by jboullion | Nov 5, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a Tom Content blog post on JSOnline:
We Energies’ newest coal-fired plant is generating power, after “significant progress” in construction over the past three months, the company’s chairman said Thursday.
The coal plant consists of two coal-fired boilers next to an older coal plant on Lake Michigan in Oak Creek. The first new boiler began burning coal earlier this month and has been running at 25% of maximum power in recent days, said Gale Klappa, We Energies chairman and chief executive.
Bechtel Power Corp., the contractor on the project, also has made progress on building the second boiler, which is now 74% complete, Klappa said.
The $2.3 billion project is the most expensive construction project in state history, as it’s roughly double the combined cost of building Miller Park and rebuilding the Marquette Interchange.
by jboullion | Nov 4, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Steve Sharp in the Watertown Daily Times:
JOHNSON CREEK – The operator of the massive Deer Track Park Landfill in the town of Farmington is continuing its exploration and implementation of new technologies to recover energy from waste stored at the site, as well as at others.
According to representatives of Waste Management, which operates the Deer Track Park Landfill, gas from a California landfill is being transformed into liquefied natural gas to power recycling and waste collection vehicles. This is a project a Waste Management of Wisconsin official said signals a growing national interest in harvesting renewable energy from everyday waste.
Waste Management, Inc., North America’s largest waste services company, and Linde North America, a leading global gases and engineering company, announced this week that their joint venture company has begun producing clean, renewable vehicle fuel from gas recovered at Waste Management’s Altamont Landfill near Livermore, Calif. The facility is North America’s largest one converting landfill gas to liquefied natural gas.
In Wisconsin, Waste Management generates electricity from gas it collects at landfills it owns in Jefferson, Green Lake, Kenosha, Manitowoc, Milwaukee, Rusk, Washington and Waukesha counties.
“The California project is a great example of how we can recover resources in waste, protect the environment and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels,” Todd Hartman, director of disposal operations overseeing Waste Management’s landfills in Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula said. “The demand for green energy is leading us to innovative technologies for capturing the renewable energy that’s as close as your kitchen trash can.”
by jboullion | Nov 3, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by Focus on Energy:
MADISON, Wis. (November 2, 2009) — Focus on Energy, Wisconsin’s statewide resource for energy efficiency and renewable energy, announced new staffing grants today to help businesses, manufacturers, schools and government facilities throughout the state complete energy efficiency projects during the next calendar year.
“Businesses don’t need to let staffing issues become a barrier to energy savings,” said Ken Williams, Focus on Energy’s business programs director. “Focus on Energy is committed to helping companies overcome barriers that prevent them from completing energy efficiency projects.”
The grants will fund up to $100,000 for a full- or part-time employee or consultant to work onsite and manage energy efficiency projects that otherwise would not be completed due to a lack of human resources. Grant funding will go toward the salary and benefits of project staff who will oversee and engineer energy saving projects.
“The staffing grant is an excellent means to fund energy efficiency projects. It’s made the difference for us to pursue projects and make progress,” said Steve Keith, P.E., sustainability and environmental engineer at the Milwaukee County Department of Transportation and Public Works.
Keith’s organization received a staffing grant in 2009. “The grant helps take the edge off project costs when every dollar counts. Focus has been very responsive to help get us what we need to get our projects done.”
The grant is designed to help businesses hire new staff or retain existing employees who might otherwise be at risk of lay-off. Partnering or neighboring companies are encouraged to submit a joint application and share an employee or consultant between businesses.
Interested businesses should visit focusonenergy.com/competitive_incentives for more information. Applications must include a list of potential projects as funding is based on the energy savings from those projects and is paid when projects are completed. Applications must be received by December 4, 2009.
Completed energy efficiency projects are also eligible for Focus on Energy
financial incentives that can be found at focusonenergy.com/incentives/business.
by jboullion | Nov 2, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Christine Won from The Journal Times (Racine):
TOWN OF PORTLAND – Several residents living near a Dodge County processing plant that converts manure into electricity said they don’t notice odor problems or have any complaints.
The dairy farm near Waterloo that has an anaerobic digester, like the one being proposed for Yorkville in Racine County to convert organic waste into methane gas to produce electricity, has gotten a positive response from its surrounding community since its installment in 2007, both residents and farm owners agree.
Robert and Ruth Yerges live about half a mile east of the dairy farm. They smell about a fourth of the odor from manure than they did before the digester, Robert Yerges said. The digester was one of the best things for the dairy farm, Ruth Yerges added.
“We estimate that we eliminate about 85 percent of the smell (of manure) by having it go through the digester,” said Thomas Crave, one of the four owners of Crave Brothers Farmstead Cheese.
The three Yorkville Town Board members toured the Crave Brothers Dairy Farm, W11555 Torpy Road, on Friday morning.
DF-1 Associates, the business group proposing a processing plant at the former Maple Leaf Farms site on Highway U in Yorkville, organized the tour so board members can see and smell what they would be dealing with.
However, a key difference between the Portland and Yorkville plants is feedstock, said Dave Duerson, spokesman for the group. The Portland plant uses cow manure where the Yorkville one would use food waste.
Town Chairman Jim Moyer, himself a farmer, said he was impressed with the Crave plant but “the jury’s still out” for Yorkville.
Yorkville residents were not sold when the group presented its proposal before the Town Board on Oct. 12, saying that bringing in trucks of garbage through their neighborhoods would depreciate property values and create odor, noise, traffic and safety concerns.
Crave said there have not been any electrical or methane gas-related problems.
by jboullion | Oct 29, 2009 | Uncategorized
The Public Service Commission will take public testimony on We Energies’ proposed Glacier Hills Wind Park.
Wednesday, November 4
3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Randolph Town Hall
109 S. Madison St. – Friesland
Those opposed to wind projects will likely make arguments like the one below from letter-to-the-editor of the Manitowoc Times Herald. The writere offered this outrageous explanation for why the Legislature passed and the govenor signed the bill on wind siting reform:
Blinded by a feel-good solution for a problem that never existed [global warming], legislators are being misled into a belief that something like wind turbines will not have a negative effect on those who are left to live around them . . .
To understand the problem you needed to be at the hearing in Mandison on May 12, held by the Senate and Assembly Energy Committee. . . .
It was obvious that the pro-wind lobby, paid with your tax money from RENEW Wisconsin, had the minds of legislators on their side long before the hearing.
Read more wild assertions from the letter.
