by jboullion | May 25, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a blog post by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Xcel Energy Corp. is rethinking its plans to build the largest biomass power plant in the Midwest after the projected cost rose by one-third.
The power company, which has a Wisconsin utility based in Eau Claire, was planning to build a biomass gasifier that would replace an existing coal-fired power plant on the shore of Lake Superior in Ashland.
The company initially pegged the project at $58.1 million, but after more work it was determined that it would cost $79.5 million – an increase of nearly 37%.
The company will assess whether to use a different technology to burn wood at the power plant, said Don Reck, Xcel director of regulatory and government affairs.
Costs rose during a more detailed engineering review that concluded more work would be needed to retrofit the coal boiler to gasify biomass than the company and its consultants first concluded.
“We’re looking at all the options that we had included in the application, as well as at least one or two new ones that have surfaced since the application was filed,” Reck said.
The Wisconsin Paper Council and Citizens’ Utility Board expressed concern about the escalating price tag.
“This project was sort of a mixed bag for us,” said Charlie Higley, executive director of the Wisconsin Citizens’ Utility Board. “We want to see alternative projects developed using alternative fuels, but this project definitely raised some concerns regarding costs and feasibility.”
Xcel’s analysis follows a recent meeting of the Public Service Commission at which commissioners expressed concern about the cost of the project and said that in light of the rising price the agency would likely need to take a second look at whether to allow the development to proceed.
The PSC had attached a condition requiring the utility to come back if the cost of the project went above a commission cap of $63.9 million, or 10% higher than the utility’s projection.
by jboullion | May 24, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by RENEW Wisconsin:
MORE INFORMATION
Ry Thompson
Seventh Generation Energy Systems
608.467.0123
thompson@seventhgenergy.org
Alicia Leinberger
Seventh Generation Energy Systems
608-333-5375
alicia@seventhgenergy.org
Canadian company’s first U.S. turbine spins plenty of power for cranberry farm
Dentist Frederick Prehn, owner of Prehn Cranberry Marsh near Tomah, wanted the power that the cranberry farm paid for without having to pay the utility.
“The second order of business, I wanted a turbine that has a history of working in low wind speed,” said Prehn.
A 35-kilowatt (kW) Canadian turbine, perched on a 140-foot-tall tower, accomplishes both. The first of its model line ever manufactured by Endurance Wind Power, Prehn’s wind generator underwent five months of testing at the company’s Quebec manufacturing facility.
“Wind speeds are all relative,” Prehn said. “The wind speed in the cranberry bog isn’t as good as the Great Lakes, but I’m amazed. I’ve gone through all the data I can gather, and the turbine is producing pretty well.”
“The Endurance fits Wisconsin’s climate conditions,” according to Ry Thompson, a project manager with Seventh Generation Energy, Madison, which installed the turbine.
“We’ve been eager to install one of these,” Thompson said. “It’s a very well-designed, durable machine and the 30-foot long blades make it suitable to lower wind speed environments, as are common in Wisconsin,” Thompson said.
“This should be a very popular turbine among farmers, schools, small municipalities, and manufacturing facilities,” he added.
by jboullion | May 24, 2010 | Uncategorized
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 24, 2010
MORE INFORMATION
Ry Thompson
Seventh Generation Energy Systems
608.467.0123
thompson@seventhgenergy.org
Alicia Leinberger
Seventh Generation Energy Systems
608-333-5375
alicia@seventhgenergy.org
Canadian company’s first U.S. turbine spins plenty of power for cranberry farm
Dentist Frederick Prehn, owner of Prehn Cranberry Marsh near Tomah, wanted the power that the cranberry farm paid for without having to pay the utility.
“The second order of business, I wanted a turbine that has a history of working in low wind speed,” said Prehn.
A 35-kilowatt (kW) Canadian turbine, perched on a 140-foot-tall tower, accomplishes both. The first of its model line ever manufactured by Endurance Wind Power, Prehn’s wind generator underwent five months of testing at the company’s Quebec manufacturing facility.
“Wind speeds are all relative,” Prehn said. “The wind speed in the cranberry bog isn’t as good as the Great Lakes, but I’m amazed. I’ve gone through all the data I can gather, and the turbine is producing pretty well.”
“The Endurance fits Wisconsin’s climate conditions,” according to Ry Thompson, a project manager with Seventh Generation Energy, Madison, which installed the turbine.
“We’ve been eager to install one of these,” Thompson said. “It’s a very well-designed, durable machine and the 30-foot long blades make it suitable to lower wind speed environments, as are common in Wisconsin,” Thompson said.
“This should be a very popular turbine among farmers, schools, small municipalities, and manufacturing facilities,” he added.
The generator begins to produce electricity when the wind blows just under 8 miles per hour (mph). With an estimated average wind speed of 12.5 mph at his location, Prehn expects to harvest as much as 85,000 kilowatt hours of electricity – more than 150 percent of the amount he needs. The turbine powers a shop, three homes, and two wells. The excess energy is sold to the Oakdale Electric Cooperative, the farm’s local utility.
