by jboullion | Sep 15, 2009 | Uncategorized
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 15, 2009
MORE INFORMATION
Michael Vickerman
RENEW Wisconsin
608.255.4044
mvickerman@renewwisconsin.org
In a show of bipartisan support, the State Senate approved legislation that will open the door to new wind energy projects in Wisconsin.
Under the Wind for Wisconsin umbrella, more than 60 organizations as diverse as unions, trade associations, environmental advocates, health groups, and renewable energy manufacturers sought uniform permitting standards for future wind developments.
Six Republicans joined 17 Democrats to pass Senate Bill 185. The legislation directs the Public Service Commission to begin a rulemaking process that will lead to greater certainty and predictability in siting wind generation facilities.
“The Senate’s vote is critical to reviving the development of a high priority renewable energy resource in accordance with Wisconsin energy policy,” said Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a nonprofit sustainable energy advocacy organization.
“We believe that the wind energy suppliers will see the action as an invitation to locate and do business in Wisconsin. Our economy will benefit from the investment and jobs in a sustainable energy future,” Vickerman said.
“RENEW Wisconsin and its members thank the bill’s primary authors, Senator Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee) and Senator Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac), the leadership of both parties, and all of the state senators who recognized the need for a statewide approach to permitting windpower installations,” Vickerman added .
The Assembly will vote on the companion bill later this week. Then it will go to the governor.
by jboullion | Sep 15, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a post by Margaret Krome in The Capital Times:
At Farm Progress Days this summer, other farmers told me that they also are interested in creating solar or wind energy, but their decision hinges on whether they receive a sufficient payback on their investment. The rapid and extensive growth of renewable energies in Germany, Denmark and parts of Canada is attributed overwhelmingly to a single policy addressing this concern, called “feed-in tariffs.” (In Europe, the word “tariff” can mean “price.”) This policy encourages small businesses, households, farms, towns – anyone – to produce renewable energy by providing a stable price for that energy at a rate that considers the actual costs of producing it. It’s an obvious idea, but currently in most parts of the United States, utilities set widely varying rates for renewable energy – rates that seldom properly calculate the costs of producing it.
Wisconsin policymakers are on the verge of considering this and other policies to support renewable energy. Last week I joined the Homegrown Renewable Energy Campaign bus tour of four sites in northwest Wisconsin that illustrate ways communities and entrepreneurs can benefit from those policies.
We visited the bus garage for the Cadott School District, which converted its bus engines two decades ago to use compressed natural gas, which cut up to two-thirds off the district’s transportation costs.
We saw a small electric vehicle whose manufacturer is located in Wisconsin and may be one of the few vehicle manufacturers with growing, not shrinking, demand.
Pete Taglia, a scientist with Clean Wisconsin, explained how one policy under consideration, a low carbon fuel standard, would set a market standard for energy sources with a lower lifetime carbon footprint, rewarding fuel manufacturers, distributors, and ultimately users.
We visited Barron High School, which for over 20 years has been heated – and now is also cooled – by burning wood chips. A fuels for schools policy would help other schools use nearby biomass similarly.
We also saw biomass research plots at the University of Wisconsin’s Spooner research station. A proposed biomass crop reserve program would reward farmers for taking land that’s vulnerable to soil erosion and planting it to longer-term and less-erosive biomass crops.
Wisconsin would be wise to support homegrown renewable energy. Avoiding fossil fuels can help reduce climate change. Renewable energy projects offer many opportunities to build new jobs. And, as Valerie Adamski said, “It’s nice not to be in the hands of a foreign oil company.”
by jboullion | Sep 8, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Chad Dally in The Daily Press (Ashland):
Similar projects underway at Madeline Island, Mt. Ashwabay
The Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center in Ashland will soon embark on a project testing the feasibility of supplying a portion of its energy from wind power, joining other area projects seeking to take advantage of a consistent alternative energy resource.
