by jboullion | Jul 1, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an announcement on Next Step Wisconsin:
It’s time to see megawatts of wind up close and personal. In fact, you’ll have a hard time missing this awe-inspiring string of 20 towers slowly spinning a total of 30 megawatts of green power 330 feet over your head.
Carol Anderson has welcomed our Next Step group and friends for a tour of the 3 wind turbines she has on her property near Montfort on July 25th. . . . Carol will give us a lot of facts about the windmills on her property and wind energy in general. . . .
Food following? We will be brown bagging it at a local park. I’ll bring along ice water and drinking cups and emergency snacks for the not-so-prepared.
Contact Carol Gruba to confirm your tour spot-please email info@fullspectrumsolar.com
by jboullion | Jul 1, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Joe Potente in the Kenosha News:
The vetoes Gov. Jim Doyle issued and the state budget he signed into law Monday produced a mixed bag for backers of the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee commuter rail proposal.
While the adopted budget retains an $18 fee on rental car transactions to fund KRM, it strips provisions allowing for a Milwaukee regional transit authority and dedicated funding for the Kenosha and Racine bus lines.
KRM supporters say the latter initiatives are necessary to secure federal funding for KRM. That, they say, leaves the Legislature to return to the drawing board to devise an acceptable funding source for regional transit.
“It definitely has an impact, because the federal government made it very clear that to have a successful new-starts application, the region would have to address both reliable funding for KRM and show that there is reliable dedicated funding for the existing bus systems in Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha,” said Karl Mueller, a spokesman for the existing Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Transit Authority.
The Milwaukee authority provision that Doyle vetoed would have allowed Milwaukee County to levy up to a 0.65 percent sales tax to fund the area’s bus system and other county expenses.
by jboullion | Jun 30, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a brief guide published by Focus on Energy:
Cities and towns across Wisconsin are seeking ways to address concerns about global climate change while improving the environment and their local quality of life.
Environmentally-friendly or “green” options for communities have long included programs to encourage recycling and the purchase of recycled products, improving public transportation and developing new zoning ordinances that reduce urban sprawl.
Recently, many communities have begun to seek strategies for achieving carbon reduction goals as a way of becoming greener. Because fossil energy use is the primary source of carbon emissions, communities are turning to energy efficiency and
renewable energy to make their energy production and use more sustainable.
The guide answers the following questions:
WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE ENERGY?
HOW DOES SUSTAINABLE ENERGY PLANNING FIT
INTO OTHER GREEN COMMUNITY GOALS?
HOW DO COMMUNITIES GET STARTED?
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY OPPORTUNITIES AND RESOURCES
by jboullion | Jun 30, 2009 | Uncategorized
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From a news release issued by Madison Gas and Electric:
MADISON, Wis. – (Business Wire) Wisconsin’s first large-scale wind farm began producing clean, renewable electric power 10 years ago today in Kewaunee County. The 17-turbine, 11.22-megawatt facility built and owned by Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) is located near Rosiere. Since 1999, the facility has produced over 215,000 megawatt-hours of electricity, enough power to supply 3,000 homes annually.
The facility was built in direct response to MGE customers who wanted to purchase green energy for their homes and businesses. The wind farm’s generating capacity available for green energy sales was sold out in less than four months. Over the last 10 years, MGE has increased its wind energy portfolio by 12 times as strong customer support for renewable energy continues. MGE customers have one of the highest participation rates nationally in green energy programming offered by investor-owned utilities.
“We are grateful to the landowners and communities that support this project,” said Lynn Hobbie, MGE senior vice president. “We also thank the customers who have made our green pricing program so successful.”
“In 10 years, wind generation has completed the transition from boutique energy to a bulk power,” said Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin. “Early commitments to wind power from utilities like MGE helped make that happen and were instrumental to that industry’s subsequent growth and maturation.”
At the time, MGE’s Rosiere facility was the largest wind farm in the Eastern United States. Today the wind farm is one of nine commercial facilities in Wisconsin. Wind-generating capacity in Wisconsin totals nearly 450 megawatts.
by jboullion | Jun 30, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a brief guide published by Focus on Energy:
Cities and towns across Wisconsin are seeking ways to address concerns about global climate change while improving the environment and their local quality of life.
Environmentally-friendly or “green” options for communities have long included programs to encourage recycling and the purchase of recycled products, improving public transportation and developing new zoning ordinances that reduce urban sprawl.
Recently, many communities have begun to seek strategies for achieving carbon reduction goals as a way of becoming greener. Because fossil energy use is the primary source of carbon emissions, communities are turning to energy efficiency and
renewable energy to make their energy production and use more sustainable.
The guide answers the following questions:
WHAT IS SUSTAINABLE ENERGY?
HOW DOES SUSTAINABLE ENERGY PLANNING FIT
INTO OTHER GREEN COMMUNITY GOALS?
HOW DO COMMUNITIES GET STARTED?
SUSTAINABLE ENERGY OPPORTUNITIES AND RESOURCES
by jboullion | Jun 30, 2009 | Uncategorized
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From a news release issued by Madison Gas and Electric:
MADISON, Wis. – (Business Wire) Wisconsin’s first large-scale wind farm began producing clean, renewable electric power 10 years ago today in Kewaunee County. The 17-turbine, 11.22-megawatt facility built and owned by Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) is located near Rosiere. Since 1999, the facility has produced over 215,000 megawatt-hours of electricity, enough power to supply 3,000 homes annually.
