by jboullion | Oct 28, 2008 | Uncategorized
An announcement from the Public Service Commission:
MADISON – The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) will hold public hearings on Monday, November 3rd in Eau Claire and La Crosse on Xcel Energy’s request to adjust its electric rates. Excel has requested to increase their electric rates by 8.6 percent.
When a utility requests a change in rates, the PSC conducts a thorough audit of the utility’s expenses and revenues. The agency will look at the amount Xcel needs to provide a reliable source of energy to customers, which includes costs of fuel, maintenance, new construction and environmental protection.
Public comments on Xcel’s application will be included in the record the Commission will review to make a decision. The PSC has the authority to approve, deny or modify the application. Citizens are encouraged to attend the hearings, which will be broadcast simultaneously from three different locations at the following times:
Monday, November 3
3:00 p.m. & 6:30 p.m.
UW-Eau Claire
Old Library, Room 1132
105 Garfield Avenue
Eau Claire, WI
UW-La Crosse
Wing Communications Building, Room 102
1725 State Street
La Crosse, WI
Public Service Commission of Wisconsin
Amnicon Falls Hearing Room – 1st floor
610 North Whitney Way
Madison, WI
If you cannot attend the public hearings, but would like to provide comments, you can do so on the PSC’s website at http://psc.wi.gov through November 3. Click on the Public Comments button on the PSC’s homepage and click on the case title.
Hearing locations are accessible to people in wheelchairs. Anyone requiring accommodations to participate should contact Docket Coordinator Jodee J. Bartels at (608) 267-9859. Documents associated with Xcel Energy’s application can be viewed on the PSC’s Electronic Regulatory Filing System at http://psc.wi.gov. Type case numbers 4220-UR-115 in the boxes provided on the PSC homepage, or click on the Electronic Regulatory Filing System button.
by jboullion | Oct 27, 2008 | Uncategorized
From a media release issued by Focus on Energy:
As fall turns to winter and the sun sets earlier each night, Wisconsinites are turning on their lights, and in doing so, spending more money on electricity. Fortunately, there is a way to turn on lights and turn back energy costs.
With just a twist of the wrist, ENERGY STAR® qualified compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) can reduce energy use by up to 75 percent, and changing out the five most used bulbs in a home can save $35 in energy costs the first year alone.
To add another twist on the savings, Focus on Energy, Wisconsin’s energy efficiency and renewable energy initiative, is offering ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs for a discounted price at participating retail locations, beginning October 1 for a
limited time.
“Over the past several years, residents throughout Wisconsin have reduced their energy use and their utility bills by using ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs, but there are still many who have not made the switch,” said Mike Plunkett, Lighting Program Manager. “Fortunately, for those still holding out, the technology has improved over the years with the issues of humming, flickering and poor light quality having been eliminated. So people who didn’t like the early bulbs may be surprised to find they’ll get a great functioning bulb that saves them money for years to come.”
. . . ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs are being sold for a discounted price at select retail locations, including Ace Hardware, Big Lots, Copps Food Center, Cub Foods, Do it Best, Dollar Tree, Festival Foods, Hardware Hank, Home Concept, Menards, Mills Fleet Farm, Pick ‘n Save, Sentry Foods, ShopKo, True Value Hardware, Trustworthy Hardware and Woodman’s locations.
by jboullion | Oct 22, 2008 | Uncategorized
Energy Concepts, Hudson, installed Minnesota’s largest solar system, according to an August article Jean Hopfensperger in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune:
A Minnesota first is unfolding this month on the rooftop of a Vadnais Heights social service agency, where 525 solar panels are being installed to take energy conservation to new heights.
When completed this month, the largest solar electric project in the state will sit atop an agency best known for helping adults with disabilities. State officials say it will increase Minnesota’s solar capacity by 10 percent.
What’s even more unusual is that the rooftop rays will fuel a geothermal energy system hidden below the concrete parking lot of the building, home to Merrick Inc., a nonprofit that is making its energy production — and its own products — a Minnesota model of green.
“We’ve married two emerging technologies, geothermal and solar, in a commercial setting,” said John Wayne Barker, executive director of Merrick Inc. “We’ve taken an ugly duckling — this building — and turned it into a swan. Hopefully we’ll inspire others to do the same.”
