“With 2013 coming to an end, Dan Goymerac, vice president of industrial business development for Miron Construction Co., Inc., provides a look back at the power/renewables construction industry and provides a glimpse into trends that can be expected in the upcoming year.”
12/20/2013 – Press release from RENEW Wisconsin
A $1 billion order for wind turbines is expected to lead to more business for a Wisconsin-based maker of giant steel wind towers.
MidAmerican Energy on Monday announced plans to buy 448 turbines from Siemens, in what the turbine maker said was the largest single order in the world of wind turbines for land-based wind power projects.
Siemens spokeswoman Claire Little confirmed that the tower supplier for the big order will be Broadwind Energy Inc., which builds towers in Manitowoc and Texas.
From a December 15, 2013 Journal Sentinal article by Tom Content:
As utilities have sold off hydroelectric power projects, Bill Harris’ Wisconsin-based company is picking them up and investing in them.
Where some see decrepit relics of a prior century, Harris sees opportunity.
Power from flowing water is arguably “the most overlooked renewable resource,” Harris said.
While much of the renewable energy buzz centers on solar and wind, hydroelectric plants are still the dominant source of renewable power worldwide, including in Wisconsin.
Read more from Journal Sentinel
A new biodigester that is being loaded with millions of gallons of manure is designed differently from one that leaked 300,000 gallons of animal waste near Waunakee last month.
Dane County officials say they feel confident in safeguards at the new 3-million-gallon digester in the town of Springfield that is scheduled to start generating electricity this month.
Meanwhile, state and local regulators said that now that the cleanup near Waunakee is complete, they expect to learn how the older Clear Horizons digester plans to minimize damage from any future messes like the one that went undetected for hours and ended up tainting Six Mile Creek.
“They said they were looking into and exploring the capabilities of their system,” said Josh Wescott, chief of staff to County Executive Joe Parisi. “We’re going to want to make sure there is adequate alarm capacity.”
Wescott said the county also wants assurances that the Clear Horizon facility is adequately staffed.
The spill occurred when a pipe outside the digester’s containment berm ruptured for undisclosed reasons when no employees were present, no alarm system was triggered and no automatic shutoff valve stopped the flow.
It was the second spill in the Lake Mendota watershed this year. After a spill of similar size at UW-Madison’s Arlington Agricultural Research Station in February, UW officials added a containment berm and a $3,000 automated shutoff valve after the failure of a pipe fitting resulted in pollution of the Yahara River.
State and federal officials said they would begin reexamining regulations around manure storage because of the spills. Data released by the state showed only one larger leak has been reported in the past 15 years.
The new biodigester was built in the town of Springfield by the LaCrosse-based Gundersen Health System and US Biogas.
“We have a high level of confidence with the Biogas digester,” Wescott said.
The county assisted in planning and finding financing for both digesters.
They are designed to generate electricity and reduce the nutrient level and volume of cow manure, which eventually goes back to nearby farms to be spread on fields as fertilizer. Runoff of farm nutrients are the major source of smelly overgrowths of weeds and algae in lakes.
The Gundersen-Biogas facility is equipped with a 15-million-gallon storage structure that can receive manure in case of a spill, said Kevin Connors, director of the county Land and Water Resources Department.
It took about two weeks for crews to clean up the Waunakee spill. Several farmers agreed to spread manure on fields or deposit it in storage lagoons, Connors said.
The Gundersen-Biogas storage structure is built partly below ground and partly above ground, Connors said.
Connors said there are other safety precautions, but he deferred to Gundersen officials to describe them.
A company spokesman didn’t respond to phone and email messages.
A strong safety design is needed because a section of the North Fork of Pheasant Branch creek flows within a few hundred feet of the site, Connors said.
Meanwhile, County Board members said the Waunakee spill has prompted them to take a second look at the design of a proposed private digester in the town of Bristol before they grant it final approval.
About 25 people attended a meeting Monday night of the County Board’s Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources Committee in Waunakee to ask questions about the Clear Horizons spill.
Nila Frye, who operates a child care center in the village, said the public should have been notified more quickly about the spill. If it had been summer, children could have been exposed to the manure while playing in the creek, Frye said.
Clear Horizons sent out a press release about the spill several days after it occurred.
Company operations manager Monte Lamer said he should have notified the chairman of the town of Vienna, where the facility is located, but he “dropped the ball.”
The first priority was the cleanup effort, Lamer said.
DNR regional director Mark Aquino said the state would have made an announcement if the spill posed a potential health risk.
Six Mile Creek had an odor and it was discolored near where the spill reached it, but no fish kills have been reported, DNR officials said.
Preliminary monitoring of the creek has found elevated phosphorus levels, but the levels aren’t nearly as high as they are during heavy rain or snow melts, Wescott said.
See also Dane County Executive, Joe Parisi’s editorial “Digesters key to cleaning our lakes”
In a release issued earlier this week, the U.S. solar electric industry reported its second largest quarter ever, adding 930 megawatts (MW) of generating capacity between July and October 2013. Of that total, only an estimated 260 kilowatts, or a mere .02%, were installed in Wisconsin.
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| Graphic: Comparing trends for new solar electric system installations in Wisconsin versus the U.S. as a whole, Wisconsin kept pace through 2010 but has fallen sharply off pace since. |
Nationally, solar’s surge continued through October. Of the 699 MW of electric generation added that month, solar accounted for 504 MW, or 72%, of the total. All told, more than 99% of the generation capacity added in October is fueled by renewable energy resources.
Taking note of declining system prices, the Solar Energies Industry Association (SEIA) projects that a total of 4,300 MW of new solar generating capacity will come online in 2013, an increase of 27% over the previous year. RENEW Wisconsin estimates that Wisconsin’s contribution to that total will be less than 2 MW, continuing a downward trend that began in 2012 (see graph on page 2).