The facility was built in direct response to MGE customers who wanted to purchase green energy for their homes and businesses. The wind farm’s generating capacity available for green energy sales was sold out in less than four months. Over the last 10 years, MGE has increased its wind energy portfolio by 12 times as strong customer support for renewable energy continues. MGE customers have one of the highest participation rates nationally in green energy programming offered by investor-owned utilities.
“We are grateful to the landowners and communities that support this project,” said Lynn Hobbie, MGE senior vice president. “We also thank the customers who have made our green pricing program so successful.”
“In 10 years, wind generation has completed the transition from boutique energy to a bulk power,” said Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin. “Early commitments to wind power from utilities like MGE helped make that happen and were instrumental to that industry’s subsequent growth and maturation.”
At the time, MGE’s Rosiere facility was the largest wind farm in the Eastern United States. Today the wind farm is one of nine commercial facilities in Wisconsin. Wind-generating capacity in Wisconsin totals nearly 450 megawatts.
by jboullion | Jun 29, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a news release issued by Focus on Energy:
As temperatures creep higher, so do energy bills.
Fortunately, Focus on Energy, Wisconsin’s energy efficiency and renewable energy initiative, has a number of simple tips to get your home ready for summer — saving you energy and money. The following are Focus on Energy’s top five tips for keeping your cool this summer:
1. Install a Programmable Thermostat. These help save money and keep homes
comfortable by automatically adjusting temperature settings while the homeowner is asleep or away. A tip for getting savings is to set it five degrees higher in the summer when the house is unoccupied for eight hours or more. Homeowners can save about $100 a year by properly setting their programmable thermostats and maintaining those settings.
2. Replace an Outdated Cooling System. When replacing an air conditioner it’s important to look for the ENERGY STAR®, as these units can use up to 14 percent less energy than standard models. Also, consider a timer for window units. Set the timer for a half hour before you return home so it’s not running when no one is there.
3. Install a Ceiling Fan. Used in combination with your air conditioner, ceiling fans allow you to raise your thermostat setting by as much as four degrees without reducing your comfort. However, be sure to turn the fan off when you’re not in the room to save energy — ceiling fans cool people, not rooms.
4. Replace standard bulbs with CFLs. Turning off lights when you are not using them helps to keep a room cool, but another tip is to replace standard light bulbs with ENERGY STAR qualified bulbs — they produce about 75 percent less heat, which helps cut energy costs associated with home cooling. Additionally, replacing your five most used light bulbs with ENERGY STAR qualified bulbs can save at least $35 a year.
5. Install Window Treatments. Shut out the hot summer sun by closing windows and pulling shades or curtains on south- and west-facing windows. This helps to reduce the amount of solar heat coming through the windows.
by jboullion | Jun 29, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an introduction to a guide just released by the Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS) and Green for All:
Green For All and COWS have just released A Short Guide to Setting Up a City-Scale Retrofit Program. This guide provides a model for designing and implementing energy efficiency retrofitting programs on a citywide scale, with a goal of making these retrofits available to more households and providing good, entry-level jobs with career pathways that are accessible to low-income communities and communities of color.
Energy efficiency retrofits of our homes, schools, and workplaces are the first steps to building an inclusive clean energy economy by addressing climate change, putting people in careers, and reducing working families’ energy bills. Despite their overwhelming economic and environmental benefits, current retrofitting programs have limited capacity and limited scope. Many are available only to income-eligible individuals, or to those with the money up-front to do the work. Furthermore, many current retrofitting programs only create low-wage, short-term jobs, rather than providing pathways into sustainable careers in construction and green building.
Clearly, a new model is needed. This guide is a tool for local organizations, business leaders, entrepreneurs, elected officials, and others in cities across the country to use to promote energy efficiency in their communities. It outlines all of the important aspects of such a program, including policies, labor standards, community coalitions, and long-term funding options.
by jboullion | Jun 29, 2009 | Uncategorized
From the Iowa Renewable Energy Association (I-RENEW):
I-Renew’s Energy and Sustainability Expo 2009 will be a celebration of the change that persistence can bring. We’ve got a lot to celebrate. We’ll start by emphasizing the continued growth of green jobs in Iowa and finish by presenting a full spectrum of alternative energy and sustainability options.
Kate Gordon, Vice President of the Center for American Progress, is one of two keynote speakers. Ms. Gordon was, until June of this year, Co-Director of the National Apollo Alliance. The Apollo Alliance is a coalition of labor, business, environmental and community leaders working to catalyze a clean energy revolution that will put millions of Americans to work in a new generation of high-quality, green-collar jobs. Kate is nationally recognized for her work on the intersection of clean energy and economic development policy, and especially for helping to shape the modern definition of “green-collar jobs” as “well-paid, career track jobs that contribute directly to reserving or enhancing the environment.” She has a long history of working for economic justice and labor issues. She serves on several boards, including the Midwest Agriculture Energy Network and the National Green Industries Policy Retreat.
by jboullion | Jun 29, 2009 | Uncategorized
Now in its fifth year, the Wisconsin Solar Decade Conference is your opportunity to see firsthand the latest developments in the world of solar energy. Register today to hear from top industry experts and attend dozens of exhibits, workshops and panel discussions as you discover the state of the technology, the state of the market and where both will be tomorrow!
•Learn about the latest solar energy applications for your home and business
•Discover opportunities to tap the renewable energy market and expand your business
•Network with fellow builders, contractors, homeowners and business owners
