RENEW's Keynote, Bill Ritter, with Milwaukee Public Radio

Just before RENEW's policy summit, the keynote speaker, former Governor of Colorado, Bill Ritter, did an excellent interview on Milwaukee Public Radio. Listen to the interview below, or read the article "Colorado's Renewable Energy Economy Offers Model for Wisconsin" with Susan Bence (attached below).



The Port of Milwaukee announced this week that the wind turbine that supplies energy to the port’s administration building has been paying dividends to the city.  In less than a year of operation, the turbine shifted electrical costs at the port by almost $15,000 dollars.  In fact, the electrical utility actually paid the port for the surplus energy it produced.

Bill Ritter, delivering the keynote at RENEW 's Summit

This news is likely music to the ears of former Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, who championed alternative sources of energy during his time in office. Ritter is now the Director for the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University, where he is helping states across the country create plans to implement renewable energy economies.  And he’s in Wisconsin this week as the keynote speaker at the RENEW's Energy Policy Summit in Madison.

Aggressive renewable energy standards

Ritter says energy issues first emerged as a priority in his political career when he was campaigning for governor in 2005 and 2006. His campaign focused on renewable energy as a way to move Colorado forward and it became a pillar of his administration’s agenda. Once in office, he signed 57 clean energy bills.

Now Colorado is one of the leaders in the country when it comes to alternative energy. Ritter says the state is on the path to supplying 30 percent renewable energy by 2020, “one of the most aggressive renewable energy standards in America.”

Today, Wisconsin has a renewable energy standard of 10 percent by 2015, but Ritter says a lot of that power comes from outside the state, whereas Colorado’s is mostly in-state.

“Actually our cost of power relative to the rest of America has gotten cheaper as we’ve pushed this very aggressive clean energy agenda,” he says. “We had a day last April where our primary and best run utility got 57 percent of all its energy that it provided Colorado customers from wind alone.”

Building a 'new energy economy'

Of course, the cost has gone down because of broad deployment of such methods. In building this “new energy economy,” Ritter says Colorado attracted manufacturing companies that focused on wind and solar energy, and promoted research and development among private companies and government entities.

“We really have this ecosystem built around advanced energy or clean energy, and really trying to say, ‘It could be domestic, it could be clean, it could help us create job and we can protect rate fares in the process,’” he says.

Facing challenges

But Ritter admits creating this “new energy economy” didn’t come without its hurdles. Some utilities and critics opposed the government creating a renewable energy standard, which at first was 10 percent by 2015.

“People say we don’t like standards because it’s a mandate,” Ritter says. “Quite frankly the entirely energy sector has been heavily regulated since it’s inception, and so to say something like renewable energy standards are a mandate and we should do away with it, I think it’s just wrong, because everything in energy is based on regulation. It is not the operation of free market and it’s that way by intention.”

So voters went to the ballot and passed the standard. Soon, after the state legislature put in a rate cap, the utilities were on board, approving of a doubling of the standard and eventually a tripling of it. Ritter says that’s because the utilities saw that they could make the benchmark, they could hold rates in check and get returns on their investment, and they could make customers happy.

“Actually our cost of power relative to the rest of America has gotten cheaper as we’ve pushed this very aggressive clean energy agenda." -former Colorado governor Bill Ritter

Dealing with the utilities was not the only problem the state encountered in getting behind renewable energy. The coal industry, which provided many mining jobs in the state, felt their market share was being taken by renewable energy. A plan to pay residents who built their own system and put power back onto the grid required some finagling. And naturally, political adversaries made it difficult for the legislation to get to Ritter's desk.

“I think the public liked it and got it, but I still had a difficult time politically with it, even with public support, because it doesn’t have the sort of intensity, the political intensity, that other issues might like the economy or job creation,” Ritter says.

He says his opponents claimed such an energy policy would lose jobs in the state, at a time when job creation was at a premium.

“That was really an awful thing to have said about you,” he says. “But our clean energy and clean tech sector wound up being the only sector that grew during the worst recession since the Great Depression in Colorado.”

Now Colorado is second in the country for solar jobs and number one per capita for employment for clean energy jobs overall, Ritter says.

Pushing the agenda

Based on his experience in Colorado, Ritter has some advice for Wisconsin in committing to renewable energy, which he says works handily with a free market. Leasing solar installations on buildings is one way to start.

“Last year over 80 percent of the rooftops in Colorado that installed solar were leased systems, so it’s a great economic development driver,” he says, citing similar success in California and Arizona.
At the Center for the New Energy Economy, Ritter says he is trying to push this whole agenda forward at the state level, from the financing to the R&D on advanced energy technologies to the practical implementation.

“How do we push this whole agenda forward at the state level, so a state can look at their energy economy and say, ‘We’re really about the 21st century,” and we’re tying domestic energy use with environmental issues, (and) economic development,” he says.

