|
| Photo by Pamela Powers of the Eau Claire Leader Telegram |
The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram featured an excellent editorial on Xcel Energy’s proposal to increase mandatory monthly customer charges, claiming that the proposal harms “frugality” by giving customers less control over their monthly bill, and also quotes RENEW’s Michael Vickerman.
See the full article here.
 |
| Vernon Electric Cooperative Community Solar |
Madison Gas & Electric filed an application this week to launch a pilot program, which, if approved, would result in the construction of a 500-kilowatt array atop the
Middleton Municipal Operations Center under construction. Under the
proposal, MG&E will market the output from this array in 250 watt
increments to residential customers, up to a maximum of 3 kW per
household. Participating customers would pay a one-time up-front payment
to MG&E and then receive, at a partially fixed price over a 25-year
period, output up to one-half of their annual electric usage. Under
current rates, the price of electricity received through the Community
Solar array would be close to the levels that Green Power Tomorrow
customers pay for their renewable electricity.
As was done with other utility community solar initiatives,
RENEW plans to submit comments on
 |
| Eau Claire Electric Cooperative Community Solar Array |
this pilot program to the Public Service Commission. The agency’s decision should occur before the end of October—check back with us to find out if the PSC approved MGE’s Community Solar tariff. For more information on this proposal, you can review the application here. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote a short article on MG&E’s proposal, which can be accessed here.
 |
| Gaea’s Farm Wind Turbines |
Our 3rd annual Ride with RENEW took place this past Sunday, September 20th and was a great success! We had beautiful weather, saw some great renewable energy installations, and not only did we meet our $15,000 fundraising goal, we passed it!
We also had our highest biker turn out ever, with 36 riders joining us in Lake Geneva! Thank you to everyone who came out and rode for renewable energy.
– 36 riders
– 24 miles ridden by each rider
– 4 riders rode an extra 12 miles out to the solar farm, while the rest met us there by car
– About 850 kilowatts of renewable energy capacity visited
– Special thanks to our sponsors featured below, plus Potbelly’s and Jimmy Johns for lunch:
Ride Summary
 |
| Johnson LEED Platinum House |
From there we ventured over to Gaea’s Farm on State Line Road. Gaea’s Farm provides stable space for horse owners, and also has an arena for shows. The net-zero energy facility includes 100 kW of solar, two small wind turbines, and geothermal pipes which keep the horse barn cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
Next, we stopped by Easy Living Equine Sanctuary, a horse rescue operation. Here, we not only viewed another excellent solar installation, but we had lunch (thanks Convergence Energy, Jimmy Johns, and Potbelly for your contributions!) with a great view and made friends with some of the horses.
 |
| Solar Farm at Osborn Property |
Consistent with other Wisconsin investor-owned utilities in recent years, Xcel Energy is seeking approval from the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSCW) to increase mandatory monthly customer charges from $8 to $18. As reported in an article in today’s Eau Claire Leader Telegram, an Eau Claire City Commission voted 6-0 on Tuesday to oppose the utility’s electric rate proposal. The resolution will soon be taken up by Eau Claire’s City Council.
As of today, the PSCW is the only state utility commission in the nation to have approved radically higher monthly fixed charges for small customers.
Utilities in other states are seeking higher fixed charges, consistent with the industry playbook to protect their revenue, reduce the savings from energy conservation efforts, and discourage customers from tapping into the power of the sun.
However, as highlighted by the table below, other utility commissions have rejected similar proposals to radically redesign rates, and their decisions dramatically depart form the regressive example set by the PSCW.
When compared with the rate design decisions reached in other states, Wisconsin is clearly the outlier here.
Below are links to some great news coverage of yesterday’s Public Hearing on Xcel’s proposal in Menomonie, where residents and members of AARP and local social justice group JONAH spoke in opposition of the proposal as unfairly harming those on low or fixed incomes:
–Eau Claire’s WEAU
–The Chippewa Herald
See the tables below for approved monthly charge increases in Wisconsin and the nation.
Alex Nussbaum of Bloomberg News published an article on Wednesday telling the nation what we Wisconsinites already know: when it comes to renewables, Governor and Republican presidential candidate Scott Walker has made it harder for renewable energy businesses here than any other Midwestern state.
The article opens: “Scott Walker’s up-and-down campaign for the Republican presidential nod has produced at least one constant: As far as wind and solar developers are concerned, the Wisconsin governor may be the worst man for the job.”
Read the full article here, which includes quotes from RENEW’s Executive Director Tyler Huebner, and Board Member Amy Heart of The Alliance for Solar Choice.
Below are some graphs from the Bloomberg article showing how Wisconsin is lagging behind our Midwestern neighbors in both wind and solar development under Governor Walker’s administration.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s editorial board published this past Sunday a commentary in praise of Alliant Energy’s solar research project on its Madison headquarters. In so doing, the editorial board criticized the various anti-solar policies now established in Wisconsin. As it noted, “the solar movement took a hit last fall when the Public Service Commission voted to allow utilities to impose sharp increases in the fixed charge on customers’ monthly bills, pay less for clean power that customers generate, and charge customers and extra fee for installation solar collectors on their roofs.”
Read the full article here!
