by jboullion | Nov 2, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Jon Hilkevitch in the Chicago Tribune:
Solar energy collectors will be installed on up to 60 acres at O’Hare International Airport, and a service station selling alternative fuels for private and commercial vehicles will open near the airport, Chicago’s aviation chief announced Monday.
“The solar panels will provide a substantial renewable energy source to help power O’Hare, and the alternative fueling station will promote the use of clean fuels and electricity to power vehicles,” city Aviation Commissioner Rosemarie Andolino said at the 2011 Airports Going Green conference, which runs through Wednesday in downtown Chicago and at O’Hare.
At Midway airport, a composting program will be launched to handle food waste from its 13 restaurants, Andolino said.
private waste hauler will collect compostable materials at Midway, ranging from leftover food to cardboard boxes, and deliver them to an off-site composting facility, said Amy Malick, deputy commissioner of sustainability at the Chicago Department of Aviation.
The Midway project follows a pilot composting program at O’Hare. A total of 200 tons of compostable waste at both airports will be diverted from landfills each year, Malick said.
The service station selling alternative fuels will be located on a 2.25-acre parcel at Patton Drive and Higgins Road (near the intersection of Mannheim Road and Higgins) just outside the airport, Andolino said.
“The fueling station will be able to provide alternative fuels like bio-diesel, ethanol, electric charging as well as traditional fuel” to commercial vehicles and private passenger vehicles, Andolino said. Construction of the facility is expected to begin in about a year, she said.
by jboullion | Oct 14, 2011 | Uncategorized
More information
Michael Vickerman
Executive Director
608.255.4044
mvickerman@renewwisconsin.org
From the North Woods to the Illinois border, from Lake Michigan to the Mississippi River, growing numbers of Wisconsin factories, businesses, schools, hospitals, fire stations, apartment buildings and breweries have installed systems that heat their water with the power of the sun.
A newly launched online map on RENEW Wisconsin’s web site displays the locations of more than 60 nonresidential solar hot water systems installed in the state. Each flagged system is accompanied by a box containing information on the owner, installation contractor, system size and date of installation. Many of these systems are linked to their installers’ web sites, accompanied by photos.
The solar hot water map joins the family of on-line renewable energy maps developed by RENEW Wisconsin in the past year. Some maps are resource-specific; others break out renewable energy systems by county.
“These maps verify the enormously positive effect that Wisconsin’s clean energy initiatives like Focus on Energy have had in creating such a vibrant economic sector,” said RENEW executive director Michael Vickerman.
Created in 1999 and strengthened in 2006, Focus on Energy is a ratepayer-funded initiative that helps Wisconsin residents and businesses employ energy efficiency measures and install renewable energy systems.
“In the past five years, Focus on Energy incentives have been instrumental in putting solar hot water on the map in Wisconsin,” Vickerman said. “No other Midwestern state has come close to experiencing Wisconsin’s success in advancing this particular application of solar energy.”
The table below shows the five largest solar hot water installations operating in Wisconsin, two are located at University of Wisconsin campuses.
Owner: UW-Oshkosh
Installer: H&H Solar, Green Sky Energetics
County: Winnebago
Capacity: 6,800 square feet (total)
Year installed: 2010, 2011
Kalahari Resorts
Terrytown Plumbing/H&H Solar
Sauk
4,160
2007
Menomonie Indian Tribe
Energy Concepts
Menomonie
2,600
2010
UW-Stevens Point
Hooper Corp./ Pertzborn Plumbing
Portage
2,240 (total)
2011
Avis Rent-a-Car (multiple locations)
Mitchell’s Heating & Cooling
Outagamie
2,160 (total)
2007
Milwaukee-based Hot Water Products, one of the largest stocking distributors for solar thermal and domestic hot water systems in the Midwest, supplied and designed four of these systems and many others in Wisconsin over the last five years. In addition to training contractors in this field, Hot Water Products also assists them with system design and equipment sizing support.
This year, installation activity has been brisk, but most installation contractors are bracing for a sharp slowdown in 2012, due to a Focus on Energy decision on July 1st to suspend renewable energy grants and incentives to nonresidential customers. The announcement of the funding suspension came after the Legislature voted in June to lop $20 million from Focus on Energy’s 2012 budget.
“The longer Focus on Energy’s funding suspension goes on, the deeper the damage will be. Installers are holding their breath as they wait for Focus on Energy to restore renewable energy funding assistance.”
Installers and system owners wishing to add their installations to the map should contact Alex Brasch at brasch@renewwisconsin.org.
by jboullion | Sep 29, 2011 | Uncategorized
From an article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Delavan – Welcome to the field where sun power and the sunflower meet.
Well, not just one sunflower. More like thousands. And not just one solar panel, either. Thousands there, too.
Convergence Energy of Lake Geneva is building one of the largest solar projects in the state, and the first that allows individual investors to buy a stake in the project.
The Convergence Energy Solar Farm began construction last year on 14 acres near Dan Osborn’s wholesale nursery.
The idea, said Steve Johnson, vice president of business development, is to provide a green-power investment opportunity for people who live in a condo or have too much shade to make solar power workable on their own home’s roof.
By the time it’s finished this year, it will be the second-largest solar project in Wisconsin, after Epic Systems’ corporate campus solar project in Verona.
But instead of being developed by one large company, this project is being built, piece by piece, as investors take a stake in the project.
“It’s a way for a small investor to have a part in it all,” said investor Dave Smith of Libertyville, Ill. “When you live in a town home like I do, there’s nothing you can really do.”
by jboullion | Sep 20, 2011 | Uncategorized
We are having a “Lake Country Moving to Solar” bash at Lake Country Unitarian Universalist Church, W299N5595 Grace Drive in Hartland from noon to 4 this Saturday, celebrating our 19.68 kW solar PV system which came on-line last month. We are having speakers INCLUCING MICHAEL VICKERMAN, musicians, tours of the solar installation and community garden on the premises, solar tea and other snacks, informational tables including a petition to Obama, Kohl, and Johnson to Move Away from Fossil Fuels, and children’s activities. We will have preferred parking for bikes and hi-mpg vehicles!
Hope you all can make it to this. Call me (Gerry Flakas) at 262-646-2703 if you have any questions.
by jboullion | Aug 23, 2011 | Uncategorized
A story on WXOW, La Crosse:
Five area businesses are splitting more than $65,000 for renewable energy grants.
The money will help them install renewable energy systems or flex fuel pumps, and make energy efficiency improvements. The funds come from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Energy for America Program.
USDA Rural Development State Director Colleen Landkamer says the funding helps reduce America’s dependence of foreign energy and boosts the rural economy.
Here are the local recipients:
-Robert Lambert, Fountain City, $9,075 for energy efficiency
-Harriet Behar, Gays Mills, $15,121 for solar
-JDI Enterprises, Inc., Hillsboro, $3,019 for solar
-Golden Acres Grain Farms, LLC, West Salem, $17,315 for energy efficiency
-Corr Investments, LLC, Viroqua, $19,099 for solar
