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 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 15, 2008 | Uncategorized
From a media release issued by Better Environmental Solutions:
Platteville–Southwest Badger Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council, Inc, the Driftless Area Initiative (DAI) and Alliant Energy highlighted six prairie restorations where farmers are planting switchgrass and prairie plants to determine the best management practices to maximize switchgrass yields in Southwest Wisconsin. The biomass field day toured two test plots planted this spring on the Jim and Terry Schaefer farm and the Dan Schaefer farm.
“Planting switchgrass is a great crop for our highly erodible fields,” said Jim Schaefer. “We are looking to develop ways to grow and create more markets for grass and other biomass crops for energy and fuels.”
Grant County has more than 300,000 acres of highly erodible land, but only 33,000 acre are enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to protect it. These test plots allow farmers and researchers to try various strategies to restore native prairie and switchgrass.
“With all the interest in switchgrass and biomass, we wanted to start some test plots to see what we could do to provide fuel for proposed projects in the area,” said Steve Bertjens, coordinator with Southwest Badger RC&D.
“Grant County and southwest Wisconsin are the buckle of the biomass belt and have the best biomass reserves in the state with more than 6.8 tons of potential fuel nearby,” said Brett Hulsey, president of Better Environmental Solutions, an environment and energy consulting firm.
“Restoring switchgrass and native prairie is one of the most effective ways to reduce global warming, provide homes for birds and wildlife, reduce flooding, and clean up our streams.”
by jboullion | Oct 8, 2008 | Uncategorized
From a story by Thomas Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Xcel Energy Inc. will announce today that its power plant in northern Wisconsin will be the largest in the Midwest to make electricity by burning wood chips.
The utility will invest $55 million to $70 million to convert a coal-fired boiler to one that would convert chipped waste wood from northern Wisconsin’s forests into a gas for power production.
Xcel is an eight-state utility company based in Minneapolis. Its Wisconsin electric and natural gas utility is based in Eau Claire.
The initiative is part of Xcel’s strategy to become a leader in production of renewable energy, a plan that could reap financial rewards if the federal government moves to regulate emissions linked to global warming.
Through its wind farms based primarily in Minnesota, Xcel is the largest producer of wind energy in the country, according to the American Wind Energy Association. The company also has 19 dams generating hydroelectric power on rivers in northern Wisconsin.
The Ashland power plant consists of three boilers, two of which burn both biomass and a small amount of coal, and one that burns coal exclusively. The new proposal, to be filed with state regulators this fall, would replace that coal-only boiler with a biomass-to-gas system, company spokesman Brian Elwood said.
One concern, he said, was whether there would be enough waste wood to supply the plant. A study by the Madison-based Energy Center of Wisconsin found there would be enough wood left after forests are logged to supply an expansion, he said.
And from a media release issued by Xcel:
In 2006, Xcel Energy funded a study with the Energy Center of Wisconsin to investigate the amount of biomass that could be removed from Wisconsin’s forests to support sustainable energy resources and any associated environmental impacts. The study concluded that area forests within a 50-mile radius of the Bay Front Power Plant could support additional biomass removal without adverse impacts to the local ecosystem. Dedicated biomass energy plantations could ultimately provide a portion of the plant’s increased biomass needs, with additional benefits from carbon sequestration.
“Xcel Energy has been a long-time leader in providing renewable energy from local sources to the citizens of Wisconsin,” said Michael Vickerman, executive director, RENEW Wisconsin. “This biomass initiative continues that tradition.”
Mark Redsten, executive director, Clean Wisconsin, agreed.
“This project will both lessen Wisconsin’s reliance on imported fossil fuels and propel us closer to the renewable energy goals of Gov. Doyle’s Task Force on Global Warming,” Redsten said.
by jboullion | Sep 25, 2008 | Uncategorized
From the Green Racine blog:
Salem, Ore.-based Kettle Foods says that it has yielded environmental and economic benefits by adopting measures that include offsetting all of the electricity used to operate both its Salem and Beloit factories with wind power. Additionally, the Beloit plant is home to 18 rooftop wind turbines.
“When we decided to go for green – or in this case, gold – with LEED certification of our new factory, we knew it was the right thing to do,” says Tim Fallon, president of Kettle Foods’ North American division.
The company also recycles of 2,300 gallons of waste oil with conversion to biodiesel used to power a company fleet of diesel-engine cars called BioBeetles, and reduces more than three million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions annually resulting from the elimination of shipping lines between Oregon and the Midwest.
