by jboullion | Jun 11, 2013 | Uncategorized
Collaboration between the City of Milwaukee’s Office of Environmental Sustainability and the Port of Milwaukee to install a Northern Power 100-kilowatt wind turbine with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, We Energies and Focus on Energy reports success.
The
City of Milwaukee’s Office of Environmental Sustainability and the Port
of Milwaukee partnered to install a Northern Power 100-kilowatt (kW) wind turbine
at the Port administration building near the shore of Lake Michigan.
Commissioned in February 2012, the wind turbine provides more than 100%
of the electricity needs of the administration building with its excess
energy sold to We Energies.
In its first 9 months of operation, the project resulted in more than
$5,000 in net revenue for the port after all electric expenses were
paid. The estimated annual savings to the city are $14,000 to $20,000
(at 2011 rates, revenue included). Estimated annual production is
109,000 to 152,000 kilowatt-hours.
The turbine was manufactured in the United States, and many parts,
including the tower, were made in Wisconsin. The $587,000 project
received the bulk of its funding from the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act ($400,000) and $100,000 each from We Energies and the
statewide Focus on Energy program.
[READ MORE]
by RENEW Wisconsin | May 22, 2013 | Uncategorized
Mark Redstein’s new opinion piece in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel makes a strong case for clean energy in the state.
Over the past few years, Wisconsin’s wind industry has faced an unreasonable number of obstacles, more than any other form of energy production, nearly grinding the job- and energy-creating potential of this critical sector to a halt. If Wisconsin is going to move its economy forward, it needs to stop pushing back and open the door to clean, renewable wind energy.
Fortunately, the door has started to creak open.
On April 29, the Brown County Circuit Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin Realtors Association that claimed the state’s wind siting rule, PSC 128, was improperly enacted. The judge disagreed and ruled that the Public Service Commission lawfully enacted a balanced and comprehensive wind siting rule. …
[READ MORE]
by RENEW Wisconsin | May 13, 2013 | Uncategorized
More good news out of Iowa. MidAmerican’s energy project will be the single biggest economic investment in the state’s history, according to the governor.
Article from Des Moines Register is below:
MidAmerican Energy Co.’s $1.9 billion investment in wind energy in Iowa will help hold down customers’ electric bills, make the state more attractive to companies looking for greener energy, and create good jobs, state and utility leaders said Wednesday.
[READ MORE]
by RENEW Wisconsin | Apr 22, 2013 | Uncategorized
A new article by Erik Ness in Midwest Energy News explores some the political issues that are continuing to derail wind development in Wisconsin.
In Wisconsin, politics continue to hold back wind development | Midwest Energy News
More than two years after Wisconsin completed a bipartisan process to establish statewide standards for siting wind turbines, development remains sluggish amid continuing political pushback.
In 2012, a year that saw a nationwide surge in wind farm installations as developers rushed to beat expiring tax credits, Wisconsin added only 18 megawatts of capacity.
By comparison, Michigan and Ohio, with much lower wind potential, had already installed 138 MW and 308 MW in just the first three quarters.
Compared to other Midwestern states, Wisconsin ranks at the bottom in both wind projects under construction and in queue, according to the American Wind Energy Association.
[READ MORE]
by jboullion | Mar 29, 2013 | Uncategorized
This article from Media Matters breaks down the overstated safety risks of wind power (released in a recent Forbes article). This type of misinformation is embarrassing, and we applaud Shauna Theel for this article, breaking down and analyzing the numbers. Find the original posting of this article here.
In a column for Forbes, the head of the Institute for Energy Research exaggerated the safety risks associated with wind power by including suicides, murders, and several other fatalities that have little to do with wind industry safety in order to misleadingly claim that the oil and gas is “one of the safest” industries.
Robert Bradley Jr., the CEO of the fossil fuel
industry-funded Institute for Energy Research,
claimed that wind turbines “present significant safety risks for humans,” adding: “Since the 1970s, 133 fatalities have occurred on turbines — that’s a high figure considering the relatively small size of the wind sector.” That figure comes from an
anti-wind group whose
list includes a wind plant construction worker
shot during a protest against the plant, a wind turbine operator found hanging in an apparent
suicide, a man who committed
suicide after opposition to wind turbines on his land, a man that died while climbing a turbine for a
class, a
snowmobile hitting the fence around a wind farm construction site, and a
“shirtless and shoeless” man electrocuted inside of a windmill.
More credible statistics show that in 2012 there were
12 wind industry deaths worldwide — eight of which were in China where workplace safety standards are lax. In the U.S., the American Wind Energy Association has
allied with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to train workers on fall, electrical, and crane hazards. By comparison,
1,384 people died in coal mine accidents in China last year, and sulfur pollution alone contributes to about
400,000 premature deaths in China annually.
Estimates of the number of deaths per terawatt hour based on data from the World Health Organization and occupational safety statistics have also found that fossil fuels contribute to far more deaths than wind energy:
