by jboullion | Sep 12, 2011 | Uncategorized
Delavan – Welcome to the field where sun power and the sunflower meet.
Well, not just one sunflower. More like thousands. And not just one solar panel, either. Thousands there, too.
Convergence Energy of Lake Geneva is building one of the largest solar projects in the state, and the first that allows individual investors to buy a stake in the project.
The Convergence Energy Solar Farm began construction last year on 14 acres near Dan Osborn’s wholesale nursery.
The idea, said Steve Johnson, vice president of business development, is to provide a green-power investment opportunity for people who live in a condo or have too much shade to make solar power workable on their own home’s roof.
By the time it’s finished this year, it will be the second-largest solar project in Wisconsin, after Epic Systems’ corporate campus solar project in Verona.
But instead of being developed by one large company, this project is being built, piece by piece, as investors take a stake in the project.
“It’s a way for a small investor to have a part in it all,” said investor Dave Smith of Libertyville, Ill. “When you live in a town home like I do, there’s nothing you can really do.”
Smith bought one of the Convergence systems at a time when the economy and stock market were in rough shape.
“I thought, why should I invest in anonymous equities and bonds when I can invest in a local company that I can keep an eye on, that’s doing something good and will probably pay returns?” he said. “So I was very excited about it.”
Johnson said, “We call it networked solar. It allows people whose homes aren’t oriented toward the sun properly to take part. They might be in the woods. Or some may not like the aesthetics of the panels on the roof.”
The project allows those people to still have a stake in something they believe in, Johnson said.
Convergence developed the project, obtaining funding from the state’s Focus on Energy program as well as a U.S. Treasury Department financing program authorized by the federal stimulus package.
Now, the company offers investors a stake in the project by investing at least $16,000 for a system, which amounts to 80 or so panels erected across three tracking towers. Each system of three towers generates up to 20 kilowatts of electricity, and dozens of the towers stretch across the land.
One advantage, compared with conventional rooftop solar systems, is that these panels are erected on dual-axis trackers, so they rotate during the day to follow the sun. That generates about 30% more power than a fixed solar system, Johnson said.
Convergence leased the land from Osborn, who opted to grow sunflowers this summer in between the rows of panels. He wants to press the sunflower seeds into oil that could be used in biodiesel.
Osborn’s business has been running a tractor on biodiesel for years, so this just made sense, he said. Osborn estimates he could end up with 600 gallons of fuel from the sunflowers that are now in full bloom and face toward the sun each morning.
Osborn has invested in several of the tracking systems and says he did it to offset the power used by his business, his home and the homes of his children, who live nearby.
“This is my little part, you know. It’s clean and it’s the sun, and it’s what we should all be doing,” he said.
Power produced by the project is sold to We Energies, with Convergence in turn passing that income on to its investors.
“It wasn’t all about the money,” Smith said. “I wanted to paint my own corporation’s name on the pole and say, ‘Look, we’ve invested in solar.’ We’re offsetting our carbon footprint.”
We Energies has been a strong supporter of the project, Johnson said.
Ryan Logterman is proud to be a part of the project, which helped create jobs for his firm, Logterman Heating and Cooling, more than doubling its workforce in the past few years.
Logterman also is an investor in the project.
“We’re all in. We are all investing in this ourselves. I’ve got the end of the second row,” he said, gesturing across the field. “I’m on System No. 10.”
Logterman’s heating, ventilating and air conditioning business employed three people five years ago when he began work in the industry as a solar thermal installer.
Today, Logterman’s business has 10 employees, one crew working exclusively digging trenches, building foundations and wiring Convergence Energy’s solar panels.
“It’s a good feeling. We’re doing something positive. We’re generating renewable power, and I’m hiring more people and helping the local economy,” Logterman said. “We try to buy as much material as we can from local wholesalers.”
Convergence is keeping it local, too, buying panels from the Helios Solar Works factory that opened this year in Milwaukee’s Menomonee Valley. Convergence was Helios’ first customer, and that firm has been adding more workers as it builds its customer base.
Customers and investors alike appreciate the made-in-Wisconsin flavor of the project, Johnson said, adding that Helios panels were selected because they’re more efficient than the typical photovoltaic panel.
“The whole thing about renewables is about local economies. We’re really striving to build local economies,” Johnson said. “It’s providing an opportunity for people who want to invest in solar and put a little more clean energy on the grid.”
This article was written by Thomas Content of the Journal Sentinel
by jboullion | Aug 24, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Tom Held and Thomas Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Board seeks female or minority contractor participation
Plans to build a 154-foot wind turbine to generate power for the Milwaukee Port Authority stalled Thursday over the lack of minority and female business participation in the lowest bid on the construction contract.
