by jboullion | Sep 25, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a story by John DesRivieres on WSAW-TV:
With issues like the economy and health care on every body’s mind, it can be easy to forget about environmental issues.
But there’s a little known place in the Northwoods, where scientists are working with government officials to help make a greener nation.
“It’s used by legislators, policy makers, forest managers,” says Eric Gustafson, the Director of Applied Eco-Systems Studies.
Eric Gustafson says he knows as well as anybody how important energy independence is.
“The nation has a growing demand for energy, we’ve come to realize for a number of reasons that dependence on foreign oil is not a good thing,” Gustafson says.
Gustafson and a team of scientists are conducting several studies that will help shape the nation’s environmental policies.
At the top of the list, renewable energy.
The Institute is researching how to grow hybrid poplar trees that can grow up to four times faster than an average tree.
Poplar trees are a great source of ethanol and can be burned to create electricity.
“The ability to grow trees rapidly and convert them into energy has a great impact not only for the climate but the stability of politics in the world,” says Gustafson.
by jboullion | Sep 17, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an Asssociated Press article in the Telegraph Herald (Dubuque):
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Flood-damaged homes in Cedar Rapids may soon be generating electricity in southwest Wisconsin.
The Cedar Rapids/Linn County Solid Waste Agency on Tuesday approved a contract to sell at least 6,000 tons of ground-up wood debris to a Cassville, Wis., plant that will burn it to produce energy.
DTE Energy Services of Ann Arbor, Mich., has converted an old coal-fired plant in Cassville to one that will burn biomass.
by jboullion | Sep 15, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a post by Margaret Krome in The Capital Times:
At Farm Progress Days this summer, other farmers told me that they also are interested in creating solar or wind energy, but their decision hinges on whether they receive a sufficient payback on their investment. The rapid and extensive growth of renewable energies in Germany, Denmark and parts of Canada is attributed overwhelmingly to a single policy addressing this concern, called “feed-in tariffs.” (In Europe, the word “tariff” can mean “price.”) This policy encourages small businesses, households, farms, towns – anyone – to produce renewable energy by providing a stable price for that energy at a rate that considers the actual costs of producing it. It’s an obvious idea, but currently in most parts of the United States, utilities set widely varying rates for renewable energy – rates that seldom properly calculate the costs of producing it.
Wisconsin policymakers are on the verge of considering this and other policies to support renewable energy. Last week I joined the Homegrown Renewable Energy Campaign bus tour of four sites in northwest Wisconsin that illustrate ways communities and entrepreneurs can benefit from those policies.
We visited the bus garage for the Cadott School District, which converted its bus engines two decades ago to use compressed natural gas, which cut up to two-thirds off the district’s transportation costs.
We saw a small electric vehicle whose manufacturer is located in Wisconsin and may be one of the few vehicle manufacturers with growing, not shrinking, demand.
Pete Taglia, a scientist with Clean Wisconsin, explained how one policy under consideration, a low carbon fuel standard, would set a market standard for energy sources with a lower lifetime carbon footprint, rewarding fuel manufacturers, distributors, and ultimately users.
We visited Barron High School, which for over 20 years has been heated – and now is also cooled – by burning wood chips. A fuels for schools policy would help other schools use nearby biomass similarly.
We also saw biomass research plots at the University of Wisconsin’s Spooner research station. A proposed biomass crop reserve program would reward farmers for taking land that’s vulnerable to soil erosion and planting it to longer-term and less-erosive biomass crops.
Wisconsin would be wise to support homegrown renewable energy. Avoiding fossil fuels can help reduce climate change. Renewable energy projects offer many opportunities to build new jobs. And, as Valerie Adamski said, “It’s nice not to be in the hands of a foreign oil company.”
by jboullion | Sep 11, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Nick Halter in the Wausau Daily Herald:
A new biomass power plant in Rothschild would cut dependence on fossil fuels, reduce acid rain and be nearly carbon-neutral, according to studies and experts.
It’s also a step, albeit a small one, toward Wisconsin reaching its goal of having 10 percent of all energy produced using renewable resources by 2015 — a goal established in Gov. Jim Doyle’s Clean Energy Wisconsin Plan.
We Energies announced plans Sept. 1 to build a $250 million power plant that burns low-quality and unusable wood and paper waste, powering the Domtar paper mill and providing electricity to homes in Wisconsin. The plant still needs state approval before construction can begin.
Burning wood is much cleaner than burning coal, the source of 70 percent of the electricity on Wisconsin’s power grid, said Keith Reopelle, senior policy director for the environmental advocacy group Clean Wisconsin.
“I think that biomass will and needs to play an important role in replacing coal generation in Wisconsin and I think there will be a trend towards it, Reopelle said.
According to the U.S. Forest Service, burning wood is nearly carbon-neutral because the carbon dioxide generated during combustion is equal to the carbon dioxide the tree consumes over its life. But the process will remain carbon-neutral only if forestry companies that supply wood to the power plant replace the trees that they cut.
by jboullion | Sep 8, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Nick Halter in the Wausau Daily Herald:
A biomass power plant in Rothschild will give a much-needed shot in the arm to a Wisconsin pulpwood industry that has suffered a 20 percent reduction in demand for wood over recent years.
The plant, proposed for the grounds of the Domtar paper mill, would create more than 100 logging jobs and 20 to 30 power plant jobs, according to studies of a proposed biomass plant in Ashland, said Terry Mace, forest product specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
The average salary for both loggers and power plant employees is about $32,000, Mace said. Although the plant’s construction still must be approved by the state Public Service Commission, forestry industry workers already are anticipating fresh demand for their products.
Based on the amount of wood sold to the plant and the jobs it would create, $22.7 million would be injected to the local economy each year if the plant were completed on time in 2013, said Roger Nacker, a natural resource economist for the Wisconsin Economic Development Institute.
The closures of three Wisconsin paper mills in the past few years –including the Wausau paper pulp mill in Brokaw and the Domtar mill in Port Edwards — have reduced the state’s demand for pulpwood from around 3.2 million cords per year in the mid-2000s to 2.5 million in 2007 and 2008, Mace said.
The closures, combined with the downturn in home construction, have been hurting many local loggers.
