by jboullion | Feb 24, 2010 | Uncategorized
An Associated Press story posted on WKBT-TV (La Crosse):
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Gov. Jim Doyle says he’s open to approving a scaled-back clean energy bill as long as a key provision setting new renewable energy standards remains in tact.
Doyle says the crux of the sweeping measure being debated in the Legislature would require 25 percent of Wisconsin’s energy to come from renewable sources by 2025. He says that provision is what’s critical to creating new jobs in fields like solar and wind energy.
Doyle told reporters he is open to changes on other details that he didn’t specify and that he expects “significant changes” as it moves through both houses.
The bill would lift Wisconsin’s ban on new nuclear power plants and tighten auto emission standards, among many other things.
by jboullion | Feb 23, 2010 | Uncategorized
An announcement Regenerative Culture:
In this time of economic recession, climate change, resource depletion and social isolation, it is clear our current systems aren’t working. Our world is changing and our leaders aren’t leading.
Ariane Burgess, founder of Regenerative Culture, will offer an interactive presentation that outlines the new community leadership training course she may offer here if there’s enough interest.
She will overview our current crises and highlight the course’s approach to helping us re-skill and lead our communities toward a resilient and regenerative future.
The holistic and in-depth approach Ms. Burgess will present focuses on 5 key dimensions of community design:
Economic, Ecological, Social, Worldview and Leadership. These five elements are woven to create a springboard to help us move from talk and theory into action. She will describe how the course will help us prepare, communicate and implement action plans to develop our community’s resilience.
The free talks will be held:
• Tues, March 9 at 7:00 p.m. – Western Technical College, 220 South Main Street, Viroqua
by jboullion | Feb 22, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a commentary by Michael Vickerman, RENEW’s executive director:
In the next six weeks the Legislature will make a truly momentous decision on the state’s energy future. Either it can embrace an ambitious 15-year commitment to invigorate the state’s economy through sustained investments in clean energy or decide to coast along on current energy policies until they lapse and lose their force and effect.
Arguably the most innovative feature in the Clean Energy Jobs Act, as it’s now called, is a proposed requirement on larger electric providers to acquire locally produced renewable electricity with Advanced Renewable Tariffs (ARTs). These are technology-specific buyback rates that provide a fixed purchase price for the electricity produced over a period of 10 to 20 years, set at levels sufficient to recover installation costs along with a modest profit. Now available in more than a dozen nations in Europe as well as the Province of Ontario, ARTs have proven to be singularly effective in stimulating considerable growth in small-scale production of distributed renewable electricity. . . .
Consider the much-vaunted Dane County Cow Power Project, which should be operational before the end of the year. Using anaerobic digestion technology, this Waunakee-area installation will treat manure from three nearby dairy farms and produce biogas that will fuel a two-megawatt generator. This community digester project, the first of its kind in Wisconsin, will be built with private capital and a State of Wisconsin award to support a technology that reduces the flow of phosphorus into the Yahara Lakes. A second digester project is also planned for Dane County.
The key element that makes the financing of this project work is the special biogas buyback rate that Alliant Energy, the local utility, voluntarily put in place a year ago. With the higher rate, the project’s return on investment was sufficient to interest outside investors. . . .
If we are serious about neutralizing the algae blooms that turn the Yahara lakes green each year, we’ll need to adopt a clean energy policy, including ARTs, that facilitates the development of biodigesters in farm country.
by jboullion | Feb 18, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a letter to State Rep. Spencer Black and State Sen. Mark Miller from RENEW Wisconsin:
RENEW is pleased to provide the enclosed copy of the narrative and appendix of tables from an economic analysis that we commissioned.
The analysis concludes that special buyback rates (sometimes called Advanced Renewable Tariffs) designed to stimulate small-scale renewable energy installations would have negligible impact on residential utility bills, averaging about $10 a year. That’s less a dollar a month for the typical customer. And it’s less than a household’s cost of purchasing the smallest block of green power from Madison Gas and Electric, for instance.
Compared with other forms of economic stimulus, promoting small-scale renewables through utility buyback rates would deliver a substantial and long-lasting economic punch with minimal impact on the Wisconsin citizen’s pocketbook.
Prepared by Spring Green-based L&S Technical Associates, the study modeled rate impacts from the legislation’s provisions for ARTs on the state’s five largest utilities. The modeling predicts cost impacts ranging from a low of $8.12 a year for a residential customer of Wisconsin Public Service to as high as $11.07 for a Wisconsin Power and Light (Alliant) customer. The projected impact would amount to $8.81 a year for a We Energies customer, $9.71 for a Madison Gas and Electric customer, and $10.11 for an Xcel Energy customer.
The projections assume that when each utility reaches its maximum threshold of 1.5 percent of total retail sales. In the aggregate, this percentage equates to 1/70th of total annual sales. That’s one billion kilowatt-hours a year, out of total annual sales of 70 billion kilowatt-hour.
Though the principals of L&S Technical Associates serve on RENEW’s board of directors, they have prepared numerous renewable energy studies for other clients, including the U.S. Department of Energy, Energy Center of Wisconsin, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. L&S has also co-authored renewable energy potential studies in response to requests from the Wisconsin Public Service Commission.
The bill’s renewable energy buyback provisions would unleash a steady flow of investment that would lead to new economic activity and jobs while moving us toward energy independence – exactly what we all hope to accomplish by passage of the Clean Energy Jobs Act legislation.
by jboullion | Feb 17, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by in the Wisconsin Ag Connection:
As the University of Wisconsin-Platteville continues to explore renewable and sustainable energy sources on campus, one opportunity has more to do with the local bovine community than anything else. Tim Zauche, UWP professor and chair of the chemistry and engineering physics department, along with Chris Baxter, UWP assistant professor of agronomy, are leading a project team exploring the possibility of having an anaerobic digester on campus and another in the Platteville community.
An anaerobic digester uses bacteria to break down organic waste to produce methane, much like a cow’s stomach. One by-product of the bacteria digesting this waste is methane, also known as natural gas, which is used to heat homes and generate electricity.
“We need to mix the waste because, like our bodies, the bacteria can’t survive on sugar alone. We need to provide them with a balanced diet, so to speak,” said Zauche. “By using the same bacteria that produces gas in a cow’s stomach, we can turn waste into energy that can provide electricity or heat for homes. The material from four cows can provide the electricity for one home for a year and one digester could provide seven percent of UWP’s annual power consumption.”
Once used, the waste from the digester will be filtered into liquid and solid forms of fertilizer ready for direct field application and other forms of fertilizer use.
