Central Library renews environment via green roof, including solar

From an article by Bobby Tanzilo on OnMilwaukee.com:

There are always exciting things going on in Milwaukee Public Library's Downtown Central Library, 814 W. Wisconsin Ave. But, these days, there is also some excitement on the building's roof, too.

When the library needed to replace its 25-year-old roof last year, instead of going for a conventional roof, a 30,000-square foot green roof was constructed and 132 solar electric panels were added to generate about 36,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. That's enough to power four homes annually.

"Everyone's very enthused about it," says the library's public services manager Christine Arkenberg, on a recent visit that begins on the library's first floor, where there is an area dedicated to the green roof initiative.

There, visitors can see books about green issues, view explanatory materials, see a monitor with status updates on how much electricity is being generated, watch a video screen slide show and pick up brochures.

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Couple Nurtures Green Living in Walworth County

From a story by Susan Bence on WUWM radio, Milwaukee:

Catherine McQueen and Fritz Kreiss describe themselves as partners in life and business, who decided to put their money where their green talk is.

I’m invited to their home to see for myself.

You drive into their five acres – it’s a former mink farm – through lush trees. A circle drive pulls you into their brightly white-painted home, surrounded by perennial beds.

Then WHAM, you spot the 50 kilowatts wind turbine throwing giant shadows along a line of trees.

Fritz says they’re goal is to use no more energy than they consume. They seem to be off to a good start.

“The 50 KW is about enough electricity for 15 homes,” Fritz says.

When the couple transplanted from Illinois five years ago and took on the fixer-upper, Catherine says they weren’t on an environmental mission.

“This was our Shangri-La. We were going to go out toes up from this house,” Catherine says.

They had just rolled up their sleeves to tackle the project, when Fritz says they learned their quiet country road was slated for development.

“We went to a town meeting and the town basically said, listen Highway 50 is meant to be a commercial corridor in the long term plan,” Fritz says.

Catherine says after pulling their jaws off the floor, they started brainstorming. Why not transform their vision to a B&B? Next summer they hope to welcome their first guests.

“`Where you’re sitting is going to be the area where people can get their breakfast and I’d like to serve tea at 4:00 and we’ll have like a cookie of the day,” Catherine says.

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Milwaukee Public Library installs green roof

From an article by Don Behm of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

The roof of Milwaukee's Central Library sprang to life, and went to work, in Friday's steady rain.

Thousands of sedum, a ground-covering plant, and clumps of chive and ornamental grasses - all perennials - were planted Friday in a six-inch layer of small gravel and soil spread across 30,000 square feet - nearly seven-tenths of an acre - to create a green roof atop the historic building, said Taj Schoening, business operations manager for the Milwaukee Public Library.

Its job is to mimic nature. The living roof will collect and store thousands of gallons of rainwater during a downpour, rather than allowing the clean water to drain immediately to a street sewer, Schoening said.

Each gallon of fresh water kept out of the pipes decreases the risk of sewer overflows, according to Kevin Shafer, executive director of the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District.

Combined sanitary and storm sewers on Wisconsin Ave. in front of the library quickly fill with rain in a deluge and begin spilling into the district's deep tunnels. Pipes draining street sewers into the tunnels are closed as the underground caverns fill, causing street sewers to overflow to local rivers and Lake Michigan.

Green roofs can become saturated after hours of heavy rainfall, and additional rain would slowly begin to drain to a street sewer. But that delay in draining to a sewer buys time for the district's system of tunnels and sewage plants to treat earlier flows.

An added benefit for taxpayers is the durability of the library's green roof, Schoening said.

"This will double the life expectancy of our flat roof," she said. "We won't have to do this again for 40 years."

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Two green homes go on the market in Riverwest

From an article by Julie Lawrence at OnMilwaukee.com:

Back in spring 2008, Pragmatic Construction, a Milwaukee-based green construction company aimed at advancing the principles of sustainable development within the urban environment, was knee-deep in a series of development projects but was still planning its path for a greener future in Milwaukee.

Co-founder Steve Servais and his crew were just laying out the plans for two single-family homes in Riverwest that were slated to be among the state's first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified platinum homes. . . .