The question of how to reinvigorate Wisconsin’s coal-heavy electricity sector with renewable power such as solar will take center stage at RENEW’s third annual energy policy summit, set for January 10, 2014, at UW-Madison’s Pyle Center. The theme of the summit is “We Mean Business.”
“Renewable energy is driving economic development throughout the Midwest and the nation. States like Minnesota and Georgia have warmed up to solar energy’s tremendous potential, and our Midwest neighbors are investing heavily in windpower too,” said RENEW Wisconsin’s Executive Director Tyler Huebner. “We hope to apply the lessons they’ve learned through their policy initiatives to Wisconsin’s renewable energy sectors, which once set a shining example to neighboring states but are now languishing in an inhospitable policy environment.”
“Solar energy is taking flight in most parts of the country,” Huebner said. “A 10 MW installation was just commissioned at Indianapolis International Airport, the largest of its kind serving a commercial U.S. airport. Last week, New York City committed to host the largest solar facility within city limits on what was once the largest landfill in the world. And Farmers Electric Cooperative, in neighboring Iowa, just announced plans to build the Hawkeye State’s largest solar generating plant for its owner-members.
“The key difference between the leaders and the laggards is state energy policy,” Huebner said. “Expansive policies like net metering, Clean Energy Choice, and streamlined interconnection can unlock market barriers and unleash the entrepreneurs who will deliver the clean energy that customers all across Wisconsin desire. Our summit will show policymakers and the public that we mean it when we say that clean energy is good for business.”
Visit the RENEW Policy Summit website for more information and to register for the January 10th event. Early registration discount ends December 20th.
View this entire press release, including supplemental reference material.
On December 6, the Dane County Land and Water Resources Department released a memo discussing the impact of a recent manure spill at a large biodigester plant in Waunakee, WI:
“As you know, the manure digester owned, operated, and managed by Clear Horizons, Inc. had a pipe failure last week which released 300,000 gallons of manure. I write to share our understanding of the extent and impact of the spill, the remediation effort, and how we are moving forward”.
“We are cautiously optimistic that this manure spill will have little to no impact on water quality in Lake Mendota as preliminary data shows that only 30 pounds of phosphorus will reach the lake.”
Another week, another lost opportunity for Wisconsin to move forward on energy self-sufficiency, job creation, and conserving natural resources.
Back in February 2013, RENEW Wisconsin, along with 89 supporters, submitted a petition to the Public Service Commission to revisit highly technical “interconnection rules,” also known as PSC 119.
RENEW and its supporters wanted to streamline these processes, add consistency across utility territories, and reduce costs. RENEW’s work was part of a collaborative effort under a Department of Energy “SunShot” grant.
On November 15, Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission issued a written order denying RENEW Wisconsin’s petition to improve these rules. This occurred even though Wisconsin recently received a “D” in a nonpartisan report titled “Freeing the Grid” comparing the interconnection practices in all 50 states. To put that grade in perspective, every state immediately bordering Wisconsin received a “B” or a “C.”
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| One potential biodigester project was told that the cost of upgrading the local grid to accommodate the project would run nearly $750,000. This exorbitant price quote effectively killed the project. |
Here are some examples of why these rules are so important:
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| Wisconsin currently scores a “D” on our state’s interconnection rules, according to the “Freeing the Grid” report. The improvements we suggested would have helped us improve our report card! |
Wisconsin’s interconnection rules were last updated in 2004. Since then, the federal government issued a “best practices” document in 2006, and a national organization called the Interstate Renewable Energy Council has also recently issued best practices and model interconnection procedures for states to adopt.
In short: the timing was right, the resources were available, and a broad cross-section of supporters were lined up in support of the effort.
Unfortunately, this is another lost opportunity to move Wisconsin forward.
Read the PSC’s order and Commissioner Eric Callisto’s dissent (starting on page 5) here.
Additional background
information: Interconnection rules governs how
small solar, wind, and biodigester renewable energy systems are connected to
the grid to ensure safety and reliability of the entire grid and utility
employees working on electrical lines. These rules also offer assurance to
potential customer-generators that their systems will be reviewed under a
standardized framework which sets forth reasonable timelines for application
review and decision-making. RENEW’s
Summer Policy Intern, Rikaela Greane, prepared a more comprehensive article on the background of interconnection for our
July Member newsletter.
RENEW Policy Director, Michael Vickerman presented testimony today against SB 167, a bill which would allow persons living within 1.5 miles of a wind turbine to sue for damages to health and property values, purportedly due to the proximity of the turbine. Vickerman argued that such a bill would effectively end wind development in Wisconsin:
“No other state has adopted, or is considering the adoption of, a
policy that puts wind generators and host landowners at risk of being sued for
alleged damages. No other state has established, or is considering the
establishment of, such extreme setbacks in order to eradicate a legitimate
business activity that supports thousands of jobs in the United States,
including many here. This begs the question, how much business activity would
actually occur in Wisconsin if the Legislature granted state residents the
right, on the basis of an alleged hardship, to sue the owners of coal-fired
power plants, high-voltage transmission lines, metallic mines, non-metallic
mines, landfills, waste transfer stations, airports, railroads, truck stops,
metal fabrication plants, paper mills, food processing facilities, and confined
livestock operations so long as the offending facility is located within 1.5
miles of the complainant?”
Read Michael Vickerman’s entire testimony
See the 11/19/2013 Capital Times article on SB 167
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Ranking Midwestern States on Solar Policies and Practices
How Does Wisconsin
stack up against neighboring states?
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