by jboullion | Nov 11, 2009 | Uncategorized
Rick Adamski (left) began researching wind turbine options at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in 2005, where he talked with turbine installer Dave Blecker of Seventh Generation, the company that installed Adamski’s turbine.
From an article and interview with Rick Adamski in RENEW Wisconsin’s newsletter:
Though he modestly calls him self a typical dairy farmer, Rick Adamski’s Full Circle Farm in Shawano County belies that description. Adamski runs an all-organic operation with grass-fed cattle, free-ranging chickens, a solar hot water system on the farmhouse, and a 35- kW wind turbine standing tall in the pasture.
Adamski farms the 240 acres across the road from the house where he was born and where his 86-year-old parents still live. Wife Valerie, son Andrew, 18, and daughter Jenna, 13, help out with the work.
He inherited his land use ethic from his parents, who were the model of “conservative use of resources – not a scrap was wasted.” This approach was a matter of survival for them growing up during the Great Depression.
As a student at University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, Adamski became acutely aware of modern agricultures complete dependence on fossil fuels. Though he would eventually earn a degree in soil science and resource management, Adamski began thinking about a more sustainable approach to farming, with an emphasis on natural grazing and renewable resources.
In 1984 Adamski decided to strike out on his own as a farmer. Though he wanted to go organic from the get-go, the process took time. Now he sells everything he produces to Organic Valley Cooperative.
Rick and Valerie hosted a pasture walk this summer, which drew several hundred people. Along the way the crowd stopped at the foot of Adamski’s 110-ft.-tall wind turbine, the newest sustainability feature at Full Circle Farm, where they heard Rick highlight two key factors that made this installation possible: Focus on Energy incentives for small wind systems and We Energies expanded net energy billing program for wind generators under 100 kW.
Q. Is your dairy farm typical of those in your community?
It is typical because it is what used to be representative of this community. This area has a strong history of dairy farms owned and operated by families. Our farm is certified organic since 2003. There are three organic dairy farms in the township.
Q. How does owning a 35 kW wind generation system add value to your farm?
I think it diversifies the source of income for us. At current conditions the cost effectiveness is marginal. However, as climate change, diminishing fossil fuels, competition for these limited fossil fuels, and an ever-growing world population put more upward pressure on these traditional nonrenewable resources, the energy generated by our wind turbine will only increase in value.
by jboullion | Nov 9, 2009 | Uncategorized
From the page of Active Installation Date on the Web site of We Energies:
We Energies Renewable Energy Development Program partners with Fat Spaniel Technologies to show real-time production data from solar photovoltaic, solar hot water and wind renewable energy generation systems in the We Energies service territory.
The Web page has links to the data on renewable energy production at the following installations:
Solar Electric Photovoltaic
Ascension Lutheran Church
Cooper School
Energy Producing Home
GE Healthcare
GE Research Park
HOPE Christian School
Johnson Foundation
Kettle Moraine Lutheran High School
Milwaukee Area Tech College – Oak Creek
Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewer District
MSOE: Fat Spaniel Tech MSOE Monitor
North Shore Presbyterian Church
Our Savior Lutheran Church
Outpost Natural Foods
Racine City Hall Annex
Racine Eco Justice Center
St. Matthew’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
Shoreland Lutheran High School
Shorewood School District
Still Point Zen Center
The Order of Julian Norwich
Town of Menasha
Unitarian Universalist Church West
United Community Center
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
University of Wisconsin – Parkside
Urban Ecology Center
Village of Wind Point
Walden III Middle and Senior High School
Waukesha Area Technical College
Wisconsin State Fair Park
Solar Water Heating
Fort Atkinson High School Solar Thermal
Fort Atkinson Middle School Solar Thermal
Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity SHW 1
Milwaukee Habitat for Humanity SHW 2
We Energies HQ: Fat Spaniel Tech Wired Solar
Solar Electric Photovoltaic and Wind
Discovery World
Lakeshore Technical College
Milwaukee Area Tech College – Mequon
by jboullion | Oct 29, 2009 | Uncategorized
The Public Service Commission will take public testimony on We Energies’ proposed Glacier Hills Wind Park.
Wednesday, November 4
3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Randolph Town Hall
109 S. Madison St. – Friesland
Those opposed to wind projects will likely make arguments like the one below from letter-to-the-editor of the Manitowoc Times Herald. The writere offered this outrageous explanation for why the Legislature passed and the govenor signed the bill on wind siting reform:
Blinded by a feel-good solution for a problem that never existed [global warming], legislators are being misled into a belief that something like wind turbines will not have a negative effect on those who are left to live around
them . . .
To understand the problem you needed to be at the hearing in Mandison on May 12, held by the Senate and Assembly Energy Committee. . . .
It was obvious that the pro-wind lobby, paid with your tax money from RENEW Wisconsin, had the minds of legislators on their side long before the hearing.