See the original article here.

Commentary: How Wisconsin regulators 'tax' renewable energy

Michael Vickerman's commentary in Midwest Energy News on the recent changes in WI renewable energy. Find the original post here.

Commentary: How Wisconsin regulators ‘tax’ renewable energy

RENEW Wisconsin's Michael Vickerman

Starting next January, the price of purchasing renewable energy voluntarily through monthly utility bills will spike to all-time highs, thanks to recent decisions rendered by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSCW) on two popular “green pricing” programs.

The thousands of Madison Gas & Electric (MGE) customers participating in the utility’s Green Power Tomorrow program will see their premiums jump from 2.5 cents/kWh to 4 cents/kWh. That’s an increase of 60 percent. To translate this into dollars and cents, an average MGE customer consuming 500 kWh of electricity per month and subscribing at the 100 percent level will pay $90 more in 2013 for the same amount of renewable kWh sold this year.

Residential customers of Milwaukee-based We Energies (WE) will see an even larger percentage increase next year. In that utility’s rate case, the PSCW jacked up the premium paid by Energy for Tomorrow subscribers by nearly 73 percent, from 1.39 cents to 2.4 cents/kWh. Energy for Tomorrow has more than 20,000 subscribers.

Back in 1999, the year both programs were launched, MGE and WE customers paid an extra 3.33 cents and 2.04 cents/kWh, respectively, for the renewable energy they sponsored. Come January 1st, MGE and WE will likely share the dubious distinction of being the only utilities in the country offering renewable energy at a higher rate than they did in the 1990’s. So much for progress.

Adding insult to injury, renewable program subscribers will be subject to general rate increases approved by the PSCW this November. The utilities sought higher rates to recover the costs of retrofitting older coal-fired power stations with modern pollution controls. The fact that the renewable generators leveraged by program participants will never need pollution control retrofits is wholly disregarded in determining the size of the premium.

This is unquestionably a subsidy that flows from program participants to all ratepayers.

How did this happen?
Since 1999, renewable generation costs have tumbled, while productivity has improved.
A frustrated program subscriber might well ask: If base utility rates are going up, and the cost of renewable electricity is declining, why are premiums going up instead of down?

The short answer is that wholesale electricity prices have sagged in recent years, owing to a combination of unsustainably low natural gas prices, stagnant demand, and rapid expansion of wind power displacing higher-cost generation. In contrast, the price of renewable energy procured under long-term contracts held steady. When prices dropped in the wholesale market beginning in late 2008, the gap between system energy and renewable sources widened.

Though accurate, the above explanation is deeply unsatisfying, because the wholesale “market” is concerned about one thing only: the marginal cost of producing electricity into the grid. Nothing else matters, including the expenditures approved by the PSCW to reduce emissions from older generators. Even though retail customers wind up footing the bill for those upgrades, the wholesale market does not treat pollution control retrofits as marginal costs. Not one cent paid by ratepayers for these expenditures is reflected in the prices that renewable generators compete against.

The net effect of this disconnect is to artificially suppress the price of electricity from older and dirtier generators relative to newer and cleaner electricity producers. Real markets factor in the cost of upgrading and replacing capital equipment that manufacture the product bought by customers. What we have instead is an artificial contrivance that sacrifices long-term considerations like clean air, resource diversity and regulatory risk for the short-term reward of low prices.

Indeed, it would be difficult to design a more punitive market structure for renewables than the one we have at present.

‘Swimming up a waterfall’
Pricing renewable energy against a market operating in real time also undermines a valuable attribute of renewable energy, namely its inherent price stability. In this environment, the only way a customer can directly benefit from a fixed-price energy source like solar is to self-generate at his or her premises to reduce consumption of grid-supplied electricity.

In setting the premium size, the PSCW relied on pricing data at a time when the regional wholesale market was near its cyclical bottom. Electricity prices are now edging upward as forward prices of natural gas have rebounded from historic lows earlier this year. It’s a safe bet that wholesale electricity prices will continue to increase in 2013.

This sets up the very real possibility that WE and MGE will collect more revenue than is necessary to cover the cost spread between system energy and the renewable energy supplies servicing their customers. Unfortunately, the next time the base premium for each utility can be adjusted is January 1, 2015.

For at least a century now, fossil fuels have been the default resource option for most utilities. Against this institutional bias, switching to renewable energy is akin to swimming upstream. But given how far backward the PSCW bent to accommodate utilities’ continued reliance on coal and natural gas, quite a few renewable energy subscribers may balk at the prospect of swimming up a waterfall.

