by jboullion | Oct 21, 2008 | Uncategorized
From a media release issued by Alliant:
MADISON, WI – October 17, 2008 – A decision on the future of the Nelson Dewey Generating Station is just weeks away. The final phase of the regulatory process kicked off today, as Wisconsin Power and Light Company (WPL), a subsidiary of Alliant Energy Corporation (NYSE: LNT), filed its . . . brief in the case.
The brief highlights that no generating facility in Wisconsin history has ever provided the varied benefits that Nelson Dewey 3 will bring. These benefits include helping to jump start the biofuels economy in Wisconsin and establishing an estimated $50 million dollars annually in economic development from that market, creating much-needed jobs for southwest Wisconsin during the construction and operation of the plant, and increasing the transmission import capability into the state by as much as 600 megawatts.
Also addressed in the brief is the importance of strong ratemaking principles to the project. Ratemaking principles define how construction costs will be recovered in utility rates throughout the life of the generating facility. “These are clearly challenging economic times for all of us,” said William D. Harvey, Chairman, President, and CEO – Alliant Energy. “We are thankful that, in Wisconsin, our regulators have the ability to fix the financial parameters for the lifetime of the project. That certainty can help provide our customers and our company with stability, which, now more than ever, is critical.”
The proposed 300 megawatt plant will have the ability to burn not only coal, but also switchgrass (native prairie grass), corn stalks and waste wood from area fields and forests. The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSCW) is considering WPL’s proposal, with final briefs in the docket due at the end of this month. The PSCW is expected to issue an oral decision about the future of the project in mid-November, with a written order due in mid-December.
by jboullion | Oct 21, 2008 | Uncategorized
From a story by Sarah Rasmussen on WEAU News:
We’ve all heard of building energy efficient homes, but with a new grant, a Black River Falls couple is taking their plans to the extreme.
The Chambers’ are building a Green Max, net zero home that will produce just as much energy as it consumes.
Tom Chambers says the overall cost is $325,000 to build, but a $50,000 grant from Wisconsin Public Power Inc. and an additional $16,000 in energy incentives will help them complete this technological wonder.
After more than a year of planning and several blueprints later, the chambers are finally able to build their Green Max home.
“We always, both of us have been conscious of sustainability and conservation,” Chambers says.
Solar panels will help the home produce energy, but there are many other energy saving aspects in the home to help it break even.
“First thing you have to do is build a home that is isolated from everything exterior,” Chambers says.
“We’ve added additional foam insulation under the basement slab. There’s two inches of foam there. There’s two inches of foam on the exterior of the basement walls. You can see we’ve added an inch of foam all the way around the exterior of the wall,” says General Contractor Todd Paige.
He says they built the home using 2x8s instead of 2x6s to increase the amount of insulation in the walls.
Another interesting aspect of the home is the windows. For example, the windows on the west side of the house will be treated to let more heat from the sun in during the winter, while the windows on north side of the house have been treated to block heat from the sun during the summer.
The Chambers’ home will be heated by a geothermal heating system.
by jboullion | Oct 21, 2008 | Uncategorized
From a media advisory issued by Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity:
Focus on Energy, along with a coalition of renewable energy organizations, have partnered with Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity in an effort to build sustainable and affordable homes by installing 11 solar hot water systems and nine photovoltaic systems on 20 Habitat homes. In celebration of the completed project, there will be an Open House on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2008 from noon to 3 p.m. at 3022 N. 7th Street in Milwaukee.
The incorporation of solar technology on MHH homes was a pilot project which offered the unique opportunity to train future contractors in the solar industry by allowing them to gain hands-on experience. The goal was to help build a stronger solar base in the greater Milwaukee area and bring those in the industry together.
Future homeowners will be educated about how their systems work and will be enrolled in the We Energies buy-back program that will significantly reduce or eliminate their energy bills.
To learn more about Focus on Energy and its Renewable Energy Program, call (800) 762-7077 or visit www.focusonenergy.com.
by jboullion | Oct 20, 2008 | Uncategorized
From a media release issued by SC Johnson:
RACINE, Wis., Oct 17, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Innovation isn’t just the hallmark of SC Johnson’s products, it’s also fundamental to how its products are made. That’s why when consumers reach for a can of Pledge(R) furniture polish produced with green energy, or a Ziploc(R) bag made with wind power, they can feel good knowing their purchase is from a company that’s doing what’s right for people and the planet.
In fact, one in every two U.S. households(1) is making a difference by using an SC Johnson product around their home, such as Windex(R), Pledge(R), Ziploc(R), Glade(R), Raid(R) or Scrubbing Bubbles(R), all of which are made using renewable energy. That’s nearly 57 percent of U.S. households — or 66.2 million families — making a difference when they buy SC Johnson products.
