by jboullion | Aug 8, 2013 | Uncategorized
Since last Friday over 430 individuals and local businesses have stood up to register their concern for Wisconsin solar and wind energy.
The PSC announced that comments will be accepted through Noon on Monday, August 12th. Also, they issued a document that indicated comments are being taken on the five specific issues the PSC Commissioners decided upon. Please visit RENEW’s website to learn more and add your voice by commenting in the PSC’s open docket 05-GF-191 (some additional tips for your comments are below).
On Issue #4 in your comment, please emphasize that obligations should be used rather than actual outlays to determine the amount of funding distributed for renewable energy incentives.
- Businesses need predictability and certainty to flourish and hire more employees. The on-again, off-again history with Focus on Energy incentives undermines the ability of renewable energy companies to maintain staffing levels, let alone plan for future growth. Consistency in expectations is what nurtures a market, not a lottery style incentive structure that no one can bank on.
- Ending these incentives for solar and wind renewables because the biogas, biomass, and geothermal projects are still in progress doesn’t make any sense. Even though the accounting is difficult, it’s not nearly as difficult as the impacts of lost jobs throughout Wisconsin.
- In the last five years the price of solar energy has dropped in half, making it a more affordable and cost effective option for customers. That trend should prompt the PSC to reconsider the idea of having Groups of renewables, because market conditions have changed quickly.
- Other states like Minnesota and Georgia have adopted pro solar policies to take advantage of this rapidly growing industry sector. How does Wisconsin gain from discouraging investment in clean energy and driving businesses to locate in other states?
by jboullion | Jul 15, 2013 | Uncategorized
Utility Responses submitted to the Wisconsin Public Service Commission report that the electrical providers received far fewer requests to connect renewable energy systems to the energy grid in 2012 than in previous years. Read the press release below to learn what this means for utilities, energy consumers, and ultimately the future of renewable energy in Wisconsin.
Immediate Release —
In filings submitted to
the Public Service Commission (PSC), most of Wisconsin’s electric providers
reported that they handled far fewer customer requests in 2012 to interconnect
renewable energy systems to the grid than in previous years. Last year’s
decrease followed several years of steady growth in customer-sited renewable
energy installations.
The solar and small
wind energy sectors were hit hardest by this slowdown, while biogas installation
activity remained steady through 2012. Solar electricity systems account for
more than 90% of customer interconnection requests. “These reports confirm
our fears that ongoing utility resistance to customer use of clean energy is
sucking a lot of oxygen out of Wisconsin’s renewable energy marketplace,” said
Michael Vickerman, program and policy director for RENEW Wisconsin, a statewide
renewable energy advocacy organization. According to data
submitted by Milwaukee-based We Energies, the utility processed only 56
interconnection requests in 2012, compared with 120 requests in 2009, 146 in 2010, and 172 in 2011.
Green Bay-based Wisconsin Public Service and
Madison Gas & Electric also reported declines in customer-sited renewable
systems since 2011. According to Madison-based Wisconsin Power & Light,
interconnections involving renewable energy peaked in 2009 and 2010, and have
fallen off since.
“The slowdown in
Wisconsin stands in stark contrast to solar’s rapid expansion in other states.
This contraction is occurring in spite of declining installation costs and
higher electric rates,” Vickerman said.
Vickerman
attributed the fall-off in installation activity to a number of policy changes,
including
- Service
changes adopted by several utilities to make net metering a less economically
attractive option for customer-generators;
- Across-the-board
elimination of special buyback rates for solar-generated electricity; and
- Recently
adopted restrictions to the amount and availability of Focus on Energy
incentives for solar and small wind.
“Solar is a proven
generator of jobs as well as electricity. Lately, it seems that utilities are
doing their level best to keep solar out of their resource mix,” Vickerman
said.
“Other states such as
Minnesota and Georgia are warming to solar, because they see how this clean
resource drives business start-ups and investment opportunities. What will it
take for Wisconsin to see the light?” Vickerman asked. The
utility filings were submitted as part of a PSC investigation to determine
whether the state’s interconnection rules should be modified to facilitate more
customer-sited renewable energy systems. The docket number is 05-GF-233.
-END-
RENEW Wisconsin
is an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that leads and represents
businesses, organizations, and individuals who seek more clean renewable energy
in Wisconsin. More information on
RENEW’s Web site at www.renewwisconsin.org.
by jboullion | Jul 12, 2013 | Uncategorized
Environmentalists, conservatives and solar startups celebrate as the influential state utility Georgia Power is mandated to expand the amount of solar energy it generates. The newly approved program requires Georgia Power to purchase solar power from solar firms, growing Georgia’s solar industry. Read Kiley Kroh’s article to learn about the Koch brother’s attempts to undermine conservative support for the initiative. Greg Bluestein and Kristi E. Swartz’s article below outlines Georgia’s path to an exciting future for the State’s energy consumers and solar energy producers.
By Greg Bluestein and Kristi E. Swartz
State regulators forced Georgia Power on Thursday to expand the amount of solar energy it generates, putting the company on the rare losing side of a political battle. But the vote was just a skirmish compared with bigger battles ahead for the powerful utility.
It faces a double-whammy of upcoming votes before the Public Service Commission on approving new costs for its nuclear expansion project and a proposed 6 percent rate hike to fund new equipment. And a legislative fight looms over a proposal to create a new solar monopoly that could challenge Georgia Power’s grip on state utilities.
The all-Republican commission’s 3-2 vote was a significant defeat for the Atlanta-based company, which had warned it already generated more than enough energy for its customers. Opponents also said that adding 525 megawatts of solar by 2016 would inevitably drive up rates, although Georgia Power, in a surprising about-face, backed off that argument on Thursday after months of making that case. Instead, its attorney said for the first time that the added solar likely wouldn’t affect power bills.