In fairness to MGE and WE, the price hikes approved by the PSCW went well beyond the incremental increases proposed by the two utilities. That’s because the agency relies solely on the wholesale “market” metric described above that filters out all societal benefits from the equation. To the agency, renewables are another source of electrons that deserve no special consideration. And, in reaching its decision, the PSCW disregarded the potential impact that abrupt price hikes might have on customer participation.

Programs outliving their usefulness?
A significant loss in subscribership would be a regrettable outcome if the programs were still viable vehicles for leveraging new sources of renewable energy. Sadly, that is no longer the case.

Earlier this decade, WE and MGE pulled the plug on a popular feature of their programs, specifically the special solar energy buyback rates that were funded with participant dollars. This innovation, which spurred the installation of hundreds of solar electric systems in their territories, succeeded in elevating MGE and WE’s stature while achieving the aims of their participating customers. However, when the utilities eliminated their solar incentives, they also removed the principal rationale for subscribing to their programs.

It seems quite clear that the current crop of voluntary renewable energy programs have outlived their usefulness. They are stagnating under a market structure that distorts and amplifies their true costs as well as a regulatory climate that greatly discounts their benefits to ratepayers. What were once dynamic vehicles for increasing supplies of renewable energy are now little more than feel-good marketing exercises running on autopilot. The value proposition to customers just isn’t there anymore.

There is nothing out there to prevent utilities from revitalizing their green pricing programs and making them useful once again. Such an undertaking, however, would require them to do something they haven’t done before: present an affirmative case for adding more renewables into their energy mix.

To do that effectively, utilities would need to recognize that the fossil energy path leads to a dead-end and that renewables ought to be the default resource option going forward. From that starting point, designing a program in which modest customer premiums actually result in additional supplies of renewable energy should be a simple and straightforward exercise.

It’s the very least a responsible utility should do to reduce the impact of generating electricity on the one planet we are privileged to call home.

Michael Vickerman is program and policy director of RENEW Wisconsin, a sustainable energy advocacy organization. RENEW Wisconsin is a member of RE-AMP, which also publishes Midwest Energy News.

Find the original article post here.

State’s Renewable Standard Delivers Positive Results

More information
Michael Vickerman
mvickerman@renewwisconsin.org
608.255.4044,ext. 2

State’s Renewable Standard Delivers Positive Results

Most utilities already meeting 2015 targets
Most Wisconsin electricity providers have already acquired all the renewable energy supplies they need to meet the state’s 10% target in 2015, according to the Public Service Commission (PSCW).

The agency’s annual compliance review showed that nearly 9% of electricity sold by in-state electricity providers in 2011 originated from such renewable energy resources as sunlight, biogas, hydro, landfill gas and wind, compared with 3% in 2006.

“By any measure, the state’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES) has been an unqualified success,” said Michael Vickerman, program and policy director for RENEW Wisconsin. “From the standpoint of job creation, resource diversity, price stability, environmental protection and revenue generation, the RES has delivered  exceptional value to a state that is very dependent on imported fossil fuels for electricity generation.”

Passed in 2006, the RES has been the most powerful policy for driving growth in renewable electricity sales. Yet with so many electricity providers already in compliance with their 2015 requirements, the prospects for new investments in home-grown energy sources are uncertain.
“Right now, we don’t have a policy in place for directing investments into clean energy after 2015,” Vickerman said. “If we want to reap the economic and environmental benefits that come with renewables, state lawmakers will have to extend the Renewable Energy Standard or adopt a successor policy.”

“Investments in renewable resources not only supply Wisconsin utility customers with clean energy, they also generate work opportunities for local manufacturers and businesses, additional revenue for local governments, and income for farmers,” said Vickerman.

“Renewable energy should be the cornerstone of an economic development strategy that aims to increase the state’s workforce and expand investment opportunities,” Vickerman said. “We look forward to working with the Governor and the next Legislature to put in place a realistic, low-cost policy framework that maintains the momentum building from the current RES.”

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.

Utility's renewable program judged 'average,' We Energies disputes 'C' grade

From a blog post by Tom Content on JSOnline: 

We Energies and other Wisconsin utilities are getting average grades from a renewable energy advocacy group in ratings released this week. 

Renew Wisconsin announced a renewable energy performance report card that judges how utilities have performed on a variety of levels, including the compliance with the state’s renewable energy mandate as well as a variety of other policies. 

Most of the utilities in the state, including Milwaukee-based We Energies, received “C” grades from Renew Wisconsin, said Don Wichert, executive director of the non-profit organization that seeks to expand development of solar, wind and other types of renewable energy. 

We Energies was praised for its construction of wind farms within the state, creating jobs and providing a local source of green power. But the Milwaukee utility was faulted in part for its decision last year to cancel funding for a renewable energy commitment it gave to Renew 10 years ago. 

