by jboullion | Jun 23, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a story on WXOW-TV, La Crosse:
LA CROSSE, Wisconsin (WXOW) — The Black River Neighborhood Center is complete.
To commemorate that milestone, La Crosse’s Park and Rec Department held a grand opening at the beach house.
Mike Novak and his son Nick visit family in La Crosse often and enjoy seeing the area while they’re at it.
“Oh yeah, beautiful. We were talking about, look at that view coming down the road. You wind down and there’s the bluffs and stuff,” Mike says.
They came to the North Side to see the Black River and happened to catch the grand opening of the new neighborhood center.
“We had to come check it out, definitely,” Mike says.
Around eight years ago, the city took a look at how to improve the North-South Corridor.
Citizens and business owners started a plan to renovate the old bath house that was there.
After talking to the community about what they wanted, the city decided a new building was worth the investment.
“Four years ago, I would have said, ‘The building will be about this size and will have running water, and it’ll be clean.’ I didn’t have this vision. I truly didn’t. But it’s marvelous,” says North side merchant Randy Eddy, Sr..
“From a $40,000 renovation of a bath house, it ended up being a $1.3 million community facility,” says Steve Carlyon, Park and Recreation Director.
The 8,000 square-foot facility is set up for different uses, like parties, wedding receptions or just relaxing.
It uses green technology, like geo-thermal and solar energy.
by jboullion | Mar 11, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a course description from Madison Area Technical College:
Course Number 20-623-290-090 Class Number 61386
Three Credits Hybrid Format (Study Abroad + Online)
May 15–24, 2010
Renewable Energy for International Development provides an examination of energy and economics in developing countries with special consideration given to renewable energy sources. The course will combine 8-weeks of online instruction with 10 days of travel and study abroad in Costa Rica. Students will learn to specify, design, and install renewable energy systems for developing countries. Field work will include design and installation of one or more of the following types of renewable energy systems:
+Small solar electric system (
by jboullion | Feb 15, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Barry Adams in the Wisconsin State Journal:
MAZOMANIE — The furnace at Cardinal Solar Technologies on this village’s west side is far from ordinary.
Yes, it heats the 180,000-square-foot building. But the primary purpose of the $5.5 million, 120-foot-long apparatus, which took six months to install, is to harden 2-by-4-foot sheets of quarter-inch-thick glass used to make solar photovoltaic panels.
If projections bear out, it may be a while before the 1,200-degree, gas-fired convection furnace is allowed to cool, as more solar energy installations are built around the world.
“They’re mostly in Europe right now,” said Bob Bond, president of Cardinal ST. “But the United States is coming. I visited one near Las Vegas that will have a million panels sitting in the desert. And that will all be our glass.”
Very little of the energy used in the U.S. comes from the sun. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, petroleum, natural gas and coal accounted for 93 percent of the total in 2008. Renewable energy, which includes hydropower, biomass, geothermal, wind and solar, combined to make up the remainder. Solar energy accounted for just 1 percent.
But that sliver of the market, combined with state and federal incentives, has Cardinal ST officials enthusiastic about the future.
by jboullion | Jan 8, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by Governor Jim Doyle:
MADISON – Governor Jim Doyle today was joined by business leaders, labor, legislators and environmental organizations as he launched the Clean Energy Jobs Act, a landmark legislative package to accelerate the state’s green economy and create jobs. New industry-recognized research shows the package will directly create at least 15,000 green jobs in Wisconsin by 2025.
“Addressing climate change is not just an environmental issue, it’s about creating green jobs,” Governor Doyle said.
“The Clean Energy Jobs Act offers new standards to help accelerate Wisconsin’s green economy. I am calling on the Legislature to update renewable portfolio standards to generate 25 percent of our fuel from renewable sources by 2025 and set a realistic goal of a 2 percent annual reduction in energy consumption by 2015.”
