energy efficiency improvements – the homeowner pays just 10 percent.
Energy efficient homes save energy and money all year long. In summer, a home that’s properly sealed and insulated stays cooler and more comfortable, reducing the need for fans and air conditioners during hot daylight hours. In winter, energy efficient homes keep warm air inside, improving comfort and reducing heating costs during Wisconsin’s coldest months.
Homeowners wishing to apply for Targeted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR are encouraged to call Focus on Energy at (800) 762-7077 or visit focusonenergy.com to download an application.
by jboullion | Nov 14, 2008 | Uncategorized
From a media release issued by Focus on Energy:
More Wisconsin residents may now be eligible for Focus on Energy’s assistance program which offers limited-income homeowners low-cost efficiency improvements to improve the comfort, safety and affordability of their homes. The assistance program called Targeted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR®, is now seeking applications from homeowners with incomes between 150-250 percent of the poverty level, which is a significant increase from the past maximum of 200 percent. To put the new maximum into perspective, a family of four’s maximum eligible annual income increased to $53,000 from the previous $42,400. . . .
Targeted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR, is part of Focus on Energy, Wisconsin’s energy efficiency and renewable energy program. Targeted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR offers qualifying homeowners a no-cost energy evaluation performed by a qualified program provider. Depending on the results of the evaluation, the home may receive energy efficiency improvements, such as adding insulation, finding and eliminating drafts, replacing an inefficient heating system, installing compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) and more. Targeted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR will pay 90 percent of the costs of the energy efficiency improvements – the homeowner pays just 10 percent.
Energy efficient homes save energy and money all year long. In summer, a home that’s properly sealed and insulated stays cooler and more comfortable, reducing the need for fans and air conditioners during hot daylight hours. In winter, energy efficient homes keep warm air inside, improving comfort and reducing heating costs during Wisconsin’s coldest months.
Homeowners wishing to apply for Targeted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR are encouraged to call Focus on Energy at (800) 762-7077 or visit focusonenergy.com to download an application.
by jboullion | Nov 13, 2008 | Uncategorized
From an article by Julie Lawrence at OnMilwaukee.com
While new fuel efficient cars and home solar panels are some of the most powerful ways to reduce our carbon footprint, a $25,000 investment is usually out of the question for most college students who are already battling rapidly increasing education costs.
But what about spending $16? Two University of Wisconsin student entrepreneurs say it can go further than you might think.
Mechanical engineering major Ted Durkee and business partner Brandon Gador, a recent graduate of Madison’s School of Business, launched Powered Green this past October to provide an economical way for anyone to support renewable energy.
Their product, Energy Seal, is a recycled aluminum laptop sticker that funds carbon offsets. At $16, the cost of the sticker covers the production of enough renewable energy to offset what an average laptop uses in its lifetime.
Amazingly, $14 is enough to subsidize the retail cost of the laptop’s lifetime energy consumption, paying for wind turbines that create electricity. The remaining $2 is for the actual seal, visual evidence that promotes the buyer’s support of the eco-friendly endeavor.
“It essentially has the effect of a wind turbine in your backyard without actually having one,” explains Durkee, who partnered Power Green with Village Green Energy, a renewable energy credit distributor based in California.
by jboullion | Nov 12, 2008 | Uncategorized
A Clear Horizons’ employee (in the red shirt) leads a tour of the biodigester on the Crave Brothers Farm near Waterloo. The bags along the low wall contain potting soil that includes fiberous material left after the digestion process.
Michael Vickerman previously addressed the need for higher buy-back rates in two proceedings at the Public Service Commission — the first in a rate case for Alliant Energy and the second in a WPS rate case. The rate issue ranks high on RENEW’s agenda for the next two years.
The excerpts below from a guest editorial by Richard R. Pieper Sr., chairman of Milwaukee’s PPC Partners Inc., in The Capital Times re-enforces Vickerman’s argument:
I’m told the following: the world is going green and Wisconsin wants to grow its business base. I believe the former but not the latter, because the Public Service Commission, utilities and some politicians in this state seem to consider both ideas about as important as what cricket team is the current world champion.
I proudly admit to having a horse in this race or at least a cow in the shed. PPC Partners Inc. is one of Wisconsin’s oldest, largest, employee-owned companies. It has over 1,000 employees throughout the U.S., but primarily in Wisconsin. It was started as Pieper Electric by my father, Julius Pieper, with five employees. We have an entrepreneurial spirit and believe in the creativity of Wisconsin workers.
In September, I was told by a group of CEOs that one of our cutting-edge subsidiaries, Clear Horizons LLC, should “locate in California, where you can get things done.” We absolutely do not want to relocate this company. We do want Wisconsin to give more than lip service to supporting alternative sources of energy.
Here’s what Clear Horizons does.
Clear Horizons has developed a solution to dairy farm manure disposal that not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions created by methane gas from the manure, but also provides enough alternative fuel from a herd of 750 cows to electrically power 200 homes. The equipment takes the methane and uses it to power engines that generate electricity which can be bought by utilities. A light bulb does not care if the current is produced by cows or coal. . . .
The lack of cooperation in this state has caused other companies like Microgy to leave for Texas. GHD, a similar company from Chilton, Wis., is doing work in Idaho and Mexico. Within the last 12 months, the states of California, Arizona and Vermont have passed legislation guaranteeing producers of biogas a minimum payment because those legislators understand America must become more energy independent, as well as reduce need for substations and transmission and subtransmission lines.
Jobs? Recent reports state green energy adds jobs. Every MW of biogas installed creates 35 jobs per year. The biogas potential in Wisconsin equates to 14,000 jobs created per year.
Currently, utilities have little incentive to promote alternative energy sources. They act according to federal mandates but are not creatively pursuing opportunities.
Cleaner air, more jobs; what’s not to like? We’re here. We’re ready. We’re necessary to the future of this state. We need some policies. Is anybody listening?
by jboullion | Nov 12, 2008 | Uncategorized
From a story by Dorothy Jasperson in the Westby Times:
The Westby Wind Energy project is no longer just blowing in the wind after Westby City Council members agreed with a planning commission consensus to offer conditional use permits to Heartland Wind LLC.
The permits are for the implementation of three wind turbines on city-owned and annexed land west of Westby. Heartland Wind LLC is the Illinois limited liability company that will be leasing land from the city of Westby and Glen Stalsberg, who owns property adjacent to the city.
The contract easement will allow Heartland Wind LLC to lease the property for 20 years, conduct soil testing, studies and surveys and make payments of $1,000 per year, per turbine site during construction phase and $6,000 annually per turbine once they are operational.
After the 20-year lease has expired the company may offer two five-year renewals for a possible total 30-year contract. Heartland Wind LLC will be responsible for property taxes as a result of the turbine installation and carry a broad form insurance policy against any liabilities incurred with the project. If the project fails Heartland Wind LLC would be responsible for the removal of all the facilities, including foundations to a depth of 48 inches and all removal would have to occur with six months of the contract cancellation. . . .
The initial project calls for the construction of three wind generated turbines at a cost of $3-4 million dollars per unit, with construction anticipated to begin in 2009 or early 2010. Once operational the wind turbines could produce up to 100 percent of the energy now used by residents in the city of Westby, depending on wind speeds and electricity usage, but that doesn’t equate to a reduction in residential and commercial electric rates since the power generated by the turbines from the test project will be purchased as a whole by WPPI, the power purchaser for the Westby Utilities. The overall savings as more natural energy is generated throughout the state by projects like the one EcoEnergy is developing in Westby will be seen in future savings by all WPPI members, not initial reductions for customers living where the wind turbines are located.