LEED-certified buildings are designed to lower operating costs and increase asset value, reduce waste sent to landfills, conserve energy and water, be healthier and safer for occupants and reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

Two years later, the side-by-side sustainable homes at 702 and 708 E. Hadley St. are complete and now on the market. Servais says his company has really pushed sustainable building to the limit.

The house sizes are modest; 1,200 and 1,300 square feet, respectively. But the environmental impact is huge. Some of the many green features include passive solar heating, passive cooling, 96 percent energy-efficient forced-air backup HVAC, bio-based sprayfoam roof insulation, triple-pane windows, tankless hot water, reclaimed hardwood flooring, reclaimed doors, steel, fiber-cement and cedar siding, stained concrete flooring, no-VOC paints and finishes, dual-flush toilets and low-flow fixtures, in-floor radiant heat and energy recovery ventilators.

And it doesn't stop indoors. Outside they've implemented rain barrels, a shared rain-garden, pervious paving surfaces, steel roofing, recycled plastic roofing, a 2.1KW PV Array (solar electric), and two flat-panel solar hot water arrays.

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Port Washington OKs 'green' homes

From a post on Tom Daykin's blog at JSOnline:

A proposed nine-lot subdivision, showcasing homes with solar energy panels, geo-thermal heating and cooling systems, and other features designed to save energy, has received conceptual approval from the Port Washington Plan Commission.

Developer Mike Speas told me this morning that he plans to build homes with around 1,200 square feet, with three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and sell them at around $200,000.

The houses won't have finished basements, granite kitchen countertops and other amenities featured in comparably priced houses. But they will appeal to people looking to save a lot of money on their energy costs, Speas said.

The houses also will have a traditional arts and crafts bungalow design.

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Sierra Club & U.S. Green Building Council laucnh Cool Cities project

From a news release issued by the Sierra Club and the Wisconsin Green Building Alliance:

Milwaukee--Wisconsin Green Building Alliance (WIGBA) and Sierra Club’s Cool Cities program today announced the launch of the Green Building for Cool Cities collaboration. The partnership will leverage Cool Cities more than 200 local campaigns and USGBCs national network of 78 chapters to encourage new and retrofitted energy-efficient buildings, a key solution to global warming and to achieving the transition to a clean energy economy.

The organizations released a step-by-step green building policy guide for communities of all sizes. The recommended policies range from basic to more advanced plans of action to address energy-efficiency and environmental sustainability through the built environment.

Highlighted policies include leadership standards for government buildings that serve as models for the community; financial and no-cost incentives to build green for the commercial and residential sectors; and improved minimum efficiency standards through energy code adoption and enforcement. The Green Building for Cool Cities policy guide is available online at www.coolcities.us and www.usgbc.org. . . .

The Wisconsin State Building Commission has already been utilizing the guidelines. The new academic building at UW-Oshkosh, designed to incorporate renewable energy sources and sustainable principals to meet a gold LEED rating, is expected to save the University more than $182,000 annually. Energy design elements include:
+ Roof-top solar collectors will provide 70 percent of domestic hot water demand.
+ Radiant concrete slab flooring for heating and cooling — the first of its kind in the Wisconsin.
+ Day-lighting of more than 90 percent of regularly occupied spaces, reducing electric energy for lighting by more than one third.
+ Heat recovery system that exchanges the heat of warm exhausted air with the fresh air intake.

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Team Germany tops Solar Decathlon competition; UW-M lags

Visitors stand in line to learn about Team Germany's solar-powered house, which won the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Sunday, Oct. 18, 2009. (Photo by Stefano Paltera/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon)

From a news release issued by the U.S. Department of Energy:

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Department of Energy Deputy Secretary Daniel Poneman today announced the winners of the 2009 Department of Energy Solar Competition on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Team Germany, the student team from Darmstadt, Germany, won top honors by designing, building, and operating the most attractive and efficient solar-powered home. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign took second place followed by Team California in third place.

The active competition lasted for a week, with the prototype home designs open to the public through Sunday. Team Germany’s winning “Cube House” design produced a surplus of power even during three days of rain. This is the team’s second-straight Solar Decathlon victory, after winning the previous competition in 2007. . . .

Over the past two weeks, the 2009 Solar Decathlon challenged 20 university-led teams from the United States and as far away as Spain, Germany, and Canada to compete in 10 contests, ranging from subjective elements such as architecture, market viability, communications, lighting design, and engineering, to technical measurements of how well the homes provided energy for space heating and cooling, hot water, home entertainment, appliances, and net metering.