At that time, We Energies committed to spending $6 million a year for 10 years on a variety of renewable energy programs. In return, the renewable energy advocacy group agreed not to oppose We Energies’ bid to build its coal-fired power plants in Oak Creek. 

The shift away from helping customers finance renewable systems is one reason We Energies was graded as a “C” on the group’s report card, said Wichert.

Read More...

RENEW influences decisions of Focus on Energy

RENEW Wisconsin will continue to advocate for Focus on Energy to spend the $10 million per year allocated for renewable incentives.

We intend to keep a close watch on how the Focus administrators spend the money, and we told them so. These funds are being collected from rate payers this year, so Focus should spend as much of the money this year as possible. Simple!

RENEW effectively advocated for Focus on Energy (Focus) to reinstate incentives for distributed renewables since the non-residential incentives were suspended in July of 2011. RENEW organized members and other stakeholders to communicate this message to the Public Service Commission and Focus. RENEW’s advocacy led Focus to roll out the renewable programs in July.

Additionally RENEW solicited input from the renewable community, met with the Focus administrators, and provided suggestions in early June on how the Focus funds should best be used. Focus accepted and incorporated the majority of these suggestions in the Focus renewable programs that were launched in early July.

RENEW continues to advocate on behalf of the renewable energy community with the Focus administrators. We asked Focus to drop the need for installers to be licensed plumbers and electricians; to reconfigure the need for a building permit before installation; to clear up whether solar systems could be ground mounted; and, to reduce the minimum incentive for solar and wind installations in the Business Program RFP. Once again, Focus administrators accepted the majority of these suggestions.

Focus also addressed the questions received from RENEW and others in a list of frequently asked questions for residential systems at Focus FAQs.

Be aware that Focus has limited funds for residential solar projects. Focus will provide weekly updates on the level of funds available through the renewable energy program Web pages at Focus funding updates.

Business renewable projects will be considered for funding after a submission due date of August 29, 2012. FAQs on this RFP were issued on July 23, 2012.

Please continue to provide your comments and suggestions to RENEW and to Focus on how the renewable program should be managed within the budget constraints outlined by the PSC.

By working together, we can have the best program possible. Please support RENEW with a membership or donation at Join Today!

Safe bet is to act now to reduce fossil fuel use. Go renewable says RENEW.

In a weekend editorial the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel quoted RENEW's executive director Don Wichert:  

While national leaders dither, local officials and families can start doing things to reduce human impact on climate change

It's possible that this summer is just a fluke; that the heat waves and drought that are wreaking havoc for farmers and others are an anomaly, and that the weather will return to "normal" next summer or maybe the summer after that. That it's just summer and it's hot, and that this really isn't part of a trend that climate scientists have been predicting.

But that's not the way to bet. . . .

"The extreme weather and heat waves are costing lives, hurting farmers and families, and inaction is wasting tax money," said Rep. Brett Hulsey (D-Madison), member of the Assembly Energy and Utilities Committee in a news release. "We need to take cost-effective steps to reduce greenhouse air pollution, create jobs and protect lives like my Jobs, Energy and Tax Savings Act (AB 117) to reduce energy costs at the 9,000 state facilities by 30% to 75% and cut the risk of extreme climate change."

"We know that using more renewable energy and more energy efficiency creates more jobs here and produces far less green house gases than the fossil fuels they replace," said Don Wichert, P.E., Executive Director of RENEW Wisconsin. "Access to renewable energy can be increased by reducing upfront costs through private ownership, by creating fair and consistent electricity policies, and by reinstating utility renewable energy commitments."

It's also the message being pushed by a retired Marine colonel and former strategic adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who argues that sustainability and climate change are national security issues. Local leaders need to start the shift to more sustainable practices such as regenerative agriculture techniques and advanced manufacturing because "D.C. isn't going to do anything," Mark Mykleby, author of "A Natural Strategic Narrative," he told the Editorial Board Thursday.

The science says climate change is happening now, not just in computer models or overactive imaginations but in the real world. From rising sea levels to droughts to tornadoes and wildfires, there is a growing list of anomalous events that indicate climate change is already upon us. And the safe bet is to start acting now to mitigate the human effect on climate change at the international, national and local levels.

RENEW says renewable energy can reduce greenhouse gasses

From a presentation on July 11, 2012, at a Capitol news conference in the state Capitol:

Pathways to Increase Renewable Energy

1. Allow private companies to sell renewable energy to home and building occupants if the renewable system is on private property;
2. Allow fair and uniform net energy billing and interconnection policies;
3. Increase Focus on Energy funding for renewables;
4. Reinstate utility renewable energy commitments;
5. Increase renewable energy requirements.

RENEW announces new members of board of directors

Immediate release
July 11, 2012

More information
Jenny Heinzen,President
715.592.6595
jennyh@midwestrenew.org

RENEW Announces New Members of Board of Directors
RENEW Wisconsin (RENEW) members elected new directors to its governing board in July.

