by jboullion | May 26, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a presentation to the Public Service Commission Wind Siting Council by Jevon D. McFadden, MD, MPH:
General Conclusions
Evidence does not support the conclusion that wind turbines cause or are associated with adverse health outcomes
Gaps remain in our knowledge of the impact that wind energy may have on human health
Potential positive and potential negative impacts
Passionate analyses, whether by proponents or opponents of wind energy development, may be subject to significant bias, which compromises credibility
Recommendations
Encourage concerned individuals to report symptoms or illness to a healthcare provider
Encourage health officials to continue to assess new evidence as it becomes available
Recommend involving affected individuals in siting process
Shadow Flicker
Wind turbine rotor frequencies
+Average 0.6–1.0 Hz
+Max 3 Hz (at 60 rpm)
+National Research Council: “Harmless to humans”
Photosensitivity epilepsy
+1/4,000 individuals
+Sunlight, TV are common precipitants
Flickeringlight most likely to trigger seizures
+5–30 Hz
Noise & Health —Conclusions
Chronic exposure to high levels of sound
+Hearing loss
+Altered physiological processes
Long-term health effects of chronic exposure to low level sound not well characterized
Noise sensitivity is important determinate of responses to noise
Response to moderate levels of sound affected by cognitive appraisal of sound source
Dr. McFadden lists the following affiliations at the beginning of his presentation:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention —Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer
United States Public Health Service —Lieutenant Commander
Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Division of Public Health, Bureau of Environmental and Occupational Health
University of Wisconsin, School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Population Health Sciences —Adjunct Assistant Professor
by jboullion | May 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by in the Racine Journal Times:
RACINE – Workers spent Wednesday installing new solar panels at the Racine Montessori School, the latest move by the school to go green.
The school’s solar panel project has been in the works for about two years and is finally being completed this week with the installation of 84 panels on the roof of the school’s gymnasium, said Rita Lewis, administrator at the Racine Montessori School, 2317 Howe St.
The panels are being installed by Madison-based H&H Solar Energy Services. When installation is complete, the panels should generate about 40 percent of the energy the school needs. To show students when the panels are working, ceiling fans directly tied to the panels will be installed in the school’s hallways. The fans’ blades will rotate on sunny days when the panels are absorbing sunlight to convert to energy, Lewis said.
To mark the panels’ installation, the school’s elementary students had a “Solar Celebration” Wednesday where they spent time outside singing sun-themed songs like “You Are My Sunshine” and cooking s’mores in homemade aluminum foil solar ovens, Lewis said.
The solar panels and installation, which cost about $134,000 altogether, were paid for through two large grants from We Energies and two large donations from local families. Clifton and Gladys Peterson and Charles and Kathryn Heide each donated about $22,000 for the project. Gladys Peterson formerly taught at the school and the Heide family had grandchildren attend, Lewis said.
“They are the two families who really made it happen for us,” she said.
The solar panels are the latest green effort under way at the school, which this week was awarded a school Green Award from the Sierra Club of southeastern Wisconsin, according to Lewis.
by jboullion | May 20, 2010 | Uncategorized
Disregarding the pleas from RENEW and others for a veto, Doyle signed Senate Bill 273, as reported by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Gov. Jim Doyle on Wednesday signed into law a bill that wind power developers and environmental groups had asked him to veto.
The bill, known as the Renewable Resource Credits bill, would allow energy generation produced from waste such as garbage to be classified as renewable and qualify that electricity for the state’s renewable power mandate.
The bill was drafted to grant renewable status to the Apollo light pipe, a a small glass skylight dome that, when mounted in a roof, reflects daylight inside to help cut energy use. The light pipe is a technology developed by Orion Energy Systems Inc. of Manitowoc, a maker of high-efficiency lighting systems.
Environmental and renewable energy groups had called on Doyle to veto the bill after it was amended to allow garbage-to-energy projects to be classified as renewable as well.
Doyle said he was torn on whether to sign the bill but said that, ultimately, Orion is the kind of business the state wants to see grow and succeed.
“I certainly didn’t want to be in the position I was in. To me the (state) Senate’s refusal to go ahead with the Clean Energy Jobs Act put everybody in a very difficult spot on this bill,” he said.
Doyle conceded that there would be some effect on the wind industry from the new law but said it would be so slight as to be negligible.
A waste-to-energy process known as plasma gasification is being envisioned by Alliance Federated Energy, which announced a plan in February to build a waste-to-energy plant in Milwaukee that would create up to 250 construction jobs and 50 permanent jobs.
by jboullion | May 18, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Sean Ryan in The Daily Reporter:
Planners of the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail Monday gave up on waiting for state approval for transit taxes and chose to apply for federal planning money.
The Southeastern Regional Transit Authority will not get federal construction money for the estimated $232.7 million project without a state law letting local governments raise taxes to pay for transit. But the authority is eligible for planning money and, after delaying the application since January, chose to push ahead without the state law.
Lee Holloway, a member of the Southeastern RTA, said the approach will lead to pointless planning for the rail project.
“Why should we be moving forward if we don’t know what is going to take place?” said Holloway, who is chairman of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors.
The RTA by June 21 will apply for Federal Transit Authority approval to begin engineering the KRM project.
A change in FTA policy means the agency now will consider an application for engineering money. But the project will not get federal construction grants until the state Legislature approves new taxes, such as a sales tax, for buses in the region, said Ken Yunker, executive director of the Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.
The Legislature closed its session in April without Assembly or Senate votes on an RTA bill. The Legislature is unlikely to reconvene to discuss an RTA bill until early 2011, after state elections in November, said state Rep. Peter Barca, D-Kenosha.
by jboullion | May 17, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Crews will begin site preparation next week for the largest wind farm in Wisconsin, after state regulators finalized plans for the Glacier Hills Wind Park northeast of Madison.
We Energies of Milwaukee said it will erect 90 turbines at the wind farm, two more than it installed on its first large wind farm, near Fond du Lac, in 2008.
The cost of the Glacier Hills project came in at $367 million, utility spokesman Brian Manthey said. By comparison, the 88-turbine Blue Sky Green Field wind farm that opened two years ago cost $295 million.
The tab for We Energies’ customers isn’t yet known, but the company will seek to collect construction costs from ratepayers beginning in 2012, Manthey said.
Friday’s announcement came after the state Public Service Commission approved the sale of two Columbia County homes to We Energies. Both homes would have had at least nine turbines within one-half mile, and the commission directed We Energies to negotiate with the two property owners.
We Energies also had to reconfigure its turbine layout after the commission established bigger setbacks from the turbines for neighboring property owners than the utility had proposed.
Those larger setbacks addressed concerns about noise and shadow flicker – a phenomenon created by wind turbines’ rotating blades. The Coalition of Wisconsin Environmental Stewardship had raised concerns about the impact of turbines on property values and homeowners’ qualify of life.
The project is expected to be completed by late 2011 and generate 162 megawatts of power, or enough over a year’s time to supply 45,000 typical homes.
Both projects are needed to help diversify the utility’s energy mix and add more renewable power to comply with the state mandate requiring 10% of Wisconsin’s electricity to come from wind turbines, landfill gas projects and other types of renewable power by 2015, up from 5% this year.
Vestas Wind Systems is supplying turbines to We Energies for the Glacier Hills project, after supplying 88 turbines for the Fond du Lac County project.
Three Wisconsin firms have been hired to handle the project’s construction: The Boldt Co. of Appleton; Michels Corp. of Brownsville; and Edgerton Contractors of Oak Creek.
