by jboullion | Jun 12, 2014 | Uncategorized
Renewable Portfolio Standard key driver for clean power success
The Public Service Commission (PSC) today approved a report documenting that Wisconsin’s electric providers are already in compliance with their 2015 renewable energy requirements specified in state law.
In 2006, Wisconsin passed a Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) requiring utilities to increase their renewable energy supplies by six percentage points from 2006 to 2015, so that the state would reach an overall target of 10%. The report approved today documents that the state’s electric providers have collectively reached the 10% goal two years early. In addition, the report stated that all 118 electric providers are in compliance with their individual metrics for calendar year 2013.
“What a tremendous success for Wisconsin to meet this 10% renewable standard two years early and with virtually no perceptible impact on customer bills,” said Tyler Huebner, RENEW Wisconsin’s Executive Director. “Over the last eight years our renewable energy standard has created new jobs and business opportunities while cleaning up and diversifying our power supply mix.
In 2013, the PSC issued a report with data through 2012 showing the renewable energy standard had less than a one percent impact on electric rates.
Huebner said: “Now that we’ve met the 10% goal, the logical question before us is ‘What’s next?’ The conversation should shift to the Legislature to address that question in 2015. Our neighboring states are moving ahead of us. For example, Iowa now generates 27% of its electricity from wind energy, while the total in Minnesota is now 14%. The renewable energy produced there is helping to keep customer bills low. In addition, Michigan is considering a jump to 30% renewables by 2030. Let’s keep Wisconsin moving forward and get to work on extending and expanding Wisconsin’s Renewable Energy Standard.”
by jboullion | Jun 10, 2014 | Uncategorized
Circuit Court sides with RENEW Wisconsin over key solar policy
In its continuous defense of renewable energy policy in Wisconsin, RENEW Wisconsin, a nonprofit advocacy organization, scored a victory from the Dane County Circuit Court that puts solar energy on a stronger footing going forward.
RENEW challenged a 2012 decision by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSCW) which specified the maximum size of a solar system eligible for net metering in We Energies’ electric territory would be 20 kilowatts. At that time, most of the other investor-owned electric utilities in Wisconsin had a cap of 100 kilowatts, and RENEW argued that We Energies should also have a cap at that level. Net metering is a policy that allows solar customers, including residents, businesses, schools and other public agencies, to receive full retail credit for the excess energy they deliver to the grid. A smaller net metering cap limits the ability of larger business customers to power themselves with clean energy.
Agreeing with RENEW Wisconsin, the Dane County Circuit Court found that the PSC’s decision to keep the net metering cap at 20 kilowatts was arbitrary and unsupported in the factual record. This decision was remanded back to the PSC.
“Better net metering policies will enable more businesses to save money with solar power. Renewable energy has never been as attractive to customers as it is today, and businesses nationwide are adopting solar energy as a way to control their energy costs, businesses like Wal-Mart and Kohl’s. Moreover, it is important that we promote and defend Wisconsin renewable energy in all decision-making venues and make sure decisions are made based on the facts presented in each case,” said Tyler Huebner, RENEW Wisconsin’s Executive Director.
by jboullion | Jun 6, 2014 | Uncategorized
This article published by Kenosha News highlights opportunities for job creation in Wisconsin in the renewable energy industry and features quotes from RENEW Wisconsin’s Tyler Huebner.
There could be more jobs for Wisconsin in clean energy
Published by Steve Lund of Kenosha News on 6/4/2014
The president’s announcement Monday about the Clean Power Plan should be good for renewable energy in Wisconsin over the long term, but don’t expect a wind farm project in Kenosha County any time soon.
In the president’s plan, the Environmental Protection Agency would require states to reduce carbon emissions from existing coal-burning and gas-burning power plants by 30 percent from their 2005 levels.
Solar power, wind power, bio fuels and other sources of electricity that don’t involve burning fossil fuels should benefit from the rules, as should efforts to conserve electricity.
“Between now and 2030, it should be very beneficial for energy efficiency and renewable energy,” said Tyler Huebner, executive director of Renew Wisconsin, a non-profit organization that advocates for renewable energy and represents businesses that create renewable energy.
by jboullion | May 30, 2014 | Uncategorized
The manure biodigester at Pagel’s Ponderosa Farm in Kewaunee was featured in today’s New York Times! This digester was designed by DVO, Inc. of Chilton, one of RENEW Wisconsin’s Business Members.
Photo Credit : Sally Ryan of the New York Times
Read more below:
KEWAUNEE, Wis. — Bryan T. Pagel, a dairy farmer, watched as a glistening slurry of cow manure disappeared down a culvert. If recycling the waste on his family’s farm would help to save the world, he was happy to go along.
Out back, machinery was breaking down the manure and capturing a byproduct called methane, a potent greenhouse gas. A huge Caterpillar engine roared as it burned the methane to generate electricity, keeping it out of the atmosphere.
The $3.2 million system also reduces odors at Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy, one of the largest in Wisconsin, but it would not have been built without a surprising source of funds: a California initiative that is investing in carefully chosen projects, even ones far beyond its borders, to reduce emissions as part of the battle against climate change.
Here is an excerpt from further in the article with more information about the Pagel farm:
John T. Pagel, the owner, said that he had thought for several years about installing a system to reduce odors and capture methane emissions from the manure of thousands of cows. But he could not figure out how to make the economics work. “It’s the right thing to do, but it has to support itself, too,” Mr. Pagel said.
Then he met a TerraPass representative at an agricultural fair several years ago and learned he could receive payments totaling tens of thousands of dollars a year.
