by jboullion | Apr 22, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a story on WKOW-TV:
To celebrate Earth Day and help meet the biomass demand created by the new Charter Street Power Plant, UW Extension and other agencies released a guide to Establishing and Managing Switchgrass.
Mark Renz, University of Wisconsin Extension Weed Specialist, and lead author of the guide said, “Growing switchgrass can improve farm profits by producing a good feed, produce biomass for heat and power, create habitat for people and wildlife, and reduce flooding. We wanted to summarize the best information available for Wisconsin landowners in an easy to use guide.”
The guide benefited from six field tests done last year near Platteville by Southwest Badger RC&D, UW Extension and Alliant Energy.
“Southwest Wisconsin has the potential to become a huge reservoir of biomass fuel such as switchgrass. This guide gives landowners the best information we have on how to establish and grow switchgrass, a key native prairie grass,” said Steve Bertjens, NRCS Southwest Badger RC&D Coordinator.
by jboullion | Apr 22, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a story on WKOW-TV:
To celebrate Earth Day and help meet the biomass demand created by the new Charter Street Power Plant, UW Extension and other agencies released a guide to Establishing and Managing Switchgrass.
Mark Renz, University of Wisconsin Extension Weed Specialist, and lead author of the guide said, “Growing switchgrass can improve farm profits by producing a good feed, produce biomass for heat and power, create habitat for people and wildlife, and reduce flooding. We wanted to summarize the best information available for Wisconsin landowners in an easy to use guide.”
The guide benefited from six field tests done last year near Platteville by Southwest Badger RC&D, UW Extension and Alliant Energy.
“Southwest Wisconsin has the potential to become a huge reservoir of biomass fuel such as switchgrass. This guide gives landowners the best information we have on how to establish and grow switchgrass, a key native prairie grass,” said Steve Bertjens, NRCS Southwest Badger RC&D Coordinator.
by jboullion | Apr 20, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by Alliant Energy:
MADISON, WI – April 17, 2009 – In the middle of 2008, Reedsburg Hardwoods decided it wanted to reduce its energy cost by taking advantage of a plentiful by-product of its own manufacturing process: wood waste. At the time, the company was using two natural gas-fired boilers and one wood waste boiler to process steam for its kilns, steamers and dryers. While the lumber mill was already powering about two-thirds of its processing operation with the wood waste boiler, it had more wood waste available to do more and wanted to effectively eliminate the use of natural gas for its wood processing energy demands.
“We really saw a great opportunity for our company to move toward completely using a renewable resource to power our lumber mill process,” said Doug Hilber, Reedsburg Hardwoods Facility Manager. “With the excess wood waste we generate and had available on and off-site, it made sense to look at purchasing a larger capacity wood waste boiler that could handle processing steam for all of our lumber mill process now and into the future.”
As with any business, cash is important and paying for the new wood waste boiler and the other upgrades needed to support it, would take upfront dollars before the long-term energy-efficiency gains could be realized. That’s where Wisconsin Power and Light’s (WPL’s) Shared Savings program stepped in to assist the company.
The Shared Savings program is an initiative that assists industrial, commercial and agricultural customers with identification and implementation of energy efficiency projects – and invests the capital to finance them. The program’s low-interest financing, and ability to repay the loan using the energy savings, is attractive to many businesses.
by jboullion | Apr 17, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by Alliant Energy:
MADISON, WI – April 17, 2009 – In the middle of 2008, Reedsburg Hardwoods decided it wanted to reduce its energy cost by taking advantage of a plentiful by-product of its own manufacturing process: wood waste. At the time, the company was using two natural gas-fired boilers and one wood waste boiler to process steam for its kilns, steamers and dryers. While the lumber mill was already powering about two-thirds of its processing operation with the wood waste boiler, it had more wood waste available to do more and wanted to effectively eliminate the use of natural gas for its wood processing energy demands.
“We really saw a great opportunity for our company to move toward completely using a renewable resource to power our lumber mill process,” said Doug Hilber, Reedsburg Hardwoods Facility Manager. “With the excess wood waste we generate and had available on and off-site, it made sense to look at purchasing a larger capacity wood waste boiler that could handle processing steam for all of our lumber mill process now and into the future.”
As with any business, cash is important and paying for the new wood waste boiler and the other upgrades needed to support it, would take upfront dollars before the long-term energy-efficiency gains could be realized. That’s where Wisconsin Power and Light’s (WPL’s) Shared Savings program stepped in to assist the company.
The Shared Savings program is an initiative that assists industrial, commercial and agricultural customers with identification and implementation of energy efficiency projects – and invests the capital to finance them. The program’s low-interest financing, and ability to repay the loan using the energy savings, is attractive to many businesses.
“I met with Doug several times and we looked at what type of boiler and other equipment would be needed to improve the natural gas energy efficiency of their lumber mill process,” said Mary Eiler-Radl, Alliant Energy Strategic Account Manager. “It turned out that the purchase of a new, higher-capacity wood waste boiler and other related equipment could accomplish that goal. The project was a perfect fit for our Shared Savings program and we were able to quickly pull the financing together.”
by jboullion | Apr 8, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a post by Don Albinger, VP of Renewable Energy, on the blog of Johnson Controls:
I was very pleased to be one of the speakers at the recent Wisconsin Renewable Energy Summit in Milwaukee. The session topic was the Role of Local Governments in Moving Towards Energy Independence with Renewable Energy – and I was honored to appear with a distinguished group of people who are doing just that:
Larry Nelson, Mayor of Waukesha, Wisconsin. Larry talked about the work he and his colleagues are doing to demonstrate that cities can be fiscally and environmentally responsible at the same time. . . .
Jeanne Hoffman, Facilities and Sustainability Manager for the City of Madison, Wisconsin. Jeanne talked about MadiSUN – the city’s solar energy program aimed at doubling installations of solar electric and solar hot water systems by 2001. . . .
Dave Merritt, Dane County, Wisconsin. Dave correctly pointed out that “the key to energy independence and climate change is local.” And he provided an excellent example of how Dane County is doing more than giving that lip service: Cow Power is the County’s program to build two digester systems to turn cow manure from a number of dairy farms in the County into electricity. . . .
And Ann Beier, director of the City of Milwaukee Office of Environmental Sustainability. Ann painted a clear picture of the critical role Milwaukee city government is playing in energy independence by setting the right example, testing new technologies, and developing innovative programs and policies. Ann talked about the progress the city is making in meeting its goal to reduce energy use by 15% by 2012 by installing solar electric and geothermal systems in municipal buildings, and converting city stoplights to high-efficiency LED fixtures – a step the city is also studying for municipal parking garages. . . .
In my mind, the stories told by each one of these speakers demonstrate how we already have the means, the funding mechanisms, the technologies and the expertise to put energy efficiency and renewable energy to work in city halls and county courthouses across America to save money, create jobs and protect the environment.
Waukesha, Madison, Dane County and Milwaukee – they’re all leading the way. A lot more like them need to find the will to join in.
What do you think?