New to this year’s competition, the Net Metering Contest was worth 150 points towards the final results and was the most heavily weighted contest. It challenged teams to generate surplus energy, above and beyond the power needed to run a house, which they fed into a power grid.

Team Germany earned 908.29 points out of a possible 1,000 to win the competition, followed by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with 897.30 points, and Team California with 863.08 points.

The UW-Milwaukee team brought up the rear with 524.074 points, largely due to delays in getting the home to Washington. The University of Minnesota Team finished fifth with 838.544 point.

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UW-M students break ground at solar village

Students from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee assemble their solar-powered house in preparation for the start of the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon 2009 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., Tuesday, Oct. 06, 2009.

From an article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee architecture and engineering students have erected one of 20 buildings in a solar village that has risen on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Over the past two years, the students designed a small, energy-efficient solar home on campus, as part of the Solar Decathlon competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy.

After being built on campus, the home was taken down in pieces and shipped to Washington, where it was put back together over the past week.

UWM is one of 20 teams selected to compete in the Solar Decathlon and is the first entrant in the competition from Wisconsin.

"We're excited about it," said Greg Thomson, assistant professor of architecture. "We're happy to be there. There's a big chunk of the Big Ten, and also teams that are made up of multiple universities."

The competition is international - with teams funded in part by the governments of Germany and Spain.

The UWM home - named Meltwater - features 28 solar panels producing electricity and two solar panels powering a hot water system. The name was chosen because its design was inspired by the power of the sun to melt the glaciers and create the Great Lakes.

The students and faculty involved in the project designed a home that would be comfortable in Wisconsin's climate.

The walls are extra thick and injected with more than twice the insulation of a typical Wisconsin home, Thomson said.

Photo by Stefano Paltera/U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon

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Sustainable homes in Milwaukee

"Pragmatic Construction is building two sustainable homes in the Riverwest neighborhood of Milwaukee. These homes are targeting LEED-H Platinum certification," including passaive solar design and options of solar hotwater and solar electricity, according to its Web site which calls the company a "green design-build firm specializing in the integration of multiple green principles and technologies."

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Racine wants green for housing project

From an article by Dustin Block in The Daily Reporter:

Ken Lumpkin cautions against poor timing as Racine closes in on building an environmentally sound housing development in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods.

“The whole area needs to be cleared out, new sod put down, and the lot should be utilized as a park until the economy makes a turnaround,” said Lumpkin, a member of the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Racine, about the site of a former homeless shelter torn down earlier this year to make room for development.

“It’s a fragile area directly across the street from an elementary school,” he said. . . .

The city hired Pragmatic Construction LLC, Milwaukee, for preliminary work on the site, and the city is reviewing the results, O’Connell said. He said he wants to give a report to the Redevelopment Authority of the City of Racine, which is in charge of the project, by November.

The challenge for developers of the green housing project is to build affordable new homes in a neighborhood with deteriorating housing stock, said Juli Kaufmann, co-owner of Pragmatic. Homes surrounding the property are valued at about $50,000, according to Racine County property tax data.

But the green, high-efficiency homes Pragmatic specializes in could be the perfect fit for a low-income neighborhood, Kaufmann said. With lower heating and gas bills, the homes would be cheap to run, and they’re built from durable materials that eliminate the need to paint or repair exteriors.

“We certainly think about that, and our clients talk about that,” Kaufmann said. “It’s on the table. The objective would be to figure out how to build reasonably affordable homes with homes across the street selling for $50,000. It’s impossible to build any size home at that price today.”

The city likely would support construction of a spec home on the site and then recruit builders to take on a certain number of lots on the property, O’Connell said. The property could support roughly 10 homes, and could possibly include multifamily homes.

O’Connell said building green homes keeps to the city’s commitment to environmentally responsible construction and cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

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Waukesha home opens for Solar Tour

A press release issued for the Wisconsin Solar Tour:

A Waukesha home will be one of more than 150 sites in the state open for the 2008 Wisconsin Solar Tour on October 4.

The home of Julie and Vince Toman, 2105 Parkview Court, features 30 roof-mounted solar panels following the second story roofline in the rear of the house.

“It produces more electricity than we need for much of the year. We’ve only paid 6 electric / gas bills in the last 15 months,” according to Julie Toman.