“The new board represents a wide range of talents and interests in supporting RENEW’s mission of leading and representing businesses, organizations, and individuals that seek more clean renewable energy in Wisconsin,” said Jenny Heinzen, RENEW’s board president. The new board offers a healthy mix of new and familiar faces, Heinzen said.

RENEW is an independent, nonprofit organization that leads and represents businesses, organizations, and individuals who seek more clean renewable energy in Wisconsin.

The following were elected to three-year terms on RENEW’s board:
• Jeff Anthony, Director of Business Development, American Wind Energy Association, Milwaukee;
• Alex DePillis, principal, Clean Energy Partners, specializing in commercial wind and solar thermal systems, Madison;
• Maureen Faller, co-owner, Kettle View Renewable Energy, LLC, installer of wind and solar systems, Random Lake;
• Jim Funk, owner and engineer for Energize, LLC, specializing in providing high quality, high performing solar PV systems, Winneconne;
• Gary Haltaufderheide, Sun Prairie;
• Duane Kexel, President, Duane T. Kexel Consulting, LLC, Madison;
• Jeff Peterson, executive director, Polk County Energy Fair and director at the Polk-Burnett Electric Cooperative, Luck;
• Pam Porter, owner, P Squared Group, energy consulting, Madison; and,
• Carl Siegrist, Managing Partner, Carl Siegrist Consulting LLC, Whitefish Bay.

The new directors will serve three-year terms and join existing board members to form the group that sets overall direction for the organization.
-END-
RENEW Wisconsin is an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that leads and represents businesses, organizations, and individuals who seek more clean renewable energy in Wisconsin. More information on RENEW’s Web site at www.renewwisconsin.org.

PSC commissioner: Renewable energy facilities come at a reasonable cost to consumers

From a story by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A report from the state Public Service Commission tallies the cost of complying with the state’s renewable power standard, concluding that it sent power rates up about 1% through 2010.

The report found that Wisconsin’s renewable projects accounted for more than 7% of sales in 2010, or nearly twice the level of 2006, when the state’s renewable standard was adopted by the state Legislature.

Since 2007, the commission has endorsed proposals to build $1.7 billion for utility-owned renewable projects, primarily wind farms built in Wisconsin and nearby states.

The report doesn’t account for about $500 million worth of projects, which were not completed as of 2010.

Large projects like new power plants are paid off over time, so the cost of adding those to the state’s fleet of generation was about $200 million, or an increase of 1% of utility sales, the report estimated. The estimate is based on a comparison of the cost of the projects with the average market price of power sold on the wholesale Midwest energy market during the period.

Wisconsin’s standard requires increases in the amount of renewable energy that utilities buy or build, so that 10% of utility sales in 2015 will come from renewables such as wind, solar and biomass projects.

The standard was enacted in 2006 with bipartisan and near-unanimous support. The state Assembly co-author of the bill, Republican Phil Montgomery, chairs the state Public Service Commission. . . .

Commissioner Eric Callisto, who was chair of the commission under Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, said the PSC staff’s analysis “confirms that balancing the state's generation portfolio with clean, renewable energy facilities comes at a reasonable cost to consumers.”

While providing balance for a fleet that relies on fossil fuels for a majority of Wisconsin’s power generation. Callisto said the renewable projects also “act as important risk mitigation tools in a future of increasing air regulation, and provide opportunities for economic development within the four corners of the state."

RENEW Rips WPS’s Net Metering Proposal

For immediate release
May 23, 2012

More information
Michael Vickerman
608.255.4044, ext. 2  

Another example of company backsliding on renewables 

In documents filed in conjunction with its pending rate case, Green Bay-based Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (WPS) proposed several rollbacks to its net metering service that would, if approved, sharply restrict a customer’s ability to generate electricity from renewable energy resources and sell a portion of it back to the utility.

Net metering allows customers to sell the unused output from their solar electric or other renewable energy system back to the utility at the full retail rate from month to month, so long as the surplus electricity is less than or equal to the customers’ usage in a 12-month period.

Currently, WPS customers may install solar or wind energy systems on their premises up to 100 kilowatts (kW). Beginning in January 2013, WPS would roll back that capacity limit to 20 kW.

WPS has also proposed to cap the overall size of its net metering offering at one-half of one percent of 2011 summer peak. No other Wisconsin utility has ever sought to impose capacity-based limits to its net metering service.

“What WPS proposes would be a really bad deal for customers installing small renewable energy systems serving their homes or businesses,” said Michael Vickerman, program and policy director for RENEW Wisconsin, a nonprofit advocacy organization promoting renewable energy use in Wisconsin.