In the aftermath of Thursday’s vote, the odd coalition of environmentalists, conservatives and solar startups behind the expansion barely paused to savor their win. Some emboldened activists said the victory gave them new hope they could successfully challenge the utility on other contentious issues.
[READ MORE]
by jboullion | Jun 28, 2013 | Uncategorized
Worried over their ability to compete with solar energy installers like Dubuque-based Eagle Point Solar, Alliant Energy continues to throw legal roadblocks in the path of third party-owned solar. Wall Street Journal reporter Ryan Tracy identifies the far reaching implications of the dispute with input from RENEW’s Michael Vickerman.
By Ryan Tracy
Disputes over the use of small-scale solar power are flaring across the nation, with utilities squaring off against solar-energy marketers over rules for the growing technology.Until now, the fights have been mainly before state regulators. In California, Louisiana and Virginia, utilitieshave sought to cut what they claim are unfairly high payments they are required to make to owners of homes or larger buildings with solar systems.
At issue in an Iowa lawsuit is whether solar-system marketers can sell electricity in territories where localutilities have exclusive rights to customers. Such an arrangement isn’t allowed or is under dispute in many states, limiting solar firms to sales of panels to homeowners and businesses.
But if they win in Iowa, it could pave the way for fledgling solar industries to expand in other states. The case is being watched closely elsewhere in the Midwest, where policies granting utilities a monopoly on electricity service are one reason a solar-construction boom hasn’t occurred, unlike in states such as California and NewJersey.
Utilities “are proponents of renewable energy,” said Barry Shear, president of Iowa’s Eagle Point Solar LLC, but only “if they own the energy assets and the electrons flow through their grid and they can bill you.”
In March, an Iowa District Court judge said Mr. Shear’s 18-employee company could sign power-purchase contracts in the Dubuque territory of Alliant Energy Corp., one of the state’s largest utilities. Under the disputed deal, Eagle Point would own solar panels on the roof of a Dubuque municipal building and sell powerto the city at a rate similar to Alliant’s.
The disputed Dubuque deal employed a “third party” ownership arrangement, in which a rooftop solar system is owned by someone other than the property owner. Solar deals using that structure are growing inpopularity — for both residential and commercial properties — because they allow building landlords or homeowners to tap into solar power without a significant upfront investment.
Judge Carla T. Schemmel, overturning an Iowa Utilities Board decision, said Eagle Point could sell solarelectricity to the city without encroaching on a utility‘s lawful turf. She noted that the city would still need to buy electricity from Alliant when the sun isn’t shining. “Eagle Point is neither attempting to replace [the utilitynor] sever the link between [the utility] and the city,” she wrote. “It is simply allowing the city to decrease its demand for electricity from the grid.”
Alliant says the ruling contradicts Iowa’s policy of not allowing competition for electricity service. “They were going to be selling energy to one of our customers,” said Kim King, manager of the renewable-energy program at Alliant, in an interview.The ruling was a defeat for Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s MidAmerican Energy Co. unit as well. MidAmerican, another Iowa utility that had sided with Alliant in the case, told the judge in January that if the utilities lost, it could lead to “a proliferation of solar installation in the state.”Alliant and MidAmerican are appealing to the state Supreme Court. They say their problem isn’t with solarplants — each utility already connects to about 100 small-scale renewable-energy systems. Instead, they say they have a problem with the way the deal between Eagle Point and Dubuque was arranged. “This is not a dispute about solar energy. This is about a disagreement in the requirements under Iowa law,” said Tina Potthoff, a MidAmerican spokeswoman, in an email.
MidAmerican said in May that it may be capable of generating about 39% of its electricity from wind farms by 2016, making it one of several utilities with large renewable-energy portfolios.
But many of those same utilities have objected to policies they say are too friendly to small-scale renewable-energy generation. NextEra Energy Inc. says it generates more electricity from the wind and sun than any other U.S. company. But its Florida Power & Light unit opposes allowing solar-system marketers to sell electricity to the unit’s Florida customers. A spokesman for FP&L said the utility doesn’t oppose solar, but Florida law doesn’t allow “third party” sales.
In Wisconsin, the question of whether solar-panel marketers can sell power in another utility‘s service territory is likely to be tested this year, said Michael Vickerman, program and policy director for Renew Wisconsin, a group that advocates use of solar power in that state. “If the utility objects, we may go down the same route that we saw in Iowa,” he said.
by jboullion | Jun 20, 2013 | Uncategorized
By Michael Tortorello
At 9 o’clock Friday morning, some 20,000 people will start arriving at a
vast field in Custer, Wis., to talk about wind power. No joke. Get
this: Thousands of souls have been coming here every summer for 23 years
to talk — really talk — about wind power.
Here is the Energy Fair,
a three-day convergence of homesteaders, hippies, ecotopians and more
than a few end-times enthusiasts, staged by the Midwest Renewable Energy
Association. Beyond the lecture titled “MacGyver Windmills” (that is,
devices fabricated from junk), a $15 day pass gets you admission to 200
other workshops. Would you like to learn about home algae cultivation
and humane rabbit husbandry (for meat and wool)? How about advanced
photovoltaic systems and D.I.Y. biodiesel?
The overarching theme is what marketers call “sustainable living,” and
these days it hardly qualifies as a kooky pursuit. Many of the fair’s
longtime commercial exhibitors, manufacturers of solar-energy technology
or rainwater harvesting kits, could now find a home at the Home Depot.
[READ MORE]
