by jboullion | Jun 23, 2011 | Uncategorized
Two articles from Catching Wind, a newsletter published by RENEW Wisconsin with funding from a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy:
State’s Hostility Toward Renewables Escalates
At the urging of Wisconsin utilities, several lawmakers have introduced a bill to allow a renewable energy credit (REC) to be banked indefinitely. If adopted, this measure (AB146) would constitute the most devastating legislative assault yet on the state’s renewable energy marketplace, which is already reeling from the suspension of the statewide wind siting rule this March and the loosening of renewable energy definitions to allow Wisconsin utilities to count electricity generated from large Canadian hydro projects toward their renewable energy requirements.
“Leaders” Lag Citizenry on Wind Support
Public support for wind energy development has held strong against the attacks launched by Governor Walker and the Legislature’s new Republican majority, according to a poll conducted between April 11 and April 18 by the St. Norbert College Survey Center for Wisconsin Public Radio.
Asked whether Wisconsin should “increase, decrease or continue with the same amount” of energy supply from various sources, 77% favored increasing wind power, the highest of any option (60% favored increasing hydropower, 54% biomass, 39% natural gas, 27% nuclear, and 19% coal).
by jboullion | Jun 23, 2011 | Uncategorized
Two articles from Catching Wind, a newsletter published by RENEW Wisconsin with funding from a grant from the U.S. Department of Energy:
State’s Hostility Toward Renewables Escalates
At the urging of Wisconsin utilities, several lawmakers have introduced a bill to allow a renewable energy credit (REC) to be banked indefinitely. If adopted, this measure (AB146) would constitute the most devastating legislative assault yet on the state’s renewable energy marketplace, which is already reeling from the suspension of the statewide wind siting rule this March and the loosening of renewable energy definitions to allow Wisconsin utilities to count electricity generated from large Canadian hydro projects toward their renewable energy requirements.
“Leaders” Lag Citizenry on Wind Support
Public support for wind energy development has held strong against the attacks launched by Governor Walker and the Legislature’s new Republican majority, according to a poll conducted between April 11 and April 18 by the St. Norbert College Survey Center for Wisconsin Public Radio.
Asked whether Wisconsin should “increase, decrease or continue with the same amount” of energy supply from various sources, 77% favored increasing wind power, the highest of any option (60% favored increasing hydropower, 54% biomass, 39% natural gas, 27% nuclear, and 19% coal).
by jboullion | Jun 7, 2011 | Uncategorized
1,300 solar panels rise above a parking lost at Epic Systems in Verona, WI.
From an article by Tom Conent in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Verona – By the end of the year, the largest solar project yet built in Wisconsin will take shape in the rolling countryside that Epic Systems calls home.
And by the middle of next year, the new solar “farm” will double in size again.
Clearly, Epic, a fast-growing provider of sought-after health care software that’s hiring 1,000 people just this year, doesn’t embrace small projects.
It’s more cost-effective to build a big renewable energy project than to come back later and expand it, said Bruce Richards, director of facilities and engineering.
And it fits in with a green vision espoused by company founder and chief executive Judith Faulkner.
“We were in a meeting, and I was discussing the payback on a particular project, thinking she might have some concerns,” said Bruce Richards, director of facilities and engineering at Epic. “But she didn’t hesitate. She said, ‘But once it’s paid off, the energy is free, right?'”
Epic clearly has the financial wherewithal to undertake a green-energy investment that other firms might seek state dollars to help fund. Officials declined to disclose the cost of the project.
The company is a developer of health care IT software that helps hospitals move toward electronic medical records. Epic sales grew 27% in 2010. Revenue reached $825 million in 2010, compared with $76 million in 2001.
Focused on sustainability
Epic is an economic engine that’s a Wisconsin outlier: A booming business that’s about as far from the state’s manufacturing heritage as you can get.
The company is moving to wean itself off fossil fuels in a big way.
Already, most buildings on the sprawling campus are heated and cooled with a ground-source heat pump system, which means the campus needs no natural gas for heating and no electricity for cooling in the summer.
About 1,300 solar panels were erected in recent months on a latticelike structure above an employee parking lot.
Faulkner picked the color of the lattice to match the deep blue light posts that dot downtown Verona, Richards said.
The remaining parking spaces are underground, to retain the pastoral feel of the campus. The result, Richards tells a visitor walking between buildings across the complex, “You’re walking on a green roof right now.”
Richards says the driver of the green campus and move for energy self-reliance comes from a vision of doing right by the planet.
“Sustainability, that’s really what it’s all about,” he said. “We’re looking for 100-year sustainability here. Everything we do in design and put in, that’s what we’re looking to do.”
by jboullion | Jun 2, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Lyn Jerde in the Portage Daily Register:
TOWN OF SCOTT – Along with names, dates and shout-outs to favorite sports teams, the writing on the turbine blade included a warning: “Watch out.”
Mark Barden wrote it, in permanent black marker.
The warning, he said, is aimed at any birds that might fly near the blade once it’s turning, 400 feet in the air.
Wednesday’s open house at the Glacier Hills Wind Park was Barden’s first up-close look at the components of the 90 electricity-generating wind turbines that have begun to rise in the skyline in northeast Columbia County.
But it won’t be his last look. Barden said three of the towers will be on his land in the town of Scott, just outside of Cambria.
He said he doesn’t share the health and safety concerns about the wind towers that many of their opponents cited in seeking to block the construction of Glacier Hills – things such as constant low-level noise and shadow flicker.
“I’m more worried,” he said, “about the red lights at night,” he said. “When I look in the sky and try to find constellations, all I’ll see is the red beacons (on the towers).
“But,” Barden added, “we’ll deal with that.”
Barden was one of several hundred people who attended the open house, which included indoor easel and tabletop displays, and a tour – on foot or by school bus – of one of the four towers that, as of Wednesday, had two of its four segments erected.
Mike Strader, site manager for the We Energies project, said that, barring wind or other inclement weather, plans call for adding the top two segments to at least one of the towers today, with the hub, cell and three blades of the turbine to follow soon.
More photos on RENEW’s Facebook page.