“These service changes are clearly intended to discourage its customers from investing in solar and small wind energy systems,” Vickerman said. “If WPS gets its way, the renewable energy marketplace in that part of Wisconsin will slow down significantly.”

“At a time when the customers and communities in WPS territory are looking to renewable energy to support new jobs and manage their energy costs, the company is doing its level best to take that option away from them,” Vickerman said.

As an intervenor in WPS’s rate case, RENEW Wisconsin will ask the Public Service Commission to:
• Reject WPS’s proposal to impose a system-wide cap on net metering service;
• Maintain the current maximum system size at 100 kW; and
• Base WPS’s calculation of net energy on annual usage instead of monthly usage.

“What we will ask for is a standard of service that is already offered by two Wisconsin utilities: Madison Gas & Electric (MGE) and Xcel Energy,” Vickerman said. “WPS’s proposal is a particularly egregious example of company backsliding.”

Vickerman noted that MGE, which also has a pending rate proceeding before the Public Service Commission, did not propose any changes to its net metering service for 2013 and 2014.

 “We urge the PSC to work toward a uniform net metering policy for the state using MGE’s and Xcel’s service as a template,” Vickerman said.

Vickerman added: “WPS, it should be remembered, was the driving force behind the “Outsource Renewable Energy to Canada Act,” which was signed into law in 2011. That law lets utilities apply the energy they purchase from large Canadian hydropower sources toward their renewable energy requirements, at the expense of in-state renewable energy providers. Within that context, WPS’s net metering proposal constitutes another slight to Wisconsin’s renewable energy marketplace.”

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.

RENEW Wisconsin seeks nominations for board of directors

Call for nominations to RENEW Wisconsin board of directors

RENEW Wisconsin invites you to put yourself or another current RENEW member on the ballot for elections to a three-year term on the board of directors.

Your participation would help shape policies and programs to help lead and represent businesses, organizations, and individuals who seek more clean, renewable energy in Wisconsin.

As a board member, you can have fun and contribute to moving RENEW closer to achieving these solar, wind, and bio-energy goals in 2012:

• Organize stakeholders to articulate public policy messages on clean energy;
• Increase funding for renewable energy in the Focus on Energy program;
• Take the lead on wind permitting issues in Wisconsin;
• Advance third-party ownership of clean renewable energy systems;
• Overhaul and promote consistent net energy billing policies statewide;
• Revive utility commitments to expand renewable energy;
• Promote attractive renewable energy buyback policies;
• Defend and repair Wisconsin's 10% Renewable Energy Standard.

The board meets four times each year.   Board members are expected to be actively engaged and to volunteer for at least one standing committee.

There are four board seats that will become available in July.  Here’s the schedule for the elections: 

• May 25    Deadlines for nominations
• June 5    Deadline for submitting a short statement (50-100 words) to appear on the ballot describing yourself and your interest in serving on the RENEW board
• June 11   Elections open
• June 22   Elections close
• June 26   Candidates notified
• July 5      Elected members attend board meeting

A member of the board of directors must be a member of RENEW.  To join RENEW, click here.

To submit a nomination of get more information, contact M ick Sagrillo by email (msagrillo@wizunwired.net) or phone, 920 .837.7523.

Citizen and business action groups help leaders form energy policy

From a report by Alex Brasch on RENEW's Energy Policy Summit:

MADISON, Wis. - Can local governments work together with citizen action groups to effectively transition America away from reliance on fossil fuels? The answer in Wisconsin and Colorado seems to be yes.

Members of Wisconsin's renewable energy industry convened in Madison for the RENEW Wisconsin Energy Policy Summit last week. The diverse crowd of renewable energy manufacturers, installers, state utilities, environmental advocacy groups, university representatives, and government officials, including Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, came together to focus their efforts on retaking the initiative in the fight for a more sustainable energy future for Wisconsin.

Members heard from keynote speaker Leslie Glustrom, a biochemist who belongs to a similar organization in Boulder, Colo. - a group that recently led a successful ballot initiative to authorize creation of a municipal utility in that city.

Don Wichert, founder of RENEW and former chief of energy resources with the Wisconsin Department of Administration and current director of renewable energy services at the Wisconsin Energy Conservation Corporation created the advocacy group more than 20 years ago to address government officials about clean energy development in the state.

Wichert said Wisconsin spends nearly $6 billion per year on imported coal, petroleum, and natural gas. "As a renewable energy advocacy group composed of concerned citizens, clean energy businesses, environmental organizations, and government employees, RENEW Wisconsin seeks to change the way people think about and consume energy through a combination of advocacy, education, and creative partnerships with state and local governments, businesses, utilities, and citizen groups," Wichert said.

