by jboullion | Dec 23, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Johnson Controls Inc. has won a contract to reduce energy use and add solar energy at the nation’s largest military installation, Fort Bliss in Texas and New Mexico.
A contract awarded Friday is valued at $16 million and is projected to save the Army post $39 million in energy costs over the next 24 years, Johnson Controls said.
The contract was awarded two weeks after President Barack Obama signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to make $2 billion worth of energy efficiency upgrades over the next two years, using energy-saving performance contracts like those offered by Johnson Controls.
Some 5,500 solar panels will be installed at Fort Bliss, along with new utility monitoring and control systems to manage energy at 120 different buildings. Together, the solar panels and energy-efficiency measures aim to reduce electricity use during peak power demand periods.
Fort Bliss, which encompasses 1.2 million acres in west Texas and New Mexico, is the country’s largest military installation and is undergoing a $4 billion expansion, the military’s largest expansion at any military installation since World War II.
by jboullion | Dec 19, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Louis Weisberg in the Wisconsin Gazette:
When Wisconsin voters elected Scott Walker governor and handed Republicans control of the Legislature, about 1,000 new jobs in the emerging wind energy sector stood waiting on the state’s horizon, according to industry proponents.
But Walker, who received at least $1.5 million in campaign cash directly from interests opposed to wind energy and much more indirectly, quickly quashed the rules that would have allowed those jobs – and the state’s energy independence – to move forward.
Walker’s move reportedly startled wind-energy supporters on both sides of the political aisle, since the so-called “wind siting” rules were ironed out during a year of negotiations with all the major stakeholders and approved by a two-thirds, bipartisan majority of lawmakers during the legislative session immediately preceding the state’s GOP takeover.
by jboullion | Dec 9, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
The Forest County Potawatomi Tribe is proposing to build an $18.5 million biogas energy project adjacent to its Menomonee Valley casino.
The renewable energy plan calls for construction of an anaerobic digester that would produce both electricity as well as heat that would provide for hot water and heating to the casino.
The digester would produce gas from wastes produced by the food processing industry, the Potatatomi said in a proposal filed with the City of Milwaukee.
The tribe estimated the project would create 61 construction jobs and five full-time jobs. If all approvals are obtained, construction would begin in late spring and be completed by early spring in 2013.
The facility would be located one block west of the casino on the site of what is now a parking lot for casino employees. The tribe says it has ample parking at the casino and that the development would not result in additional street parking.
The tribe was awarded a $2.5 million grant for a variety of renewable energy projects from the U.S. Department of Energy. This project would be funded, as well as a recently completed solar installation at the tribe’s administration building in Milwaukee and renewable energy projects that are in the planning stage on the tribe’s reservation in northern Wisconsin.
Under the proposal, the biogas project would generate 2 megawatts of electricity, which would be sold to We Energies. That is enough power to supply about 1,500 typical homes. The project would include heat recovery equipment to proivde heat and hot water for the digesters themselves as well as excess heat that would be used to supply heat and hot water to the casino.
by jboullion | Dec 8, 2011 | Uncategorized
For immediate release
December 7, 2011
More information
Michael Vickerman
608.255.4044
mvickerman@renewwisconsin.org
Leslie Glustrom, research director of Colorado-based Clean Energy Action, and an unwavering critic of utility reliance on coal for electricity generation, will be the featured speaker at RENEW Wisconsin’s Energy Policy Summit.
The Summit will be held on Friday, January 13, 2012, at the University of Wisconsin-Extension’s Pyle Center located on the UW-Madison campus. Summit attendees will spend the day discussing and selecting renewable energy strategies that make sense in the current political environment in Wisconsin. More information on the Summit can be found on the RENEW Wisconsin website at http://www.renewwisconsin.org.
As research director, Glustrom authored in 2009 an extensively referenced report on U.S. coal supplies titled, “Coal—Cheap and Abundant—Or Is It? Why Americans Should Stop Assuming that the US has a 200-Year Supply of Coal,” available for free at http://www.cleanenergyaction.org.
Since 2009, Glustrom has traveled to numerous states helping them to understand the likely constraints on their coal supplies.
Glustrom’s on-going research illuminates a future in which coal prices will likely continue to escalate, driven by a combination of less accessible coal supplies, increasing demand from Asian countries, and rising diesel fuel costs for hauling coal to distant markets like Wisconsin.
Clean Energy Action is spearheading a campaign to shut down Colorado’s coal-fired power plants and replace them with locally generated renewable electricity.
“Leslie’s experiences with Clean Energy Action can help Wisconsin renewable energy advocates formulate effective strategies for 2012 and beyond,” said Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a statewide sustainable energy advocacy organization headquartered in Madison.
“Even though Colorado is a coal-producing state, it has adopted some of the most aggressive policies in the country for advancing renewable energy,” said Vickerman. “Colorado’s commitment to clean energy is driving its economy at a time when its coal output is diminishing. For example, Vestas, the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines with four plants employing 1,700 people in Colorado, supplied 90 turbines this year to Wisconsin’s largest wind project, the Glacier Hills Wind Park in Columbia County.”
“Leslie will inspire us to reverse the retreat from renewables and retake the initiative going forward,” Vickerman said.
In Boulder, Glustrom was part of the team that led the successful 2010 and 2011 ballot initiatives allowing Boulder to move ahead with plans to municipalize and break away from the long term commitment to coal plants made by their incumbent utility, Xcel Energy.
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by jboullion | Dec 5, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Washington – President Barack Obama is enlisting former President Bill Clinton and companies including Briggs & Stratton Corp., Kohl’s Corp., 3M and Alcoa Inc. in a $4 billion initiative to cut energy costs in buildings and encourage hiring for construction jobs.
The program, which the administration forecast would create tens of thousands of jobs, is expected to provide work for energy service contracting firms including Johnson Controls Inc. and Trane.
It combines $2 billion in energy-efficiency upgrades over two years for federal buildings along with commitments from companies, cities and universities to put $2 billion into similar efforts.
The improvements to government buildings will be made under an existing federal program that uses private financing, according to the administration. The goal: boost buildings’ energy efficiency by at least 20% by 2020.
“This is good business” that will help create jobs and promote energy independence, Clinton said after he and Obama toured a building in Washington that is being retrofitted. “It’s the nearest thing we’ve got to a free lunch in a tough economy.”
Obama is expanding the “Better Building Initiative” he announced in February and joining it with a White House effort to spark hiring that was begun after the president’s $447 billion jobs plan stalled in Congress.
Johnson Controls is among 17 contractors, including Honeywell International, Trane and Ameresco, that are active contractors in a government program that pays for energy-saving projects through the savings the government sees over time on its energy bills.
Friday’s announcement is a sizable boost for a program that Johnson Controls has worked on since it launched in 1998, said Clay Nesler, Johnson Controls vice president.
