Ask candidates for Legislature about clean energy

Clean Wisconsin's Keith Reopelle emphasizes clean energy and energy efficiency policies in the upcoming elections in this article from The Cap Times:

Now is the time to make sure you know where your candidates stand on the day’s most important issues. Two important issues that will have a major impact on our state’s future are clean energy and energy efficiency.

Voters typically consider energy a national issue, but state-level politics often have as much or more impact on our energy future. In Wisconsin, state laws determine the how much of our electricity comes from renewable sources like wind and solar power. Additionally, programs like Focus on Energy, the statewide energy efficiency program, help homeowners and businesses save millions of dollars on energy bills.

Despite these laws and programs, we still send over $12 billion out of state each year to purchase dirty fossil fuels. Increasing our commitment to clean energy and energy efficiency could help Wisconsin become more energy independent, clean our air and water, and create thousands of jobs.

Unfortunately, legislators voted to significantly cut funding to Focus on Energy in the last legislative session, despite the program’s proven success; it saves homeowners and businesses $2.50 for every $1 invested in the program. Now is the time to move clean energy and energy efficiency policies forward, not backward.

A recent poll by the bipartisan research team of Public Opinion Strategies and Fairbank, Maslin, Metz and Associates found that Wisconsinites overwhelmingly support clean energy and energy efficiency. In fact, the poll found that 85 percent of Wisconsin voters support increasing the use of wind energy to meet our state’s future energy needs, and 89 percent support increasing the use of solar energy. Additionally, 84 percent said they would support policies requiring 30 percent of Wisconsin’s electricity to come from renewable sources. This is well above the current standard of 10 percent by 2015, which utilities have largely met.

By passing clean energy policies and increasing funding for money-saving programs like Focus on Energy in the next legislative session, legislators can help create Wisconsin jobs. Companies like Milwaukee’s Helios SolarWorks, a solar panel manufacturer, Manitowoc’s Orion Energy Systems, a leader in lighting efficiency, Prairie du Sac’s Tower Technologies, a renewable energy installer, and hundreds more can create more jobs if leaders work together to advance clean energy and energy efficiency policies.

In addition, such policies could attract new companies to Wisconsin and make our state a leader in the rapidly expanding clean energy economy. In April, Ibisworld.com listed solar panel manufacturing (No. 2) and green and sustainable building construction (No. 9) among the nation’s top 10 fastest-growing industries. The poll found that more than two-thirds of voters believe clean energy and energy efficiency will create jobs and investing in these industries now can help ensure Wisconsin remains economically strong for decades.

At a time when our state and nation remain deeply divided on many issues, clean energy and energy efficiency unite people of all political stripes. With less than two weeks to the election, now is the time to ask your candidates where they stand on these important issues.

Keith Reopelle is the senior policy director at Clean Wisconsin. For more information, visit www.cleanwisconsin.org. Find the original article here.

Sheboygan aldermen to hear solar panel proposal

From an article in the Sheboygan Press by Dan Benson. Third-party ownership gets a look in Wisconsin:

Sheboygan aldermen will get their first look Tuesday night at a proposal to install solar panels on city buildings at no cost to the city and would hopefully lower the city’s electric costs.

Members of the city’s Sustainable Sheboygan Task Force, which examines ways the city can operate in a more environmentally friendly way, and representatives from Arch Electric in Plymouth will make the presentation to the council’s Committee of the Whole at 5 p.m. in the third floor council chambers at City Hall.

The key to the proposal is using a financing plan in which the city would lease the panels from Arch Electric. The energy savings would be greater than the lease costs, said Jennifer Lehrke, a local architect and task force member.

“It would not cost the city anything because the panels are owned by a third party,” she said. “The investors who do this get to take advantage of tax credits and accelerated depreciation and as a lease there is a small interest being paid to the investors.”

The task force is recommending that the council finance a study to see which buildings would be the prime candidates for solar panels. Lehrke estimated the study would cost less than $5,000. Lehrke estimated the study would take two or three months to complete.

If adopted, the plan would would be the first in the state, she said.

“We would be a forerunner in the state. It’s a way to distinguish Sheboygan, probably the first of its kind in the state,” she said.

Arch Electric owner Ed Zinthefer confirmed that.

“It’s never been done in Wisconsin,” he said.

His company has installed solar panels on a number of local projects, including the Maywood Environmental Center and at Ebenezer and First Congregational United Churches of Christ.

Former Common Council member Jeanne Kliejunas, also a member of the task force, said Arch Electric is one of the most experienced solar installation companies in the state that until now has worked mostly with private clients.

“They would like to expand into the municipal market,” she said.