In addition, Seventh Generation installed a 5 kW solar electric system at the farm. “Some days the turbine produces goose eggs, and the solar system continues to crank out the electricity, and there’s no maintenance,” Prehn said.
“This is a shining example of home-grown energy,” stated Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a nonprofit advocate for all types of renewable energy.
“Installations like these help reduce Wisconsin’s dependence on coal from Wyoming which is transported here using oil from the Gulf of Mexico,” Vickerman said.
Prehn apparently agrees. He already has a contract with Seventh Generation to install a second Endurance turbine that will be slightly larger than the first.
END
RENEW Wisconsin (http://www.renewwisconsin.org/) is an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that acts as a catalyst to advance a sustainable energy future through public policy and private sector initiatives.
by jboullion | May 24, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an editorial in the Wausau Daily Herald:
The group of citizens who are working to stop a proposed biomass plant near the Domtar paper mill in Rothschild have been working to cast doubt on virtually all of the claims made about the project — environmental claims, economic claims and so on.
Of their concerns, the questions around the plant’s environmental impact are the most serious, because the air emissions have the potential to do the most harm.
Domtar and We Energies have answered them in some detail, and we have no reason to doubt their analysis of the plant’s impact. Still, there’s no getting around the fact that those companies have an economic incentive to spin the facts in a way that is most beneficial to their project.
That’s why we all would benefit from an environmental impact statement on the project by the state and federal governments. It would provide a solid and independent expert analysis of the project.
The regulations governing these projects are arcane, but the essence of the argument is easy to understand: The state Public Service Commission, sometimes in conjunction with the Department of Natural Resources and federal agencies, has the capacity to prepare an independent assessment of the real environmental effects of the proposed project. This includes the impact of emissions, noise and other factors.
By statute, that analysis is automatically triggered for any power plant generating 100 megawatts or more. The proposed biomass plant will generate 50 megawatts, so an environmental impact statement is not required.
That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be completed. Fifty megawatts of electricity still is a major power plant. An environmental impact statement would add an important expert perspective to the local discussion about the plant. This is a big project, and a relatively new technology. It bears scrutiny.
by jboullion | May 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by in the Racine Journal Times:
RACINE – Workers spent Wednesday installing new solar panels at the Racine Montessori School, the latest move by the school to go green.
The school’s solar panel project has been in the works for about two years and is finally being completed this week with the installation of 84 panels on the roof of the school’s gymnasium, said Rita Lewis, administrator at the Racine Montessori School, 2317 Howe St.
The panels are being installed by Madison-based H&H Solar Energy Services. When installation is complete, the panels should generate about 40 percent of the energy the school needs. To show students when the panels are working, ceiling fans directly tied to the panels will be installed in the school’s hallways. The fans’ blades will rotate on sunny days when the panels are absorbing sunlight to convert to energy, Lewis said.
To mark the panels’ installation, the school’s elementary students had a “Solar Celebration” Wednesday where they spent time outside singing sun-themed songs like “You Are My Sunshine” and cooking s’mores in homemade aluminum foil solar ovens, Lewis said.
The solar panels and installation, which cost about $134,000 altogether, were paid for through two large grants from We Energies and two large donations from local families. Clifton and Gladys Peterson and Charles and Kathryn Heide each donated about $22,000 for the project. Gladys Peterson formerly taught at the school and the Heide family had grandchildren attend, Lewis said.
“They are the two families who really made it happen for us,” she said.
The solar panels are the latest green effort under way at the school, which this week was awarded a school Green Award from the Sierra Club of southeastern Wisconsin, according to Lewis.
by jboullion | May 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Judy Newman in the Wisconsin State Journal:
Alliant Energy is giving up on the idea of building more coal-fired power plants “for the time being,” Alliant chairman, president and chief executive Bill Harvey said Thursday.
In an interview after the Madison utility holding company’s annual shareholders meeting, Harvey said Alliant subsidiary Wisconsin Power & Light will not ask for a new coal-fueled power plant to replace one proposed for Cassville that state regulators rejected in late 2008.
“I think it’s politically … too risky to think about building coal plants until climate legislation gets in place,” Harvey said. “There’s got to be substantial technological improvements before the country returns to building coal plants. That’s certainly true for us,” he said.
Thanks to adequate power available to buy on the electric transmission grid, Harvey said it will likely be two or three years before Alliant proposes building another natural-gas-fired power plant. That could happen sooner, though, if the economy recovers quickly or if climate change rules force the company to abandon its older coal-fired power plants sooner than expected.
As for nuclear power, Harvey said Alliant is not big enough to consider spending up to $10 billion to build a nuclear plant but it might buy part of a new one, if one is built. “We have to consider that. We have to consider all possibilities,” he said.
by jboullion | May 21, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Jake Miller in the Marshfield News-Herald:
Four dollars a gallon was enough inspiration for Steven Uthmeier to ditch the car.