This important point of difference is highlighted in a new advertisement from SC Johnson, featuring company Chairman and CEO Fisk Johnson. The ad highlights the company’s innovative use of clean and efficient alternative energy sources at its manufacturing operations in Michigan and Wisconsin, and in Medan, Indonesia. “We’re reducing greenhouse gases all over the world,” Johnson says in the 30-second television spot airing in the United States. “So when you reach for Windex(R), Pledge(R), or any SC Johnson product, you can feel good about it.”
Among the alternative energy innovations highlighted in the ad are:
— SC Johnson’s use of wind power electricity for its Bay City, Michigan factory that produces Ziploc(R) brand products, a move that replaces almost half the factory’s annual purchase of coal-fired electricity and helps keep 29,500 tons of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere annually.
— Its use of cogeneration turbines to produce green energy utilizing methane piped in from a local public landfill as well as natural gas. SC Johnson’s cogeneration turbines generate the entire average daily base-load electrical demand of its largest global plant, in Racine, Wisconsin.
— The company’s construction in Medan, Indonesia of an innovative burner/boiler system that runs on palm shells, the remaining waste of the palm oil industry. By transferring this former waste product into a fuel source, the system has cut greenhouse gas emissions at the Medan factory by more than 15 percent and reduced use of diesel fuel by 60 percent.
by jboullion | Oct 20, 2008 | Uncategorized
From an article by Joe Knight in the Eau Claire Leader Telegram:
The technology to make ethanol out of grass or trees may be several years away, but that doesn’t mean northwestern Wisconsin has to wait to begin developing biomass energy, said Andrew Dane, UW-Extension agent in Chippewa and Barron counties.
Biomass can be used for heating – about three-fourths of the total energy used in Wisconsin is for heating, Dane said. Biomass also can be used to heat boilers, as Xcel Energy is doing to produce electricity at its power plant in Ashland, he said. Xcel is in the process of converting the plant from generating with a combination of coal and wood to all-wood generation.
Two ethanol plants in western Wisconsin are replacing natural gas with corn stover or other biomass to fire their boilers, he said.
“It all comes down to the resources – what we can grow and aggregate and market and distribute,” he said.
Switchgrass, corn stover – what’s left of the corn plant after the corn grain is removed – other crop residues and short-rotation woody plants are things that can be used now for heating, and later for ethanol, when a process is found to make ethanol from cellulose, he said.
Cellulose is a major component of plants and trees.
“We have short-term opportunities to position our region to take advantage of this (ethanol form cellulose) when and if it becomes technologically viable,” he said.
Wood burning is the most familiar form of biomass energy in use. The wood used doesn’t have to be from logs. Wood chips or wood scraps pressed into pellets will work.
Several schools in northern Wisconsin already are heating with wood chips.
The Shell Lake school district is using wood chips and corn.
In Barron an elementary school, high school, community center, nursing home and office of Marshfield Clinic all are heated through a wood-chip-burning system. Now school officials are adding a cooling unit to air condition with wood energy.
There are new wood-pellet-producing plants going into Hayward, Ladysmith and Ashland, Dane said. . . .
by jboullion | Oct 17, 2008 | Uncategorized
The all-electric vehicles from Columbia ParCar offer one transportation
alternative to the internal combusion engine. (Photo courtesy of
Columbia ParCar, Reedsburg, WI.)
From an editorial in The Thomah Journal:
For all the attention the banking and insurance bailouts have received — and anything that involves $1 trillion of taxpayer money deserves attention — it’s only a short-term fix to what ails the American economy and American living arrangements. To solve its long-term problems, America needs a new sustainability agenda.
Unfortunately, discussions of sustainability are limited to the poor and whether it’s possible, for example, to guarantee adequate health care for everyone. That’s a very narrow definition. We need a broader view of sustainability that examines:
* Mobility. Exurban lifestyles in which people live in big houses and drive big automobiles to jobs located 30, 40 or 50 miles away impose a huge cost on the economy and environment. We need an agenda of sustainable neighborhoods that require us to drive fewer miles — or not at all — to meet basic needs.
* Energy. It’s unclear how much oil lies beneath the earth’s surface, but this much is beyond dispute: oil is a finite resource, and it will run out some day. It’s not too early to invest in clean, renewable energy sources and develop an alternative to the internal combustion engine. . . .
A nation that can massively subsidize exurban sprawl, non-renewable energy, corporate farms and pre-emptive war is capable of sustaining a sturdy safety net for our sickest, poorest and most vulnerable citizens. It’s just a matter of leaders adopting a new vision of what’s sustainable and what needs to change.