Michael Vickerman, long-time executive director of RENEW, expressed optimism that, "despite current rollbacks of renewable energy policies, including the suspension of clean energy incentives and a weakening of state laws that leverage utility-purchased renewable energy, there is still a network of supportive local officials throughout the state." He challenged advocates to resist acquiescing to the current political situation, and instead, use the sum influence of the clean energy industry, including non-profits and concerned citizens, to drum up support for clean energy development. Vickerman provided three guiding principles as a springboard to start discussion on how to retake the initiative.

First, reframe the message by presenting the industry's true potential as a group of highly-motivated, dynamic organizations with a unifying business plan that will generate green jobs. Second, assert the fact that renewable energy is something intensely desired by businesses and citizens, because it gives customers more options, businesses increased market appeal, and a surefire pathway to more local jobs. And finally, pursue community-owned renewable projects that will keep energy production local and redirect investment into the area economy.

Only 20, not 200, years of coal; we have to move "so fast" to get to 100% renewables

Leslie Glustrom is the featured speaker at RENEW's Energy Policy Summit, January 13, Madison. Read the report that she mentions about 11 minutes into the interview.

Register and get details about the Summit at the Summit Web page.

Coal Critic Coming to Madison to Speak on Effective Renewable Energy Advocacy, January 13, 2012

For immediate release
December 7, 2011

More information
Michael Vickerman
608.255.4044
mvickerman@renewwisconsin.org

Leslie Glustrom, research director of Colorado-based Clean Energy Action, and an unwavering critic of utility reliance on coal for electricity generation, will be the featured speaker at RENEW Wisconsin’s Energy Policy Summit.

The Summit will be held on Friday, January 13, 2012, at the University of Wisconsin-Extension’s Pyle Center located on the UW-Madison campus. Summit attendees will spend the day discussing and selecting renewable energy strategies that make sense in the current political environment in Wisconsin. More information on the Summit can be found on the RENEW Wisconsin website at http://www.renewwisconsin.org.

As research director, Glustrom authored in 2009 an extensively referenced report on U.S. coal supplies titled, “Coal—Cheap and Abundant—Or Is It? Why Americans Should Stop Assuming that the US has a 200-Year Supply of Coal,” available for free at http://www.cleanenergyaction.org.

Since 2009, Glustrom has traveled to numerous states helping them to understand the likely constraints on their coal supplies.
Glustrom’s on-going research illuminates a future in which coal prices will likely continue to escalate, driven by a combination of less accessible coal supplies, increasing demand from Asian countries, and rising diesel fuel costs for hauling coal to distant markets like Wisconsin.

Clean Energy Action is spearheading a campaign to shut down Colorado’s coal-fired power plants and replace them with locally generated renewable electricity.

“Leslie’s experiences with Clean Energy Action can help Wisconsin renewable energy advocates formulate effective strategies for 2012 and beyond,” said Michael Vickerman, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin, a statewide sustainable energy advocacy organization headquartered in Madison.

“Even though Colorado is a coal-producing state, it has adopted some of the most aggressive policies in the country for advancing renewable energy,” said Vickerman. “Colorado’s commitment to clean energy is driving its economy at a time when its coal output is diminishing. For example, Vestas, the world’s largest manufacturer of wind turbines with four plants employing 1,700 people in Colorado, supplied 90 turbines this year to Wisconsin’s largest wind project, the Glacier Hills Wind Park in Columbia County.”

“Leslie will inspire us to reverse the retreat from renewables and retake the initiative going forward,” Vickerman said.

In Boulder, Glustrom was part of the team that led the successful 2010 and 2011 ballot initiatives allowing Boulder to move ahead with plans to municipalize and break away from the long term commitment to coal plants made by their incumbent utility, Xcel Energy.

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State urged to beef up clean energy policies to create jobs

From an article by Judy Newman in the Wisconsin State Journal:

Two reports show Wisconsin has a significant renewable power industry, but with a stronger state commitment, it could be saving more energy and creating more jobs.

Wisconsin has more than 300 businesses involved in wind or solar energy, providing more than 12,000 jobs, according to a study by the Environmental Law and Policy Center in Chicago.

It found 171 Wisconsin companies that either produce, sell or install wind power equipment or plan wind development.

Another 135 companies are part of the solar energy industry. For example, Cardinal Glass makes solar panels in Mazomanie; Helios recently opened a solar panel factory in Milwaukee.

"These are real jobs; these are real businesses. Many are existing businesses that are branching out into new product lines," said Howard Learner, the center's executive director.

Appleton Coated: Offers five Green Power Utopia options

From a news release issued by Appleton Coated:

Combined Locks, Wis. (Oct. 10, 2011) – Appleton Coated has transitioned its renewable electricity purchasing to renewable energy credits (RECS) from Green-e® certified energy sources. Now, Green Power is a standard offer in five grades of the Utopia® brand of coated printing papers: Utopia Premium, Utopia One (sheets and web), U1X:Green (sheets and web), Utopia Two (sheets) and U2:XG (sheets and web). Effective Oct. 3, 2011, these five grades feature Green-e certified Green Power.

