by jboullion | Mar 23, 2009 | Uncategorized
From a presentation by Michael Vickerman at the 2009 Wisconsin Renewable Energy Summit, Milwaukee, March 25-28:
Value Proposition to System Owner
+ Less expensive (on a life-cycle basis)
+ Predictable return
+ Negligible risk
Value Proposition to Society
+ Emission-free
+ Non-depleting
+ Indigenous
+ Highly secure
SHW Potential in Wisconsin
+ Can offset between 2.6% to 4.1% of NG use
+ Avoiding 150 million therms/year
+ Saving $150 million annually (2006 prices)
+ Offsetting 820,000 metric ton of CO2
by jboullion | Mar 23, 2009 | Uncategorized
Form a presentation by Michael Vickerman at the 2009 Wisconsin Renewable Energy Summit, Milwaukee, March 25-28:
Economies of scale are achieved by shrinking the labor contribution relative to output, which explains why utility-scale energy is less expensive than do-it-yourself energy.
Distributing renewable energy through customer-sited systems increases job-hours per energy unit produced as well as promoting entrepreneurship and small business development. . . .
From Small Systems – Big Results in Germany:
+ Utilities are required to accept power from customer-sited RE systems through fixed, long-term buyback rates
+ 15% of Germany’s electricity now generated from renewables
+ In 2007 $14 billion invested in RE
+ Germany has half the world’s PV capacity
+ Payoff: 300,000 people employed in the RE sector.
And in Wisconsin:
+ 338 Focus on Energy-funded RE systems installed
+ 40% increase over 2007
+ $3.5MM incentives obligated
+ Full-service installers — 35 PV; 24 biogas; 64 SHW; 21 wind; 15 biomass.
by jboullion | Mar 23, 2009 | Uncategorized
From Turbines and Health published by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA):
The American Lung Association’s agenda for the new administration, Protect the Air We Breathe: An Agenda for Clean Air, states: “Climate, energy and clean air are inexorably linked. Solutions that lead to cleaner air must be included in any approach to cleaner, more efficient energy use and reductions in global warming.”
Wind energy is one such solution – a clean energy source that can provide communities with decreased greenhouse gas emissions, along with air quality improvements and corresponding human health benefits. . . .
+ The wind industry takes health concerns seriously . . .
+ Wind energy can help improve air quality . . .
+ Wind energy can help reduce global warming pollutants . . .
+ Wind plants are very quiet compared to other types of industrial facilities, such as manufacturing plants. But wind plants typically are located in rural or low-density residential areas, where turbine noise may be more obvious because background noise is lower than in urban areas. On the other hand, the turbine noise may often be masked by the noise of the wind itself – especially since turbines are located where the wind speed is higher than average and because they operate only when the wind is blowing.
+ The sounds emitted from wind turbines can be mechanical, from internal equipment such as the gearbox or yaw drive, or aerodynamic, from air moving past the rotor blades. Current turbine designs effectively reduce mechanical sound through sound proofing; therefore, the aerodynamic sound, often described as a “whooshing” sound, is what can normally be heard.
+ There is no reliable evidence that low-frequency sound from wind turbines is a problem . . .
+ Shadow flicker occurrence is easily calculated . . .
+ Shadow flicker is not harmful to persons with epilepsy. The allegation is sometimes made that shadow flicker from wind turbines can cause epileptic seizures. This is not true—shadow flicker from wind turbines occurs much more slowly than the light “strobing” associated with seizures. The strobe rates necessary to cause seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy are 3 to 5 flashes per second and large wind turbine blades cannot rotate this quickly.
by jboullion | Mar 23, 2009 | Uncategorized
From Turbines and Health published by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA):
The American Lung Association’s agenda for the new administration, Protect the Air We Breathe: An Agenda for Clean Air, states: “Climate, energy and clean air are inexorably linked. Solutions that lead to cleaner air must be included in any approach to cleaner, more efficient energy use and reductions in global warming.”
Wind energy is one such solution – a clean energy source that can provide
communities with decreased greenhouse gas emissions, along with air quality improvements and corresponding human health benefits. . . .