The Clean Energy Jobs Act, State Senate Bill 450 and State Assembly Bill 649, implements the recommendations of Governor Doyle’s Global Warming Task Force to address climate change and grow the state’s green economy through several key measures:
• Enhanced renewable portfolio standards – A new 20 percent standard would be set for 2020 and a 25 percent standard would be set for 2025. The current 10 percent standard would be accelerated from 2015 to 2013. By advancing our current renewable portfolio standards, and setting new standards, we will ensure more of our energy dollars stay in the state, creating thousands of jobs for Wisconsin families in fields like construction, manufacturing, and agriculture.
• Enhanced energy efficiency and conservation efforts – Graduated statewide electricity savings goals would be set, leading up to a 2 percent reduction by 2015 and annual reductions thereafter. The cheapest way to lower carbon emissions is through energy conservation. By setting achievable conservation goals, this bill will help reduce energy costs in businesses and homes across the state.
A comprehensive economic assessment of the Clean Energy Jobs Act found that the package would directly create at least 15,000 green jobs in Wisconsin by 2025. More than 1,800 jobs would be created in the first year alone. The assessment also found that between 800 and 1,800 construction jobs would be created each year from 2011-2025, and more than 2,000 manufacturing jobs would be created once the laws are fully implemented.
Michael Vickerman, RENEW Wisconsin’s executive director said:
Wisconsin’s existing 10% Renewable Energy Standard has driven significant investment in rural, forestry and agriculture markets by encouraging the construction of large wind, biogas, biomass and solar projects. Increasing the Renewable Energy Standard to 25% in 2025 would continue to generate more of the lucrative payments to landowners and biofuel / biomass providers as well as create more jobs constructing and maintaining the additional projects are built to meet the new standards.
The bills also include three of the proposals backed by the Homegrown Renewable Energy Campaign:
• Renewable Energy Buyback Rates, also called an Advanced Renewable Tariffs, would set utility payments for small renewable energy producers who want to “feed energy” into the electric grid, enabling farmers and rural businesses to help Wisconsin become more energy independent with biopower, wind and solar.
• The Biomass Crop Reserve Program would award contracts to farmers to plant native perennial plants, which the farmer can then sell for bioenergy production, helping to solve the chicken-and-egg problem of jumpstarting the homegrown fuels market.
• A Low-Carbon Fuel Standard would be a market-based approach to promoting the cleanest, low-carbon fuels for Wisconsin, and would put Wisconsin in a position to capture the rapidly-developing clean energy market by using Wisconsin’s abundant natural resources like switchgrass.
Statements of support for the legislation came from Customers First!, WPPI Energy, CREWE, Clean Wisconsin, ACRE, MEUW, Sierra Club, and others.
by jboullion | Dec 24, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Gena Kittner in the Wisconsin State Journal:
Photovoltaic panels installed last week on the roof of Mount Horeb’s Grumpy Troll will soon enable the bar and restaurant to harness solar power to fuel everything from beer-brewing to pizza-making.
“A lot of the energy will be used for the brewery, as well as everything else that we do,” said owner Doug Welshinger, adding the beer mash itself will still be boiled using natural gas.
Once the switch is flipped , probably by the end of the month, Welshinger said the business will use about 95 percent of the electricity generated by the solar panels. “We do consume a lot of energy, there’s no question about it,” he said.
The Mount Horeb Utilities will purchase all of the energy generated by the 38 solar electric panels – most at 30 cents a kilowatt hour – about three times the rate that a business customer would pay for the same electricity.
The Grumpy Troll, at 105 S. Second St., will continue to purchase all of its electricity from the local utility at the normal rate, but will receive a monthly bill credit for the green power generated by the panels, helping to offset its total energy costs.
The higher rate for sending electricity to the utility is part of an incentive program offered by Sun Prairie-based WPPI Energy, which includes Mount Horeb Utilities as a member. The higher rate will last about 10 years, said Ann Rodriguez, spokeswoman with WPPI Energy.