The Milwaukee Board of Harbor Commissioners tabled action on the contract with the low bidder, Kettle View Renewable Energy LLC of Random Lake. The firm’s bid of $522,900 included roughly $2,000 of work by subcontractors, which would meet the emerging business enterprise designation.
That’s not nearly enough, according to Ald. Robert Bauman, who led the commission’s criticism of the contract.
The alderman said he would not support a contract for city work that did not address the severe unemployment and underemployment problem in his district and others.
“If that means losing $500,000, then we’ll lose $500,000,” Bauman said.
As proposed, a combination of $400,000 in federal renewable-energy stimulus money and grants of up to $100,000 each from the state Focus on Energy Program and We Energies would pay for the wind turbine.
With the federal funding, the contract does not include any specific requirements for emerging business participation. Bauman and other commissioners, though, argued that the low bid from Kettle View fell far short of the goals to generate jobs for city residents.
Experience preferred
Randy Faller, a principal in Kettle View, said his firm worked with experienced subcontractors familiar with the intricacies of the excavation and electrical work in constructing a wind turbine. He has been unable to find businesses that offer that experience and emerging enterprise certification.
The commission has limited options: reject all five bids and seek new proposals or approve the contract with Kettle View.
Bauman said he would scrap the turbine project before approving the current proposed deal.
“I don’t see our citizens tolerating this,” he said.
Mayor Tom Barrett “supports strong emerging business requirements in contracting,” said Matt Howard, the city’s environmental sustainability director, whose office proposed the wind turbine. “However, federal law prohibits the Board of Harbor Commissioners from imposing these requirements in this wind energy project.”
by jboullion | Aug 23, 2011 | Uncategorized
From the testimony of RENEW presented by Michael Vickerman, who draws attention to the fact that We Energies is trying to defund its $6 million/year renewable energy development program without any justification. In fact We Energies doesn’t say anything about their actions. RENEW asks the PSC not to sanction this sleight of hand maneuver:
Q. What is the purpose of your testimony?
A. The purpose of my testimony is to discuss the May 2011 decision by We Energies to cancel a 10-year, $60 million commitment to support renewable energy development in its service territory. . . .
My testimony includes a recommendation to the Commission that it not allow We Energies to reallocate in 2012 the $6 million per year it had committed to spend on renewable energy development activities for other purposes. . . .
Q. What elements of We Energies’ Renewable Energy Development program do you consider to be particularly successful?
A. Several of We Energies’ customer incentives and tariffs were unique in the way they complemented Focus on Energy’s renewable energy program. For example, We Energies was the first utility to: (1) offer a solar energy-specific buyback rate; (2) increase the net energy billing capacity ceiling for small wind systems generators to 100 kW; and (3) support renewable energy-specific conferences and events such as Solar Decade held in Milwaukee. Perhaps the most innovative element in We Energies’ program, however, was its special incentive for nonprofit customers seeking to install renewable energy systems. Every three months, We Energies would solicit proposals from schools, religious institutions, local governments, nature centers and other nonprofit entities to co-fund new renewable energy systems on their premises. This We Energies incentive supplemented Focus on Energy grants and cash-back awards. It was designed to overcome the inability of these nonprofit entities to capture federal renewable energy tax credits to offset their own system acquisition costs. As a result of this unique incentive, there are more renewable energy systems serving nonprofit customers in We Energies territory than in any other utility territory. This initiative has an educational component to it as well; We Energies posts real-time production data from these systems on its web site.
by jboullion | Aug 5, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
We Energies customers could see a small increase in electric bills in 2012 linked to the higher price of coal and other power plant fuels expected next year, the company said Wednesday.
The state’s largest utility filed a plan with the state Public Service Commission that said costs linked to power plant fuels are projected to rise by about $50 million in 2012.
The utility wants to delay an increase in non-fuel rates until 2013. Whenever that increase hits customers’ bills, it would result in a hike of about 6%, the utility projects.
Under the utility’s plan, rates would rise in 2012 only because of power plant fuel prices, and the bottom line for customers would be an overall 2012 increase of less than 1%.
Residential customers would see a 0.7% increase, adding 77 cents a month for a typical residential customer now paying $104.90 a month for electricity, utility spokesman Brian Manthey said. Business customers would see increases of about 1% to 1.1%. . . .
The higher price of coal is projected to lead to $28 million in higher costs next year, including the price of the fuel itself and cost to deliver it by train to Wisconsin. Other increases include $10 million for power it buys from the Point Beach nuclear plant and about $8 million for natural gas.
Offsetting these increases somewhat is the state’s newest and largest wind farm, set to open late this year. Generation from the Glacier Hills Wind Park would decrease 2012 fuel costs by more than $12 million, We Energies said.