“One hundred percent of the electricity used to manufacture these products is matched with RECS from Green-e certified energy sources -- primarily wind. Purchasing Utopia papers with Green Power increases support for building clean, efficient, wind-powered facilities and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Demonstrating this forward-thinking commitment to the environment by choosing Green Power Utopia requires no additional effort or cost,” says Ferkó Goldinger, advertising and promotion manager.

Customers also may specify Green Power for Appleton Coated’s papers that do not include this as standard. Those choosing this option will be charged a small additional cost and will be provided with a certificate of purchase plus the Green Power logo, if requested.

Learn more about Appleton Coated’s environmental focus and features in the "Utopia Green Zone”. This online resource presents an easy, interactive format to compare up to four product choices and calculate the environmental savings.

Clean energy event draws dozens to Lakeshore Tech College

From an article in the Sheboygan Press:

An event to highlight the potential of using clean energy in Wisconsin drew dozens of people Thursday to Lakeshore Technical College in Cleveland.

The event, "Capturing Wisconsin's Clean Energy Potential: Benefits for Homeowners, Jobseekers and Students," included a campus renewal energy tour followed by a panel discussion with educators and area business and labor leaders who discussed the economic and environmental benefits of investing in clean energy.

It was sponsored by the Sierra Club of Wisconsin.

"Wisconsin has an opportunity to create thousands of jobs, clean up our air and catch up with other states and countries by modernizing our energy systems," said Shahla Werner, chapter director, Sierra Club–John Muir Chapter, in a press release issued by the organization on Friday.

"Right now we are sending over $16 billion dollars a year out of state to pay for fossil fuels," Werner said. "Recent decisions to curtail wind development and cut funding for Focus on Energy might be penny smart, but they are pound foolish. Focus on Energy has created over 24,000 small business private sector jobs since its creation just over a decade ago."

Focus on Energy programs save residents and homeowners $300 million per year, and that is money in your pocket that is staying in the state, unlike coal or natural gas that we bring in from out-of state," said Kevin Hogan, Focus on Energy outreach manager.

"Sometimes I wonder what really is considered a "green job." It's not just the people who put up wind turbines and solar panels, but it's also all the people who manufacture clean energy components and the people work at the business offices. But it goes beyond that to include healthcare workers and other service professionals, people who work at grocery stores and gas stations — everyone who economically benefits from interacting with this emerging work force" said Matt Boor, Lakeshore Technical College Wind Energy Instructor. . . .

Hop on the bus for renewable energy tour this Saturday

GREEN BAY — Wisconsin Public Service, Northeast Wisconsin Technical College, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and Eland Electric are sponsoring a bus tour Saturday that takes participants to homes and businesses around the area that have implemented renewable energy options.

The tour leaves from International Brothers Electric Workers building at 2970 Greenbrier Road in Green Bay.

Tours run from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 - 4 p.m.

Participants are asked to arrive 30 minutes early and the cost is $5 for the bus tour and lunch.

Sign-up is at www.midwestrenew.org or (715) 592-6595. Seats are limited.

Burning Questions: Making a case for renewable energy

From an article in the Appleton Post Crescent:

A report released last week by the Union of Concerned Scientists, called "A Bright Future for the Heartland," contends that Wisconsin and other Midwestern states can revitalize their economy and save their consumers money by making the kind of investments recommended by a group of Midwestern governors a few years ago.

The report was the topic of a discussion Wednesday at the Fox Valley Technical College in Grand Chute — and was also the topic of our Newsmakers online interview show at postcrescent.com.

The guests were Jeff Deyette, a renewable energy analyst with the Union, and Jeff Ehlers, the president of Renewegy, an Oshkosh company that makes small-scale wind turbines.

Here's an edited transcript of the interview:

What are the findings of the report?

Deyette: We believe that there's tremendous economic opportunity for Wisconsin and the rest of the Midwest by investing in renewable energy technologies like wind, solar, bioenergy resources such as switchgrass and investing in energy efficiency.

Our analysis looked at, what if Wisconsin and the rest of the Midwestern states significantly increased the policies they have for investing in those technologies?

What we found was, not surprisingly, that these technologies in addition to providing more local, cleaner energy sources for the state would deliver some significant economic benefits — about 11,000 new jobs by 2030, $2.7 billion in new investment paying for renewable energy projects, making our homes and businesses more energy efficient.

Consumers win out in this policy, as well. Because of the investment in energy efficiency, homes, businesses and industrial users can save as much as $6 billion over a 20-year period. The typical household would see savings averaging about $100 per year. It's good for business, it's good for job creation and it's good for consumers.