“In fact, we get a credit for the amount of excess electricity it generates,” she added.

Businesses with solar installations will welcome visitors on October 3, the first day of the two-day Solar Tour, organized by the Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA), located in Custer, Wisconsin.

Tour destinations will showcase advances in energy efficient construction, new products, sustainable landscaping, and renewable energy technologies.

“The tour demonstrates that renewable energy is practical, reliable, and affordable in today’s economy,” said Amy Heart, Program Director for the MREA.

“Tour participants have the chance to talk with people who live and work with renewable energy and green building features,” Heart added.

Full details on the Solar Tour and all the open businesses and residences are online at www.the-mrea.org/solartour.php.

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Kettle Foods gets it

From the Green Racine blog:

Salem, Ore.-based Kettle Foods says that it has yielded environmental and economic benefits by adopting measures that include offsetting all of the electricity used to operate both its Salem and Beloit factories with wind power. Additionally, the Beloit plant is home to 18 rooftop wind turbines.

"When we decided to go for green - or in this case, gold - with LEED certification of our new factory, we knew it was the right thing to do," says Tim Fallon, president of Kettle Foods' North American division.

The company also recycles of 2,300 gallons of waste oil with conversion to biodiesel used to power a company fleet of diesel-engine cars called BioBeetles, and reduces more than three million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions annually resulting from the elimination of shipping lines between Oregon and the Midwest.

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WPPI wants to fund zero energy homes

From a media release from Wisconsin Public Power, Incorporated:

Homeowners looking to build or remodel in communities served by WPPI member utilities have an opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint through WPPI’s GreenMax Home program. WPPI is now soliciting competitive proposals for grants to help fund the construction of up to three net zero energy homes within WPPI member utility service areas.

As part of WPPI’s overall efforts to encourage public and community support for renewable energy, energy conservation and energy efficiency, the GreenMax Home program will help customers build highly efficient, environmentally friendly homes. Grants will be awarded to cover part of the incremental cost of designing and building a GreenMax Home over the cost of constructing a conventional Upper Midwest house. Incremental costs will include the design elements and technologies directly related to reducing energy use or producing energy through renewable resources.

“We are pleased to present another opportunity for homeowners in WPPI member communities to build and live in homes with net zero energy use,” said Senior Vice President of Customer Services and Administration Tom Paque. “The GreenMax Home program allows homeowners to take advantage of renewable energy technologies and demonstrate practical approaches to the efficient use of energy.”

WPPI’s GreenMax Home program supports the design and lifestyle choices that move a home from “highly efficient” to “net zero.” Net zero homes combine state-of-the-art green and environmentally friendly technologies and practices with renewable energy technology to ensure that the homes produce as much energy as they consume. To the greatest extent possible, the energy consumption (heating, cooling and electrical) of the homes will be provided by renewable energy sources.

WPPI's member utilities are
Alger Delta, MI
Algoma
Baraga, MI
Black River Falls
Boscobel
Brodhead
Cedarburg
Columbus
Cuba City
Eagle River
Evansville
Florence
Gladstone, MI
Hartford
Hustisford
Independence, IA
Jefferson
Juneau
Kaukauna
L'Anse, MI
Lake Mills
Lodi
Maquoketa, IA
Menasha
Mount Horeb
Muscoda
Negaunee, MI
New Glarus
New Holstein
New London
New Richmond
Norway, MI
Oconomowoc
Oconto Falls
Plymouth
Prairie du Sac
Reedsburg
Richland Center
River Falls
Slinger
Stoughton
Sturgeon Bay
Sun Prairie
Two Rivers
Waterloo
Waunakee
Waupun
Westby
Whitehall

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The sun powers Racine Eco-Justice Center

From a story by Michael Seidel on OnMilwaukee.com:

"Now, when he has enough, he'll stop," Sister Janet Weyker says. She's holding a baby robin; the bird chirp excitedly as Weyker feeds him worms out of a tin of compost and wild black raspberries from a cup. Since the robin's mother disappeared, Weyker has taken over, tending to the fledling's hunger at mealtimes.

This type of stewardship is precisely what motivated Weyker and several other sisters of the Racine Dominican order to found the Eco-Justice Center, a 15-acre learning center, farm and homestead located at 5635 Erie St. in Racine.