This fall, the center will lease a 150-foot “met,” or test, tower leased from the Bad River Tribe of Lake Superior Chippewa and site it along the northern edge of the center’s property to get a more detailed idea of wind power capability. Statewide energy audits have assessed wind power in Cornucopia and Hurley, but those assessments are likely different than averages at the Visitor Center, and on Madeline Island and Mt. Ashwabay in Bayfield, two other areas currently being analyzed for wind power.
A preliminary assessment, completed in 2007 by Focus on Energy, showed wind speeds at the center between 10.2 and 11.7 miles per hour — speeds not capable of sustaining a wind farm-scale development, but that could supplement some of the natural gas used to power the center. . . .
Mad(eline) about wind
Although nine months of data from a test wind tower on Madeline Island has revealed promising potential, organizers behind that effort will face logistical challenges if the island residents’ effort toward energy independence comes to fruition.
Burke Henry, chairman of the island’s ad hoc Alternative Energy Committee, said Wednesday that, based on data gathered from the 50-meter (164-foot) tower erected at Big Bay State Park, it appears there would be enough wind to supply the island with all of its energy needs — although Henry stressed there remain many unanswered questions, with funding chief among them. Along with the tower, SODAR (SOnic Detection and Ranging) equipment is being used to send signals up to 200 meters in the air to further assess wind speed.
by jboullion | Sep 4, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a news release posted on PRWeb:
Appleton, WI (PRWEB) September 4, 2009 — River Crest Elementary School in Hudson, Wisconsin, recently received the designation of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC), the nation’s foremost authority on green buildings. Hoffman LLC, www.hoffman.net, an Appleton, Wisconsin-based planning, architectural, and construction management firm, designed and built the highly-sustainable and eco-friendly school.
River Crest Elementary became the first elementary school in Wisconsin, and the second public elementary school in the nation, to receive Gold under the USGBC’s new LEED for Schools Rating System. In addition, it is the second of only two public school buildings in the state to receive LEED Gold designation–the first being Hoffman’s Northland Pines High School project in Eagle River, Wisconsin, in 2006.
“River Crest’s LEED Gold certification validates and confirms that sustainable design and construction can be done at or below conventional costs,” stated Mark Hanson, Hoffman’s Director of Sustainable Services.
Completed in August of 2008, River Crest was designed and built for $166/square foot, which includes design, site work, construction, furnishings, fixtures, and equipment. Total project cost is $57/square foot less than, or 29% below, the average cost for public elementary schools built in Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin in 2008 as stated in the “2009 Construction Report” by School Planning & Management.
by jboullion | Sep 2, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Judy Newman in the Wisconsin State Journal:
Art and Mindy Shrader have a new conversation piece in the back yard of their log home near Reedsburg: a wind energy turbine, designed to help power their house.
“We live up on a ridge and the wind is always blowing there,” Shrader said. “We thought it would be nice to do something about that.”
Gene Frakes has had a wind turbine on his property in the town of Perry, in the southwestern corner of Dane County, for two and a half years. The 10-kilowatt turbine produces an average of 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity — or about $110 worth — a month, enough to power his home and send some extra electricity out to the grid for his utility company to use. “There’s five months a year when they owe us money,” said Frakes, who also installs wind power equipment.
In the past several months, interest in individual wind turbines has revved up in Wisconsin and beyond. Residents are signing up to buy them, and companies are springing up to sell and install them. Part of the popularity stems from new federal tax credits.
Nationwide, the number of small wind generators installed for home or commercial use grew 78 percent in 2008 over the previous year, and residential sales in early 2009 were 15 to 20 percent higher than a year ago, according to a study by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), in Washington, D.C.
In Wisconsin, about 65 small wind turbines have been installed over the past six years with commitments for 25 or 30 more, according to Focus on Energy, a public-private partnership, funded by utility ratepayers, that facilitates renewable energy and energy efficiency.
