by Ed Blume | Jul 9, 2012 | Uncategorized
A new report report from the Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council says:
Overall, 500,000 new tech jobs were added to the American economy between 2003 and 2010, at an annual growth rate of 3.4 percent.
26% of the new tech economy is comprised of manufacturing jobs, jobs that draw on the strengths of current Wisconsin businesses.
Renewable electricity generation is predicted to grow by 40 percent over the next 5 years.
Wisconsin has an opportunity to lead the nation in the development of biogas as a viable fuel alternative. Currently there are enough corn stalks, wood chips, and switchgrass in Wisconsin to replace 40% of our gasoline and half our coal use while putting $14 billion back into the state economy.
Wisconsin already has more anaerobic biodigesters than any state, with 22 on-farm and 31 total systems.
Wisconsin currently has more than 12,000 people employed in supplying the solar or wind sector.
In Wisconsin over 300 companies either produce, sell or install wind power components, with 40 new companies identified in last year alone.
135 Wisconsin companies are part of the solar photovoltaic industry.
America now generates more kilowatt hours of renewable energy than any country in the world.
Solar and wind are increasingly cost-competitive with conventional generating capacity.
More solar and wind generating capacity was installed last year than conventional generating capacity.
Renewable energies are a hedge against uncertainty in the price of fossil fuels.
Renewable technologies will require access to capital to support private investment. Particularly given recent stresses in financial markets, the government role in ensuring both access to capital and a fair market could result in a more diverse mix of energy resources in Wisconsin.
by Ed Blume | Jul 6, 2012 | Uncategorized
RENEW Wisconsin has had a presence since the MREA help its first Energy Fair. In other those years, Foghorn was the first cartoon character to stop at RENEW’s booth.
by Ed Blume | Jul 5, 2012 | Uncategorized
Immediate release
July 5, 2012
More information
Don Wichert
Interim Executive Director
608.2554044
dwichert@renewwisconsin.org
Focus on Energy Resumes Offer of Renewable Energy Incentives
Financial incentives to support customer-sited renewable energy systems are once again available from Focus on Energy, the ratepayer-funded energy efficiency and renewable energy program in Wisconsin. About $2 million will be available for solar, wind, biomass, and biogas energy systems between now and December 31, 2012.
The resumption of renewable energy incentives marks the end of a suspension on applications for funding support that lasted six months for residential customers and an entire year for business customers.
“We are pleased that the funding uncertainties with Focus on Energy are behind us and that the renewable energy program is back up and running,” said Don Wichert,
Interim Executive Director of RENEW Wisconsin (RENEW), a nonprofit renewable energy advocacy organization.
“With the resumption of incentives, there is no need for customers to ‘wait and see’ what the future holds.”
In January, RENEW Wisconsin delivered a letter, signed by over 150 businesses, schools, and local officials, to the Public Service Commission asking the agency “to exercise its oversight authority over Focus on Energy and restore funding, without delay, for renewables at a level consistent with previous years’ allocations.” In early March, RENEW organized a similar write-in campaign to the PSC with over 200 comments submitted.
“I am hopeful that the reinstatement of incentives signals a closer working relationship between renewable energy businesses and Focus on Energy administrators,” Wichert said.
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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 | Jun 18, 2012 | Uncategorized
From a presentation by Michael Vickerman, Program and Policy Director, titled Progress or Retreat? Constructing a Viable Policy Road Map for Renewables in Wisconsin at the MREA Energy Fair, Custer, WI, June 16:
- Climate change issue losing currency
- Natural gas emerging as the new silver bullet. 100 years’ supply at rock bottom prices?–NOT!!!!
- RE incentives have been rebranded as subsidies
- Utilities groaning under excess generating capacity
- Revenue growth no longer a certainty
- Investment is passé – cost-cutting now the rage. Consequently, utilities are backpedaling from renewables
See the full presentation here.
by jboullion | May 23, 2012 | Uncategorized
For immediate release
May 23, 2012
More information
Michael Vickerman
608.255.4044, ext. 2
Another example of company backsliding on renewables
In documents filed in conjunction with its pending rate case, Green Bay-based Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (WPS) proposed several rollbacks to its net metering service that would, if approved, sharply restrict a customer’s ability to generate electricity from renewable energy resources and sell a portion of it back to the utility.
Net metering allows customers to sell the unused output from their solar electric or other renewable energy system back to the utility at the full retail rate from month to month, so long as the surplus electricity is less than or equal to the customers’ usage in a 12-month period.
Currently, WPS customers may install solar or wind energy systems on their premises up to 100 kilowatts (kW). Beginning in January 2013, WPS would roll back that capacity limit to 20 kW.
WPS has also proposed to cap the overall size of its net metering offering at one-half of one percent of 2011 summer peak. No other Wisconsin utility has ever sought to impose capacity-based limits to its net metering service.
“What WPS proposes would be a really bad deal for customers installing small renewable energy systems serving their homes or businesses,” said Michael Vickerman, program and policy director for RENEW Wisconsin, a nonprofit advocacy organization promoting renewable energy use in Wisconsin.
“These service changes are clearly intended to discourage its customers from investing in solar and small wind energy systems,” Vickerman said. “If WPS gets its way, the renewable energy marketplace in that part of Wisconsin will slow down significantly.”
“At a time when the customers and communities in WPS territory are looking to renewable energy to support new jobs and manage their energy costs, the company is doing its level best to take that option away from them,” Vickerman said.
As an intervenor in WPS’s rate case, RENEW Wisconsin will ask the Public Service Commission to:
• Reject WPS’s proposal to impose a system-wide cap on net metering service;
• Maintain the current maximum system size at 100 kW; and
• Base WPS’s calculation of net energy on annual usage instead of monthly usage.
“What we will ask for is a standard of service that is already offered by two Wisconsin utilities: Madison Gas & Electric (MGE) and Xcel Energy,” Vickerman said. “WPS’s proposal is a particularly egregious example of company backsliding.”
Vickerman noted that MGE, which also has a pending rate proceeding before the Public Service Commission, did not propose any changes to its net metering service for 2013 and 2014.
“We urge the PSC to work toward a uniform net metering policy for the state using MGE’s and Xcel’s service as a template,” Vickerman said.
Vickerman added: “WPS, it should be remembered, was the driving force behind the “Outsource Renewable Energy to Canada Act,” which was signed into law in 2011. That law lets utilities apply the energy they purchase from large Canadian hydropower sources toward their renewable energy requirements, at the expense of in-state renewable energy providers. Within that context, WPS’s net metering proposal constitutes another slight to Wisconsin’s renewable energy marketplace.”
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RENEW Wisconsin is an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) that leads and represents businesses and individuals who seek more clean, renewable energy in Wisconsin. More information on RENEW’s Web site at www.renewwisconsin.org.