As a whole, the Racine Dominicans, a Catholic community of vowed women and lay associates, are committed to the ideas of education and justice. But back in 2000, the nuns saw a gap in their order's efforts to extend those concepts to the environment.

"(We thought) the environment is in crisis and we should really do something," Sister Janet says, "I didn't want to just talk about it anymore, I really want to make that dream a reality. . . ."

"Fifty-five solar panels produce all the energy that we use in the summertime," Weyker explains. Additionally, the house uses geothermal heating for its heating and air conditioning. "Geothermal is a system where there are pipes buried in the ground 9.5 feet deep, and there's a constant temperature of 55 degrees. . . ."

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Show off your system!

From the Midwest Renewable Energy Association:

Interested in showcasing your new renewable energy installation at your home or business? Sign-up for the Wisconsin Solar Tour, October 3 & 4, 2008. Open your doors, and help others learn about renewable energy, green building and sustainable practices. Fill out the online application.

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Green Life Day at Fields Neighborhood, July 19

From a media release issued by Fields Neighborhood:

Interested in finding out what it would be like to life the green life you have imagined? Come experience living green at Fields Neighborhood’s Live a Green Life Day on Saturday, July 19, 11:00 a.m. -3:00 p.m.

All are welcome to tour Fields Neighborhood’s award-winning green built housing and other innovative environmental solutions while talking with the visionary founder and architects.

Come dwell in possibility as you walk the miles of nature preserve trails, enjoy the open expanse of land on a hayride or tour the farm at neighboring Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, where you can pick your own flowers or produce. Discover straw bale building as demonstrated by renowned straw bale expert Michael Morgan and learn about biodynamic gardening with veteran garden expert Janet Gamble.

Come to relax. Come to breathe. Located at the corner of South and West Streets, this vibrant farming community in East Troy, Wisconsin, is nestled in the rolling hills of Southeast Wisconsin 30 minutes from Milwaukee and 90 minutes from Chicago.

“When we saw the destructive nature of most suburban sprawl, we wanted to introduce people to a type of community and way of living that was in tune with nature. This community serves as a model and educational reference on sustainability with award-winning green built cluster housing, community gardens, natural tranquility and open spaces in permanent land trusts,” said Fields Neighborhood visionary Christopher Mann.

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Milwaukee project lauded for sustainability and solar installation

From a story by Mary Louise Schumacher in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

From a coffeehouse with a green design to a gathering place in a former industrial wasteland, from a dynamic railway station to a new airport concourse, from a face lift for what's now an upscale Cajun eatery to the restored roof of an old Polish church, 27 projects will be honored today by Mayor Tom Barrett for contributing to Milwaukee's urban landscape.

Barrett will present the Mayor's Urban Design Awards, for design excellence, and the Cream of the Cream City Awards, for smart preservation, at a reception at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Architecture and Urban Planning, 2131 E. Hartford Ave., at 5 p.m.

The design awards will go to projects completed by the end of 2007, including the Dr. Wesley L. Scott Senior Living Community, 2802 W. Wright St., for creating an environmentally sustainable building with a rooftop solar energy system (pictured above).

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Waukesha home installs solar panels on shingles of recycled diapers

From an article by Linda McAlpine on GM Today:

WAUKESHA - From the faux-slate shingles made of recycled baby diapers and rooftop solar panels to its engineered wood floors, the house being built at 1512 Rock Ridge Way in Waukesha is anything but traditional.

The 2,100 square-foot house is the 2008 Wisconsin Trend Home and when completed later this summer will house the latest in energy-saving and environmentally-friendly technology.

Starting at the top, Tim O’Brien, of O’Brien Homes, Waukesha, builder of the home, walked through some of its cutting edge highlights.

"The shingles, which look like slate, are made of recycled baby diapers, tires and plastic bottles," he said. "Because they’re light, they don’t need the structure to support them so you need less wood. You’re doing something good for the environment by using product made from recycled material. They also have a 50-year life span."

According to Lisa Schaal, solar site assessor for Sol Power, Milwaukee, the 20 solar panels on the roof enable the house to use about 500 or less kilowatts per month, compared with the average home electricity usage of 800 kilowatts per month.

Dave Schwabenlender, of Arch Electric, LLC of Plymouth, said the panels will generate power even on cloudy days.

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