Solar powering your community with Clean Energy Choice

Clean Energy Choice (sometimes called third-party ownership) allows a customer to get electricity from a third-party which installs and maintains a renewable energy system on the customer's premises.

With Clean Energy Choice, customers don't have to put any money upfront, the major barrier to installing renewables. The customer either buys the output directly from the third-party owner or pays to host the energy-producing equipment and uses the electricity without any further cost under a long-term contract.

From a presentation by Michael Vickerman, RENEW director of policy and program, at Solar Powering Your Community, October 11, 2012: 

• No up-front capital required from host customers 
• Allows nonprofit entities to partner w/ for-profit companies that can use the 30% federal tax credit 
• Based on a successful model for delivering energy efficiency (performance-based contracts) 
• Could lower energy costs for customers over the contract life 
• Hugely successful in states that allow it (e.g., California and Colorado) 
• It’s your premises, after all 

Dan York: Wisconsin slips down in energy-efficiency ranking

A letter to the editor from Dan York, with a correction to the original article "Wisconsin slips down in energy-efficiency ranking.". It's worth reading the original, and the correction is listed below:

Dear Editor: The Biz Beat article “Wisconsin slips down in energy-efficiency ranking,” published Oct. 6, reveals how Wisconsin has lost its one-time leadership position for policies and programs to achieve greater energy efficiency according to annual rankings performed by my organization, the American Council for an Energy-Efficiency Economy (ACEEE). We are pleased to see this issue raised in Wisconsin.

The article contains one statement, however, that is incorrect. A spokeswoman for the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, Kristin Ruesch, states that our group (ACEEE) did not look at “achievements” but “spending alone.” Our State Scorecard, in fact, assesses and includes scores both for program spending and savings (achievements). We agree with the PSC that cost-effectiveness and savings impacts are important attributes of programs like Focus on Energy. It is precisely because of the demonstrated cost-effectiveness of Focus on Energy ($2.30 in economic benefits for every program dollar spent) that we believe higher levels of investments in this clean, low-cost energy resource are justified. The PSC reached the same conclusion in its 2010 review of the program, which led to its recommendation to greatly increase funding and associated energy savings goals for Focus on Energy.

Our neighboring states rank higher than Wisconsin because they continue to push for higher energy savings through increased investments in energy efficiency. Wisconsin, by contrast, is standing still and by doing so, is getting left behind. Energy efficiency saves customers money, protects the environment and creates jobs here in Wisconsin. We encourage Wisconsin’s policymakers to take actions to put Wisconsin back in a leadership position for creating a green energy economy for the 21st century.

Dan York, Ph.D., Utilities Program director, American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy

Company and Local Officials Team Up to Advance “Epic” Wind Project

Immediate release

October 15, 2012

More information

Michael Vickerman

608.255.4044, ext. 2

State’s largest customer-owned renewable energy system breaks ground in Dane County

(Madison) – Within a day after receiving the go-ahead from the Springfield town board, heavy construction equipment broke ground on Epic Systems’ Galactic Wind Farm, a six-turbine facility along U.S. Highway 12 in western Dane County.  The 10- megawatt project should begin producing power by year’s end.

Epic Systems’ project, the third customer-owned windpower installation to go forward this year, will be larger than the two-turbine Cashton Greens project in Monroe County and the two-turbine Waxdale project in Racine County.  Organic Valley and Gundersen Lutheran completed their Cashton project earlier this year, while S. C. Johnson is building its Waxdale project, which should be operational in December of this year.

“Epic’s project came together because of four factors: a company committed to long-term sustainability, a spirit of cooperation among town and county officials, strong local support, and a favorable tax climate,” said Michael Vickerman, program and policy director for RENEW Wisconsin, a nonprofit advocacy organization promoting renewable energy use in Wisconsin.

Epic also owns and operates Wisconsin’s largest solar electricity facility on its Verona campus, which it completed this summer.

The Springfield town board approved Epic’s project on a 5 to zero vote.  No one at the board meeting expressed any objections to the project.

“I can easily foresee other sustainability-minded Wisconsin companies pursuing wind turbines to produce electricity for their own operations, as long as Congress acts quickly to extend the federal Production Tax Credit, which levels the playing field between wind energy and fossil-fuel generation,” said Vickerman.

           

END

RENEW Wisconsin is an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) that leads and represents businesses, and individuals who seek more clean, renewable energy in Wisconsin.  More information on RENEW’s Web site at www.renewwisconsin.org.

Wind project proposed for Dane County

It's official - Check out this article from Steven Verburg in the Wisconsin State Journal:

Epic Systems plans six wind turbines northwest of Madison

Dane County's first array of commercial wind turbines will rise hundreds of feet above the rolling hills along Highway 12 northwest of Madison under plans Epic Systems of Verona hatched over the last four weeks.