Several years later, and in the midst of national Bike-to-Work week, the 56-year-old still bikes to work almost daily, huffing it into Marshfield on an old Schwinn that’s made for a commute, not for looks.
Uthmeier cruises in from Hewitt, making a round trip of about 11 miles each day to and from home and his desk at Ministry Saint Joseph’s Hospital.
Inhumane gasoline prices sparked his interest, but how Uthmeier feels after a ride has kept him going. He’s refreshed and refocused.
“After I got into it, I felt better,” Uthmeier said. “Then I was actually doing it for the exercise also, and I found on the way home after I finished a day of work it was very decompressing and relaxing.”
Biking to work is by no means the primary mode of transportation and it isn’t without inherent risks. There’s the off-chance you’ll be hit by a car, or you may get a flat at the most inopportune time.
Marshfield has continued to develop its network of bike trails, which for people like Uthmeier, has made the ride nearly as safe as it’s going to get. He’s only riding in traffic for about a mile before he reaches the path along Veterans Parkway.
“You do have cars going 45 (mph),” Uthmeier said, “but as soon as you get to the boulevard it’s just beautiful.”
He typically bikes to work from April to October, unless a heavy rain or snow storm hits.
by jboullion | May 20, 2010 | Uncategorized
From an article by Larry Bivins in the Stevens Point Journal:
WASHINGTON — Wisconsin is the nation’s fifth most coal-dependent state for generating electricity, according to a report released this week.
Because the state has no coal supplies of its own, it spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year to import the fuel for power generation. Coal imports accounted for 68 percent of all power used in the state in 2008, research by the Union of Concerned Scientists found.
Wisconsin spent $853 million in 2008, or $152 per person, to import 25 million tons of coal from nine states, according to the report released Tuesday.
The state ranked 12th in the amount spent and in the amount of coal imported. Wyoming, which provided 40 percent of all U.S. coal in 2008, received $702 million of Wisconsin’s money.
Coal-fired plants are the nation’s biggest source of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas that leading scientists say is causing global warming. Carbon dioxide emissions pose a danger to public health as well as the environment.
The Union of Concerned Scientists report, “Burning Coal, Burning Cash: Ranking the States that Import the Most Coal,” covers 38 states that are net importers of domestic and foreign coal. Those states spent $27.7 billion on domestic and foreign coal imports in 2008, the latest year for which figures were available from the U.S. Energy Department.
Wyoming, West Virginia and Kentucky produce most of the domestic coal burned in U.S. plants.
The report’s authors conclude that all states would be better served if the money spent on coal were diverted to the development of renewable energy and energy-efficiency programs.
by jboullion | May 20, 2010 | Uncategorized
Disregarding the pleas from RENEW and others for a veto, Doyle signed Senate Bill 273, as reported by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
Gov. Jim Doyle on Wednesday signed into law a bill that wind power developers and environmental groups had asked him to veto.
The bill, known as the Renewable Resource Credits bill, would allow energy generation produced from waste such as garbage to be classified as renewable and qualify that electricity for the state’s renewable power mandate.
The bill was drafted to grant renewable status to the Apollo light pipe, a a small glass skylight dome that, when mounted in a roof, reflects daylight inside to help cut energy use. The light pipe is a technology developed by Orion Energy Systems Inc. of Manitowoc, a maker of high-efficiency lighting systems.
Environmental and renewable energy groups had called on Doyle to veto the bill after it was amended to allow garbage-to-energy projects to be classified as renewable as well.
Doyle said he was torn on whether to sign the bill but said that, ultimately, Orion is the kind of business the state wants to see grow and succeed.
“I certainly didn’t want to be in the position I was in. To me the (state) Senate’s refusal to go ahead with the Clean Energy Jobs Act put everybody in a very difficult spot on this bill,” he said.
Doyle conceded that there would be some effect on the wind industry from the new law but said it would be so slight as to be negligible.
A waste-to-energy process known as plasma gasification is being envisioned by Alliance Federated Energy, which announced a plan in February to build a waste-to-energy plant in Milwaukee that would create up to 250 construction jobs and 50 permanent jobs.
by jboullion | May 19, 2010 | Uncategorized
From a story by Brittany Earl on WSAW-TV, Wausau:
There are ways you can cut your electricity costs.
Wisconsin Public Service offers a variety of programs to help you save money.
For example the Time Of Use Program, helps people who use their electricity between 10PM and 7AM which are off peak hours. But you should always call in and speak to a representative first to make sure your lifestyle fits the program.
Kelly Zagrzebski of Wisconsin Public Service says, “You want to make sure your flexible, that you can do your laundry if you have an electric hot water heater during the off peak hours or if you have a electric heater.”
If you stick to the off peak hours time frame, you could save between 5 and 20 percent, possibly even 50 percent if you’re strict.