On a tour of his farm near Kewaunee, Mr. Pagel proudly showed off the gear. A 20-cylinder Caterpillar engine, powered by methane from cow manure, throbbed in a large building behind his barns. As it turned a generator, it was pumping enough renewable power into the local electric grid to supply about 1,200 homes.
“I love that thing!” Mr. Pagel said.
by jboullion | May 27, 2014 | Uncategorized
These two arrays are located near each other in the City of Westby, where Vernon Electric Cooperative is located. Both were energized last week and are now generating electricity right in town. The larger of the two, owned by Colorado-based Clean Energy Collective (CEC), serves Dairyland Power Cooperative. With a rated capacity of 517 kilowatts, this is the fifth largest solar electric installation in Wisconsin. The other, also owned by CEC, serves Vernon Electric Cooperative (VEC). With a rated capacity of 305 kilowatts, this is the eighth largest solar electric installation in Wisconsin. It is also the state’s first community solar project.
These new arrays raise the total amount of operating solar generating capacity in Wisconsin to 16 MW.
The individuals standing inside the 517 kilowatt array serving Dairyland Power Cooperative are Dave Maxwell, VEC’s Marketing & Communications Director, Joe McDonald, VEC’s CEO & General Manager, and Holly O’Higgins, Energy Analyst, Wisconsin State Energy Office.
by jboullion | May 22, 2014 | Uncategorized
Midwest Energy News published an article today highlighting the political challenges facing small-scale renewable energy projects in Wisconsin.
Innovative Farm Energy Projects Clash with Wisconsin Policy
Published by Midwest Energy News on 05/22/2014 by Kari Lydersen
The farming region of central Wisconsin presents a bucolic image, home to rolling fields, numerous dairies and a family-owned chicken processing plant that started in 1925 with two brothers delivering eggs and livestock.
These operations also produce a lot of waste, including countless tons of manure and the detritus from processing poultry.
Now Chester Dairy and Brakebush Brothers are teaming up through a Milwaukee-based company to turn that unsightly waste into renewable heat and power.
Clean Energy North America is building a biodigester on New Chester’s land, which will extract methane from the dairy’s manure and from the waste of nearby food processors including Brakebush. The biogas will be sent via an underground pipeline to Brakebush’s plant about 16 miles away. There it will be burned to generate up to 7 MW of electricity, supplying more than 80 percent of Brakebush’s load. And the waste heat from the generation will be used for Brakebush’s hot water.
That means Brakebush– a national company that distributes chickens to schools, restaurants and the military — will drastically reduce its need for natural gas for heating and electricity from the grid that would likely come from coal-fired power plants. And the manure and other waste will be turned into an efficient fertilizer, reducing the problems posed by bacteria and run-off when manure is applied directly to fields.
This project, called New Chester Clean Energy, is an example of the creative renewable energy and combined heat and power operations that could help farms across the Midwest save on energy costs and reduce their environmental impact and carbon footprint.
But such projects depend on a favorable climate from local utilities and state regulators and legislators.
Wisconsin is not considered politically hospitable to distributed renewable energy projects like this, as outlined in a report last year by the Wisconsin Energy Institute. Clean Energy North America vice president Murray Sim, an expert who has worked at utilities in the Midwest and abroad, said the company will likely not do another such project in the state anytime soon.
Read More…
by jboullion | May 13, 2014 | Uncategorized
Today, RENEW Wisconsin Executive Director, Tyler Huebner, will be taking a tour of the new Badger Hydro project.
From a press release issued by the project’s general contractor, the Boldt Company:
“Kaukauna Utilities, The Boldt Company, AECOM and Voith Hydro will celebrate the future of hydroelectric power at a dedication ceremony for the utility’s new Badger Hydro project on May 13, 2014. The Badger Hydro project is a $38 million, long-term investment to replace two hydro plants that had been in operation for more than 100 years. The project also involved the first major reconstruction of the power canal, which had been in existence for more than 130 years.”
For more information on the project, see the Badger Hydro website.
by jboullion | May 13, 2014 | Uncategorized
From the LaCrosse Tribune, April 5, 2014:
The Coulee Region could save millions of dollars a year in energy costs, create more than a hundred jobs and slash carbon dioxide emissions by creating a market for wood pellet fuel, according to new study.
Read more
by jboullion | May 9, 2014 | Uncategorized
By Thomas Content of the Journal Sentinel
May 8, 2014
A Menomonee Valley solar panel factory won’t reopen, after its new Chinese owner decided to open a plant instead in North Carolina, a local economic development official said.
Helios Solar Works filed for receivership, a process similar to bankruptcy, late last year.
A Chinese company, Chinaland Solar Energy, bought the company’s assets during the receivership proceeding. At the time, the Chinese firm indicated that it wanted to reopen the Milwaukee plant.
But the company’s representatives recently informed the Milwaukee 7 economic development group that they will instead open a factory in North Carolina, said Jim Paetsch, Milwaukee 7’s vice president of corporate relocation and expansion.
Read the rest of the story…
by jboullion | May 6, 2014 | Uncategorized
Jessica Vanegeren – Part of the “Murky Waters” investigative series, published by the Capital Times, April 30, 2014
It is no secret that cows produce two things in abundance in the Dairy State: milk and manure.
Wisconsin’s 1.27 million dairy cows produce 3.2 billion gallons of milk and enough manure to fill almost 3,000 Olympic-size swimming pools a year, according to Steve Carpenter, director of UW-Madison’s Center for Limnology, who has studied the water quality of Madison’s lakes for 40 years.
“The automation, the technologies that farmers use today have made them very successful,” said Monte Lamer, a farm boy from Tomahawk and former power plant operator in Alaska who is now plant manager for the Clear Horizons community digester outside of Waunakee.
“At the same time, their success is showing up in our waterways.”
Read more…