The plan had to move quickly so that Epic can take advantage of federal tax credits that expire Dec. 31, said Bruce Richards, the medical software manufacturer's director of facilities and engineering.

Six turbines — each with three 135-foot blades spinning atop a 262-foot tower — will be visible from the tall buildings in Downtown Madison, including the Capitol, and the electricity they generate will help Epic offset most of its energy needs on its sprawling Verona campus.

. . .

A geothermal system heats and cools the Verona campus, and solar panels already generate electricity. The addition of the turbines will mean the company can provide about 85 percent of its own energy needs by 2014, Richards said.

"What sticks out to me is Epic's incredible commitment to renewable energy," said Dane County Executive Joe Parisi, whose administration has expedited permits for the company.

Morse Group president Lou Rotello said his company will serve as engineering, procurement and construction contractor on the project, which will employ about 75 construction workers.

The site is a good one in part because almost all of the homes that could be affected by noise or flickering shadows from the turbine blades are occupied by family members of the landowners who are leasing their land for the towers, Rotello said.

The ridge isn't the windiest spot in the county, but studies indicate it will be gusty enough to spin the blades at 27 percent of their full-speed capacity each year, Rotello said.

The turbines have a capacity of 9.9 megawatts, which will qualify them as one of 10 "major" wind power generators in Wisconsin, said Deborah Irwin, the state Public Service Commission's renewable energy specialist.

Read the full article here.

Federal court supports wind developer, fines anti-wind attorneys

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 5, 2012
Contact: Jay Mundinger
414-736-9245

Lawsuit against Emerging Energies deemed “frivolous”, attorneys forced to pay $1,500

(Madison, Wis.) – Emerging Energies of Wisconsin, LLC, the developer of the proposed Highland Wind Farm, thought they had been legally wronged by wind farm opponents (The Forest Voice) and their attorneys back in 2011, and a federal court ruled they were correct.

In a decision dated September 30, 2012, District Judge William M. Conley ruled that the claims against EEW by leaders of the Forest Voice (Plaintiffs: Judi Beestman, Bill Dyer, Jeff Ericson, Brenda Salseg, Robert Salseg and Scott Voeltz) and their attorneys (Glenn Stoddard, Patricia Keahna) were “frivolous.”

 “…the court finds that plaintiffs’ claims against Emerging Energies…were ‘baseless or made without a reasonable and competent inquiry.’ ” – Judge William M. Conley

 “We have been completely transparent through this entire process as we’ve tried to bring clean, renewable energy to St. Croix County,” said Jay Mundinger. “Some very responsible town officials lost their jobs after initially approving our Highland Wind Farm project two years ago, and we’ve been fighting ever since. We feel a level of vindication here.”

The $250 million Highland project, as proposed, in the Town of Forest will generate 102.5 megawatts of electricity from 41 turbines – enough to power 30,000 homes. After receiving initial approval from the Town of Forest Board and its three members in 2010, they were all eventually recalled and the new board has been challenging the project to-date.

The federal ruling also found:

“…as officers of the court, Attorneys Stoddard and Keahna should have known they had no legal or factual basis to name Emerging Energies as a defendant…” – Judge Conley

The court ordered Stoddard to pay EEW $1,000 and Keahna $500 for their frivolous action.

Public Service Commission hearings for the Highland Wind Farm are scheduled to begin next week in Madison and the Town of Forest.

“We continue to believe this project will provide meaningful economic benefits and payments to the communities here and help Wisconsin develop cleaner sources of electricity for consumers,” said Mundinger.

Highland Wind Farm Specifics: 

• 26,550 acre project boundary 
• 41 turbine sites with 11 additional alternative locations
• 100 + member construction workforce  6-8 permanent employees for wind farm operations 
• 6,200 acres already under lease from property owners for turbine sites, access roads, distribution lines
• Connects to Xcel Energy’s 161-kilovolt transmission line near Forest-Cylon town line.

 -END-

America Votes Solar - Across Party Lines

From Solar Energy Industries Association:

SEIA released its annual public poll examining what likely voters think about solar, and the results are resounding: American voters love solar. The poll found that more than nine out of 10 (92 percent) of likely voters feel that the U.S. should develop and use more solar energy.

...

This support was strong across the political spectrum with 84 percent of Republicans, 95 percent of independents, and 98 percent of Democrats agreeing. And that's not all -- voters want the government to do more to foster and grow the solar industry, including providing federal and state financial incentives.

Read the poll highlights here.