+ The wind industry takes health concerns seriously . . .
+ Wind energy can help improve air quality . . .
+ Wind energy can help reduce global warming pollutants . . .
+ Wind plants are very quiet compared to other types of industrial facilities, such as manufacturing plants. But wind plants typically are located in rural or low-density residential areas, where turbine noise may be more obvious because background noise is lower than in urban areas. On the other hand, the turbine noise may often be masked by the noise of the wind itself – especially since turbines are located where the wind speed is higher than average and because they operate only when the wind is blowing.
+ The sounds emitted from wind turbines can be mechanical, from internal equipment such as the gearbox or yaw drive, or aerodynamic, from air moving past the rotor blades. Current turbine designs effectively reduce mechanical sound through sound proofing; therefore, the aerodynamic sound, often described as a “whooshing” sound, is what can normally be heard.
+ There is no reliable evidence that low-frequency sound from wind turbines is a problem . . .
+ Shadow flicker occurrence is easily calculated . . .
+ Shadow flicker is not harmful to persons with epilepsy. The allegation is sometimes made that shadow flicker from wind turbines can cause epileptic seizures. This is not true—shadow flicker from wind turbines occurs much more slowly than the light “strobing” associated with seizures. The strobe rates necessary to cause seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy are 3 to 5 flashes per second and large wind turbine blades cannot rotate this quickly.
by jboullion | Mar 23, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Larry Sandler and Patrick Marley in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
State officials are seeking federal stimulus money to pay the full $519 million cost of a proposed 110-mph Milwaukee-to-Madison passenger train line, not just part of it, Gov. Jim Doyle says.
If the grant is approved, trains could be running as soon as late 2012 or early 2013, cutting the travel time between Wisconsin’s two largest cities to 1 hour, 7 minutes, officials say. That’s about 20 minutes faster than the same trip by automobile, depending on traffic.
Service would start with six daily round trips, connecting Milwaukee’s downtown Amtrak-Greyhound station with a new station at Madison’s Dane County Regional Airport, with additional stops in Brookfield, Oconomowoc and Watertown.
At the same time, service on Amtrak’s Milwaukee-to-Chicago Hiawatha line would increase from the current seven daily round trips to 10, with all of the Madison-to-Milwaukee trains continuing to Chicago. If Chicago wins its bid for the 2016 Olympics, the trains would provide a link between the main Olympic sites and the cycling venues in Madison.
But even without the Olympics, authorities expect the Milwaukee-to-Madison trains to carry 1.08 million riders a year within a couple years after service starts, said Randy Wade, the state’s passenger rail chief. Hiawatha ridership jumped 24% last year, to 766,167.
by jboullion | Mar 23, 2009 | Uncategorized
From an article by Jim Massey in The Country Today:
RICHLAND CENTER – While low commodity prices are a challenge for farmers, they could provide an opportunity for the biomass industry to grow in Wisconsin, farmers and landowners were told March 6 at a biomass briefing.
Southwest Badger Resource Conservation and Development Council officials shared the results of three biomass studies at the briefing, held to coincide with a quarterly council meeting.
Council Coordinator Steve Bertjens said southern Wisconsin has become a prime target for biomass production and the studies were conducted to determine the economic feasibility of growing and harvesting the material.
Gov. Jim Doyle recently announced that the UW-Madison Charter Street Power Plant would burn 250,000 tons of biomass per year by 2012 and power plants in Cassville and Jo Daviess County, Ill., will use a combined 800,000 tons of biomass per year. Officials said the challenge will be coming up with that much biomass to burn.
Three Southwest Badger RCandD projects – a biomass inventory and analysis project, switchgrass establishment and harvesting demonstrations, and the true costs of harvesting woody biomass in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area – are in the works. . . .
Brett Hulsey, president of Better Environmental Solutions, said if all of Wisconsin’s biomass reserves were used for energy production it could displace about half of the coal burned in the state.
“We are a biomass Saudi Arabia,” Hulsey said. “We could use wood waste, corn stover, prairie grasses and even dairy manure as energy sources.”