The 100-kilowatt project reflects the rise of large-scale solar experiments in Minnesota, said Stacy Miller, solar administrator at the Minnesota Office of Energy Security. Of the 250 or so solar installations, the average-sized project is just four kilowatts, she said.
From the newsletter of Energy Concepts:
With the help of Energy Concepts, the Merrick building in Vadnais Heights, recently broke a record for solar installations in Minnesota. Lined up on its flat roof just south of St. Paul, 108 solar modules are daily converting the sun’s energy into electricity. The 130,000 kilowatts it is expected to generate annually will be the highest ever for a single Minnesota project and represents fully 10% of installed solar capacity in the Gopher State.
Designed by Energy Concept’s Craig Tarr, the solar installation powers the company’s underground geo-thermal system, which provides most of the building’s heating and cooling.
“It’s a biggie,” Tarr says, “and represents a new level of achievement in terms of combining solar and geo-thermal at one site. Senator Klobuchar, the Governor—they have VIPs visiting that site almost every day.”
Minnesota and Wisconsin, despite their stereotype of being cold and dark, actually, according to Tarr, have excellent overall solar potential.
by jboullion | Oct 21, 2008 | Uncategorized
From a story by Sarah Rasmussen on WEAU News:
We’ve all heard of building energy efficient homes, but with a new grant, a Black River Falls couple is taking their plans to the extreme.
The Chambers’ are building a Green Max, net zero home that will produce just as much energy as it consumes.
Tom Chambers says the overall cost is $325,000 to build, but a $50,000 grant from Wisconsin Public Power Inc. and an additional $16,000 in energy incentives will help them complete this technological wonder.
After more than a year of planning and several blueprints later, the chambers are finally able to build their Green Max home.
“We always, both of us have been conscious of sustainability and conservation,” Chambers says.
Solar panels will help the home produce energy, but there are many other energy saving aspects in the home to help it break even.
“First thing you have to do is build a home that is isolated from everything exterior,” Chambers says.
“We’ve added additional foam insulation under the basement slab. There’s two inches of foam there. There’s two inches of foam on the exterior of the basement walls. You can see we’ve added an inch of foam all the way around the exterior of the wall,” says General Contractor Todd Paige.
He says they built the home using 2x8s instead of 2x6s to increase the amount of insulation in the walls.
Another interesting aspect of the home is the windows. For example, the windows on the west side of the house will be treated to let more heat from the sun in during the winter, while the windows on north side of the house have been treated to block heat from the sun during the summer.
The Chambers’ home will be heated by a geothermal heating system.
by jboullion | Oct 20, 2008 | Uncategorized
From an article by Joe Knight in the Eau Claire Leader Telegram:
The technology to make ethanol out of grass or trees may be several years away, but that doesn’t mean northwestern Wisconsin has to wait to begin developing biomass energy, said Andrew Dane, UW-Extension agent in Chippewa and Barron counties.
Biomass can be used for heating – about three-fourths of the total energy used in Wisconsin is for heating, Dane said. Biomass also can be used to heat boilers, as Xcel Energy is doing to produce electricity at its power plant in Ashland, he said. Xcel is in the process of converting the plant from generating with a combination of coal and wood to all-wood generation.
Two ethanol plants in western Wisconsin are replacing natural gas with corn stover or other biomass to fire their boilers, he said.
“It all comes down to the resources – what we can grow and aggregate and market and distribute,” he said.
Switchgrass, corn stover – what’s left of the corn plant after the corn grain is removed – other crop residues and short-rotation woody plants are things that can be used now for heating, and later for ethanol, when a process is found to make ethanol from cellulose, he said.
Cellulose is a major component of plants and trees.
“We have short-term opportunities to position our region to take advantage of this (ethanol form cellulose) when and if it becomes technologically viable,” he said.
Wood burning is the most familiar form of biomass energy in use. The wood used doesn’t have to be from logs. Wood chips or wood scraps pressed into pellets will work.
Several schools in northern Wisconsin already are heating with wood chips.
The Shell Lake school district is using wood chips and corn.
In Barron an elementary school, high school, community center, nursing home and office of Marshfield Clinic all are heated through a wood-chip-burning system. Now school officials are adding a cooling unit to air condition with wood energy.
There are new wood-pellet-producing plants going into Hayward, Ladysmith and Ashland, Dane said. . . .
