by jboullion | Mar 8, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Peter J. Devlin in the Door County Advocate:
The owner of a town of Egg Harbor business hopes to generate the majority of its electricity needs from the wind.
Saundra Phlubna owns and operates the Feathered Star Bed and Breakfast on Wisconsin 42, north of Carlsville, where a 110-foot-tall tower and wind turbine were erected last week.
“I’m hoping to get as close as possible to meeting all my electrical needs with the wind generator,” she said.
The turbine is not yet connected to her business. It needs to have adjustments made while the turbine is turning in moderate wind, Phlubna said. There hasn’t been enough wind this week for the contractor to complete the project. Last week was too windy for the final adjusting, she said.
The turbine has been in the works for two years. A permit for the device was issued in December 2008 by Egg Harbor Town Chairman Paul Peterson. Other permits, including a Door County Wind Energy sighting permit, were approved before construction of the tower began last month.
A portion of the cost of the new structure and the generator came from grants, Phlubna said. The first two grants she sought were turned down. In reapplying, Wisconsin’s Focus On Energy program and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development grant program provided some of the funds needed.
Seventh Generation Energy Services, Madison, installed the 35 kilowatt V-15 turbine.
by jboullion | Mar 8, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Peter J. Devlin in the Door County Advocate:
The owner of a town of Egg Harbor business hopes to generate the majority of its electricity needs from the wind.
Saundra Phlubna owns and operates the Feathered Star Bed and Breakfast on Wisconsin 42, north of Carlsville, where a 110-foot-tall tower and wind turbine were erected last week.
“I’m hoping to get as close as possible to meeting all my electrical needs with the wind generator,” she said.
The turbine is not yet connected to her business. It needs to have adjustments made while the turbine is turning in moderate wind, Phlubna said. There hasn’t been enough wind this week for the contractor to complete the project. Last week was too windy for the final adjusting, she said.
The turbine has been in the works for two years. A permit for the device was issued in December 2008 by Egg Harbor Town Chairman Paul Peterson. Other permits, including a Door County Wind Energy sighting permit, were approved before construction of the tower began last month.
A portion of the cost of the new structure and the generator came from grants, Phlubna said. The first two grants she sought were turned down. In reapplying, Wisconsin’s Focus On Energy program and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development grant program provided some of the funds needed.
Seventh Generation Energy Services, Madison, installed the 35 kilowatt V-15 turbine.
by jboullion | Mar 3, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Nathaniel Shuda in the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune:
A Canadian energy producer’s latest effort to build a wind farm on the Great Lakes is one of several projects industry officials say is spurring interest in the concept.
The Great Lakes basin serves as a prime location for offshore power facilities because of high wind volumes and space, industry leaders said, which has some south Wood County business leaders poised to take advantage of what they call an invaluable resource.
“It costs a lot more to construct a tower in the water than it does on land, but when you put wind turbines on land, they’re set away from cities, so you need transmission lines,” said Jenny Heinzen, a wind-energy technology instructor at Lakeland Technical College. “What you’re spending in construction is far less than what you’d spend in transmission costs.”
Toronto-based Trillium Power Wind Corp. is gearing up for its planned 710-megawatt offshore wind facility in the middle of Lake Ontario that would power at least 300,000 homes a year in the Canadian province, according to a news release the company issued Thursday.
Its project, which also has connections to Denmark-based wind-energy component producer Vestas Wind Systems, is just one of many recent events the top executive of a Wisconsin Rapids-based manufacturer says further support the company’s plans to build what officials now say is a 535,000-square-foot $70 million wind turbine blade plant in the Rapids East Commerce Center.
“The market has validated our conversation,” said Sam Fairchild, chief executive officer of Energy Composites, which launched a Great Lakes Consortium in August to help promote the Great Lakes region within the wind-energy industry.
by jboullion | Feb 26, 2010 | Uncategorized
From the written decision of the Public Service Commission on We Energies’ Glacier Hills Wind Park:
WEPCO’s [We Energies’] wind-powered electric generating facility is a renewable resource that offers significant benefits to the state of Wisconsin. The air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions it avoids, the lack of solid waste, and the fact that it consumes virtually no water are important environmental benefits. This project will support the state’s goal of increasing its reliance upon renewable resources and will help diversify Wisconsin’s pool of electric generating facilities. It fits well with existing land uses, will help preserve the agricultural nature of the project area, will impose no reliability, safety, or engineering problems upon the electric system, and will create no undue adverse impacts on environmental values. After weighing all the elements of WEPCO’s project, including the conditions imposed by this Final Decision, the Commission finds that issuing a CPCN will promote the public health and welfare and is in the public interest. The Commission also finds that, while members of the public are concerned about possible health effects associated with the project, there is not sufficient evidence in the record to conclude that the project would cause adverse health effects. (Page 45 of the Order, Docket 6630-CE-302.)
by jboullion | Feb 26, 2010 | Uncategorized
From the announcement of a new map of winds published by the U.S. Department of Energy:
The Department of Energy’s Wind Program and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) published a new wind resource map for the state of Wisconsin. The new wind resource map shows the predicted mean annual wind speeds at 80-m height. Presented at a spatial resolution of 2.5 km (interpolated to a finer scale for display). Areas with annual average wind speeds around 6.5 m/s and greater at 80-m height are generally considered to have suitable wind resource for wind development.
Additionally, a national dataset was produced of estimated gross capacity factor (not adjusted for losses) at a spatial resolution of 200 m and heights of 80 m and 100 m. Using AWS Truewind’s gross capacity factor data, NREL estimated the windy land area and wind energy potential in various capacity factor ranges for each state. The table (Excel 75 KW) lists the estimates of windy land area with a gross capacity of 30% and greater at 80-m height and the wind energy potential from development of the “available” windy land area after exclusions.
Though difficult to see on the small image above, an area around in St. Coix County stands out for wind speeds higher than much of the rest of Wisconsin.
