by jboullion | 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.
-END-
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 Ed Blume | May 24, 2012 | Uncategorized
Solar Power Happy Hour, May 24
Erin’s Snug Irish Pub
4601 American Parkway, between Madison & Sun Prairie
Please join Don Wichert and Michael Vickerman for a discussion and feedback of energy issues affecting the renewable energy market at the Solar Power Happy Hour, today from 5:00 – 6:00 at Erin’s Snug Irish Pub. (See map.)
Topics for discussion include:
- Focus on Energy funding
- Third Party Ownership
- Net Metering
Simplified interconnection
- Policy goals for 2013
by Ed Blume | May 17, 2012 | Uncategorized
Solar Power Happy Hour, May 24, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Erin’s Snug Irish Pub
4601 American Parkway, Madison
RENEW Wisconsin invites solar installers, distributors, manufacturers, related businesses, those with solar systems and other solar stakeholders to the first Solar Power Happy Hour at Erin’s Snug Irish Pub located between Madison and Sun Prairie (see map).
No RSVP is necessary for this event.
We’ve made good progress on the solar initiatives set by participants at RENEW’s Energy Policy Summit last January and we would like to do a quick update and ask for input on how to move forward over the next few months:
- Third party ownership
- Net energy billing
- Focus on Energy funding
- Simplified interconnection
- Policy goals for 2013
In addition, we will review the Grow Solar Wisconsin activities to date and discuss next steps.
Buy a drink and join us from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM on May 24.
Come with your suggestions on what we should do next! We want feedback!
by jboullion | Jan 27, 2012 | Uncategorized
An article by Sharon Udasin in the Jerusalem Post:
Israel-based firm Pythagoras Solar has completed installing the world’s first “solar windows” that simultaneously generate electricity through solar power and also optimize the daylight coming through the windows, the company announced this week. The 20 windows were successfully integrated into the Organic Valley headquarters building in La Farge, Wisconsin. With the new windows, workers inside the building are able to turn off artificial lights during the daytime, as the windows bring diffused natural light, instead of glare, into the building, the company said.
“By adopting these innovative windows, we are also helping to pave the way for this technology, which has the merit to become a standard in the design and construction of net zero energy buildings,” said Cecil Wright, vice president of sustainability and local operations at Organic Valley, in a statement released by Pythagoras.
by jboullion | Dec 23, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Johnson Controls Inc. has won a contract to reduce energy use and add solar energy at the nation’s largest military installation, Fort Bliss in Texas and New Mexico.
A contract awarded Friday is valued at $16 million and is projected to save the Army post $39 million in energy costs over the next 24 years, Johnson Controls said.
The contract was awarded two weeks after President Barack Obama signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to make $2 billion worth of energy efficiency upgrades over the next two years, using energy-saving performance contracts like those offered by Johnson Controls.
Some 5,500 solar panels will be installed at Fort Bliss, along with new utility monitoring and control systems to manage energy at 120 different buildings. Together, the solar panels and energy-efficiency measures aim to reduce electricity use during peak power demand periods.
Fort Bliss, which encompasses 1.2 million acres in west Texas and New Mexico, is the country’s largest military installation and is undergoing a $4 billion expansion, the military’s largest expansion at any military installation since World War II.
