by jboullion | Nov 17, 2008 | Uncategorized
Immediate release
November 17, 2008
More information
RENEW Wisconsin
Michael Vickerman
608.255.4044
mvickerman@renewwisconsin.org
Clean Wisconsin
Katie Nekola
608.251.7020, ext. 14
knekola@cleanwisconsin.org
Clean Energy Organizations Endorse Mishicot Wind Project
Representatives of Wisconsin’s leading sustainable energy organizations—Clean Wisconsin and RENEW Wisconsin–endorsed today a proposed seven-turbine windpower project currently under review by the Manitowoc County Board of Adjustment.
The project, proposed by Wisconsin-based Emerging Energies LLP, would be situated within the Town of Mishicot. The County’s Board of Adjustment is scheduled to deliberate further on Emerging Energies’ application at its next regularly scheduled meeting on November 17.
“We are impressed with many of the steps Emerging Energies is taking to spread the benefits of wind energy development to the host community, and especially to neighboring residents,” said RENEW Wisconsin Executive Director Michael Vickerman.
“Their Mishicot Wind Project has been a model of transparency and careful planning, right from the start.”
“The benefits from this project to Manitowoc County’s environment and economy are too great to ignore,” said Clean Wisconsin Energy Policy Director Katie Nekola. “The Mishicot Wind project deserves to be approved and built.”
Vickerman pointed to Emerging Energies’ commitment to incorporating industry “best practices” as another compelling reason why Manitowoc County should approve the project. Once the installation is energized, Emerging Energies plans to compensate neighboring residences within one-half mile of a wind turbine over the life of the project.
“RENEW commends Emerging Energies for volunteering to lead by example and abide by a set of development practices that we hope other developers will follow,” Vickerman said.
Blessed with some of the state’s strongest winds, Manitowoc County adopted a wind ordinance in 2004. Emerging Energies first proposed the Mishicot project in 2005. Progress since that time has been slowed by a countywide moratorium on wind development and the subsequent adoption of one of the most restrictive wind ordinances in Wisconsin.
“Emerging Energies has put together a stellar proposal that satisfies every reasonable public interest standard that can be applied to a wind project,” Nekola said. “The County has deliberated long enough on this matter. It deserves to be approved”
by jboullion | Nov 13, 2008 | Uncategorized
From an article by Julie Lawrence at OnMilwaukee.com
While new fuel efficient cars and home solar panels are some of the most powerful ways to reduce our carbon footprint, a $25,000 investment is usually out of the question for most college students who are already battling rapidly increasing education costs.
But what about spending $16? Two University of Wisconsin student entrepreneurs say it can go further than you might think.
Mechanical engineering major Ted Durkee and business partner Brandon Gador, a recent graduate of Madison’s School of Business, launched Powered Green this past October to provide an economical way for anyone to support renewable energy.
Their product, Energy Seal, is a recycled aluminum laptop sticker that funds carbon offsets. At $16, the cost of the sticker covers the production of enough renewable energy to offset what an average laptop uses in its lifetime.
Amazingly, $14 is enough to subsidize the retail cost of the laptop’s lifetime energy consumption, paying for wind turbines that create electricity. The remaining $2 is for the actual seal, visual evidence that promotes the buyer’s support of the eco-friendly endeavor.
“It essentially has the effect of a wind turbine in your backyard without actually having one,” explains Durkee, who partnered Power Green with Village Green Energy, a renewable energy credit distributor based in California.
by jboullion | Nov 12, 2008 | Uncategorized
From a story by Dorothy Jasperson in the Westby Times:
The Westby Wind Energy project is no longer just blowing in the wind after Westby City Council members agreed with a planning commission consensus to offer conditional use permits to Heartland Wind LLC.
The permits are for the implementation of three wind turbines on city-owned and annexed land west of Westby. Heartland Wind LLC is the Illinois limited liability company that will be leasing land from the city of Westby and Glen Stalsberg, who owns property adjacent to the city.
The contract easement will allow Heartland Wind LLC to lease the property for 20 years, conduct soil testing, studies and surveys and make payments of $1,000 per year, per turbine site during construction phase and $6,000 annually per turbine once they are operational.
After the 20-year lease has expired the company may offer two five-year renewals for a possible total 30-year contract. Heartland Wind LLC will be responsible for property taxes as a result of the turbine installation and carry a broad form insurance policy against any liabilities incurred with the project. If the project fails Heartland Wind LLC would be responsible for the removal of all the facilities, including foundations to a depth of 48 inches and all removal would have to occur with six months of the contract cancellation. . . .
The initial project calls for the construction of three wind generated turbines at a cost of $3-4 million dollars per unit, with construction anticipated to begin in 2009 or early 2010. Once operational the wind turbines could produce up to 100 percent of the energy now used by residents in the city of Westby, depending on wind speeds and electricity usage, but that doesn’t equate to a reduction in residential and commercial electric rates since the power generated by the turbines from the test project will be purchased as a whole by WPPI, the power purchaser for the Westby Utilities. The overall savings as more natural energy is generated throughout the state by projects like the one EcoEnergy is developing in Westby will be seen in future savings by all WPPI members, not initial reductions for customers living where the wind turbines are located.
by jboullion | Nov 10, 2008 | Uncategorized
From a story by Rick Olivo in The Daily Press:
Bayfield County could reasonably consider installing a commercial scale wind turbine on one of two possible locations in the county, says a preliminary assessment from a consulting professional engineer.
The report, released to members of the Bayfield County Board Executive Committee Thursday said a large-scale wind turbine would be “reasonably productive” if built on a Mount Ashwabay site or another Bayfield hills site west of the City of Bayfield.
“The county could either develop one of those sites or try to find a site closer to Washburn, where the wind turbine could be directly connected to its largest electric use buildings in Washburn,” said Robert H, Owen Jr., of Superior Safety and Environmental Services of Middleton. Owen said the Mt. Ashwabay site was large enough to accommodate about 12 600-kilowatt turbines, with a few more potentially sited on the upper reaches of the ski slope property. Owen said in the report that the county could consider selling the output from the wind turbines to Xcel Energy, or deliver most of its output to county offices and sell just the surplus energy.
While Owen said much research was needed into the amount of wind available from the Bayfield area sites, he said the amount of energy available to a single 600-kilowatt turbine could add up to 1.23 million kilowatt hours a year. Nevertheless, he was careful to emphasize that his estimates concerning available wind energy were only preliminary and could be seriously overstating or understating the amount of energy actually available. He said an absolute necessity to come up with accurate figures was a wind-speed study that could last a year or more at the sites.
Nevertheless, he said because of predictable future increases in the cost of electrical energy, the amount Bayfield County pays for electricity, currently put at five cents per kilowatt hour, could increase to 50 cents per kilowatt hour by the year 2030.
by jboullion | Nov 7, 2008 | Uncategorized
From an article by Debbie Griffin in the River Falls Journal:
River Falls agreed last year to let Madison-based EcoEnergy install a 197-foot wind-test tower on a hill in the Whitetail Ridge Corporate Park. The company plans to gather wind-speed data through April next year to see if it warrants a permanent 400-foot turbine.
Alex DePillis, an EcoEnergy wind-monitoring engineer, said if the data pans out and the company installs a permanent wind turbine, it would generate enough electricity to power for a year about 350 homes or one of the city’s big industrial businesses.
“The wind-generated electricity would be carried by the city’s lines and used wherever it’s needed at the time,” said DePillis about the potential wind-generated power.