The Wisconsin State Journal wrote an article featuring Sun Prairie-based Statz Brothers, the host of this year’s Farm Technology Days, detailing their expansion project that includes a second manure digester, making it one of the state’s most sustainable dairy operations. They are also becoming one of the most technologically advanced with the addition of a state-of-the-art milking parlor and feed operation and three freestall barns that can each house 800 cows. They have the look of a bovine day spa with high-quality bedding created by the digesters, overhead fans and cool-water misters.Read the full article here, and also see this article from Biomass Magazine for more details on the second biodigester at the Statz Brothers operation.
La Crosse Channel 8000 highlights two new solar installations: both Kickapoo Coffee Roasters in Viroqua and the Old Oak Family Farm in Bangor were able to choose solar for their businesses after receiving grants from the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), reducing the cost of their installation.
See the video and learn more below!
http://www.news8000.com/news/local-companies-reduce-carbon-footprint-through-federal-grants/34539072
In its annual review of renewable energy compliance efforts by Wisconsin electric providers, the Public Service Commission has determined that Wisconsin has exceeded the 10% renewable portfolio standard (RPS) once again in 2014, a year before the 2015 deadline.
This standard led to an estimated $2.3 billion dollars of investment in clean power, creating jobs and strengthening our economy.
Meeting this standard is a success for Wisconsin and should be celebrated. However, we need to explore new and expanded policies that can help us compete with our neighboring states on renewable energy.
Electric providers were required to increase the amount of electricity from renewables per the RPS. In aggregate, a statewide goal of 10% by 2015 was established. As seen in the list below, most of the major electric providers are well-positioned to meet their 2015 requirements, with only two falling a bit short.
|
Wisconsin Electric Provider Renewable Energy Compliance
Report – 2014 |
|
| Electric Provider | 2014 RE Supply as a percentage of 2015 requirement |
| WPPI Energy |
159% |
| Dairyland Power Cooperative |
152% |
| Xcel – NSPW |
152% |
| Madison Gas & Electric |
137% |
| Alliant – WPL |
124% |
| We Energies |
96% |
| Wisconsin Public Service |
93% |
According to the report, “Collectively, electric providers
have built enough renewable facilities and procured enough power
purchase agreements and bankable renewable energy credits to easily remain in compliance
through 2020 and likely beyond.”
| Renewable energy resource and areas of origin | Percentage of statewide utility RE supply |
| Wind (out-of-state) |
45% |
| Wind (in-state) |
18% |
| Hydro (in-state) |
17% |
| Biomass (in-state) |
13% |
| Hydro (out-of-state) |
5% |
| Biomass (out-of-state) |
2% |
Tom Content of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote an article
last week on how other states are pursuing even greater Renewable
Energy Standards, and that Wisconsin is lagging behind.
We will continue to advocate for increased clean energy development in Wisconsin so that more investment will be brought to Wisconsin companies and Wisconsin workers, making the Badger State a better place to live now, and in the future.
Below are some graphics from the full report.
Governor Walker signed the State of Wisconsin’s 2015-2017 Budget into law on July 12, 2015.
There were five issues or potential issues that could have negatively affected renewable energy in Wisconsin.
At this juncture, RENEW feels like renewable energy got victories in 3 issues, a partial victory on a fourth, and a definite loss with the funding cut to intervenor compensation.
Let’s start with the victories:
1. Victory: Focus on Energy
Rumors swirled that changes to Focus on Energy, the state’s program for energy efficiency and renewables, could be introduced in the
budget, but they were not. This is a significant victory in itself.
However, there may remain desire from some legislators to make changes
to Focus on Energy and we will be following that closely as the
Legislative session continues.
2. Victory: A provision that would have eliminated the need for the University of Wisconsin system to purchase renewable energy credits was introduced by the Governor as part of the creation of a separate UW Authority. When the Authority idea went down, so did this provision. Great news!
3. Victory (mostly): The Governor’s budget included a provision to eliminate funding for the Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative ($4,069,110 annually) and 35+ jobs. This funding constitutes the state’s match for approximately $25 million annually from the federal Department of Energy.
Although the legislature agreed with the cut, the the UW plans to tap into other funding sources to maintain support for the Energy Institute.
4. Partial Victory: Gov. Walker proposed up to $250,000 for the Public Service
Commission (PSC) to study “health issues related to wind energy systems”
and to prepare and submit a document reporting its findings to the
Governor and the Legislature.
The Joint Finance Committee stripped the funding for this study (that’s the partial victory portion), but still directed the PSC to conduct the study of health issues, even though the Wind Siting Council had just completed this in 2014. With no funding allocated at this time, it is not clear how the PSC intends to carry out this directive.
5. Definite loss: An amendment to the budget slashing the amount of funding for citizen groups like RENEW and the Citizens Utility Board desiring to intervene in utility proceedings before the Public Service Commission. Intervenor compensation is supported through utility revenues, not general purpose revenues. In addition to reducing the annual allocation from $1,042,000 to $371,000, the amendment also would have required intervenor groups groups to pay half the cost of their expert witnesses and legal counsel.
The Governor helped somewhat as he vetoed the Legislature’s attempt to place restrictions on funds used to intervene in PSC proceedings.
However, the Governor cannot use his veto pen to undo funding cuts
passed by the Legislature. For the next two years at least, intervenor
compensation awards will be capped at one-third the level they had been
in previous years. Legislative action is needed to restore any funding.
RENEW issued a press release on July 9th criticizing the Legislature’s damaging cuts to the
intervenor compensation program. Our release states: “By weakening citizen and small business representation before the PSC, Wisconsin’s legislature is effectively flashing a green light to utilities to come in with higher charges and new taxes to collect more money from customers and take away their ability to control their electricity usage.”