Read more wild assertions from the letter.
by jboullion | Oct 29, 2009 | Uncategorized
The Public Service Commission will take public testimony on We Energies’ proposed Glacier Hills Wind Park.
Wednesday, November 4
3 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Randolph Town Hall
109 S. Madison St. – Friesland
Those opposed to wind projects will likely make arguments like the one below from letter-to-the-editor of the Manitowoc Times Herald. The writere offered this outrageous explanation for why the Legislature passed and the govenor signed the bill on wind siting reform:
Blinded by a feel-good solution for a problem that never existed [global warming], legislators are being misled into a belief that something like wind turbines will not have a negative effect on those who are left to live around them . . .
To understand the problem you needed to be at the hearing in Mandison on May 12, held by the Senate and Assembly Energy Committee. . . .
It was obvious that the pro-wind lobby, paid with your tax money from RENEW Wisconsin, had the minds of legislators on their side long before the hearing.
Read more wild assertions from the letter.
by jboullion | Oct 26, 2009 | Uncategorized
Even though the quotes below from pre-filed statements take the form of rebuttal testimony in the PSC proceedings on We Energies’ Glacier Hills Wind Park, they can stand on their own. You need not read the filings they rebut in order to make sense out of what they’re saying.
The pre-filed testimony stands among the strongest redupiation of anti-wind arguments.
These filings will be formally entered into the record when the technical hearings begin on November 2nd, but they (and all other filings) are available online at the Web site of the Public Service Commission and link directlyi to case 6630-CE-302.
Richard Larkin, a state certified real estate appraiser, rebuts a “study” of property values paid for by the Coaliton for Wisconsin Environmental Stewardship (CWESt), a group opposing the Glacier Hills project:
I am responding to testimony submitted by Kurt Kielisch on behalf of CWESt, in 1 which he claims that paired sales analyses at the Blue Sky Green Field and Forward wind projects shows that proximity to wind turbines results in a significant negative impact on residential real estate values. There are significant (and probably fatal) problems with his analysis, which I will explain in my testimony. . . .
. . .it is my opinion that Appraisal One’s Wind Turbine Impact Study is significantly flawed, and in my opinion, likely meaningless.
Read all of Larkin’s testimony here.
William Roberts, PhD in Epidemiology, former faculty member with the Medical College of Wisconsin (Dept. of Preventative Medicine), former Oklahoma State Epidemiologist dissects Dr. Nina Pierpont’s “research” and rebuts CWESt’s acoustical consultant. He summarized his testimony as follows:
+ “Wind Turbine Syndrome” is not a medical diagnosis supported by peer reviewed, published, scientific literature;
+ The materials presented to support “Wind Turbine Syndrome” are not of sufficient scientific quality nor have they received the rigorous scientific review and vetting that is customarily part of the peer review and publishing process;
+ The tried and true scientific method of developing a hypothesis, testing that hypothesis, publishing the results and having others attempt to repeat the research has not been done to test the existence of a health condition called “Wind Turbine Syndrome;”
+ An accumulation of anecdotal interviews with self-selected persons living near a wind turbine does not constitute an epidemiological study and is not sufficient to determine causation;
+ The bases for claimed adverse health effects due to wind turbines cited by Mr. James either cannot withstand scientific scrutiny or have nothing to do with wind turbines; and
+ Siting a wind turbine within view of a residence and the operation of that turbine could be a source of annoyance to those living in the residence.
Read all of Roberts’ testimony here.
Geoff Leventhall, acoustical consultant, PhD in acoustics, presented testimony to rebut CWESt’s acoustical consultant.
Based on my experience of infrasound and low frequency noise, it is my belief that the infrasound from wind turbines is of no consequence. Attempts to claim that illnesses result from inaudible wind turbine noise do not stand up to simple analyses of the very low forces and pressures produced by the sound from wind turbines. Additionally, the body is full of sound and vibration at infrasonic and low frequencies, originating in natural body processes. As an example, the beating heart is an obvious source of infrasound within the body. Other sources of background low frequency noise and vibration are blood flows, muscle vibrations, breathing, fluids in the gut and so on. The result is that any effect from wind turbine noise, or any other low level of noise, which might be produced within the body is “lost” in the existing background noise and vibration. This is considered in more detail in my Appraisal of Wind Turbine Syndrome, which is submitted as Exhibit 18.
More broadly, my testimony establishes that the claims of health effects from the low levels of infrasound and low frequency noise from wind turbines, as described in the Wind Turbine Syndrome and Vibroacoustic Disease hypotheses, fail. However, higher frequency noise from wind turbines, if it is audible, can cause disturbance to some residents, but this effect is no different from that of noise from another source.
Read all of Leventhall’s testimony here.
Rick Adamski (left) began researching wind turbine options at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in 2005, where he talked with turbine installer Dave Blecker of Seventh Generation, the company that installed Adamski’s turbine.