Solar powers up former stockyards

From an article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:Wisconsin's first solar panel factory has opened in the Menomonee River Valley, on the site of stockyards that contributed to the city's leadership in the meatpacking and processing industries more than 100 years ago.Later this year, solar panels will go up on the roof of the building that replaced the stockyards, and the panels will be made downstairs in Steve Ostrenga's factory.Privately held Helios USA started making robots this month, using an automated production line to build high-efficiency solar panels. The goal: to help put an emerging, 21st-century industry on the map in the state.That's what excited Patrick Shaw of Cudahy about working at the plant, he said during a recent tour of the W. Canal St. factory."I wanted...

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Committee sets March 1 to vote on suspension of wind siting rule

From the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA):The Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) has now scheduled a special meeting on March 1st to consider suspending the PSC128 Wind Siting rule that our industry worked on in 2009-2010 that are scheduled to take effect on March 1st. If the JCRAR suspends the PSC128 rule, before it otherwise would take effect that same day, we will be back where we started two years ago on wind siting reform in Wiscons...

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Wisconsin windpower means Wisconsin jobs!

To enlarge, click this ad which appeared in Sunday's Milwuakee Journal Sentin...

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We Energies ponders Valley plant's future

From an article by Thomas Content in the Milwaukeee Journal Sentinel:Stricter EPA pollution rules leading to changesWe Energies managers expect to decide this year how the utility will clean up the Menomonee Valley power plant to comply with new environmental rules.The Milwaukee power company is studying whether to add pollution controls at the downtown plant or to convert the plant to burn natural gas.A coalition of health and environmental groups plans a petition drive calling on the company to make changes more rapidly.The Valley plant has come under fire because it is the only large utility plant the company operates in Wisconsin that hasn't been outfitted with state-of-the-art pollution scrubbers or shut down.As part of a federal court settlement resolving alleged violations of the Clean...

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Fond du Lac County says wind farms support local businesses

From a letter to the Legislature's Joint Committee on Administrative Rules from Fond du Lac County in support of PSC proposed wind siting rules, not the rules proposed by Gov. Scot Walker:Utility scale wind farms in Wisconsin have meant a lot to local businesses. Farmers that want to continue working their farmland have additional income to support their operations. Land rental payments for turbine sites bring farmers $5,000 each year for each turbine site. Farmers invest these dollars, $829,900 in 2010, into growing crops or their dairy herds. One of our local contractors, Michels Corporation of Brownsville, Wisconsin, has been the prime contractor in several utility scale wind farms. Michels was the prime contractor and paid living wages to just over 200 employees in the Fond du Lac/Dodge...

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Muskegon commissioners support Lake Michigan research for offshore wind turbine development

From an article by Dave Alexander in the Muskegon (MI) Chronicle:MUSKEGON – When the head of the Grand Valley State University alternative energy center asked for the city of Muskegon's help in establishing an offshore wind research buoy in Lake Michigan, there was no controversy.Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center Director Arn Boezaart asked the Muskegon City Commission for the city to be a co-applicant on state and federal environmental permit applications. Commissioners quickly voted the city's support and heaped praise on Boezaart for the activities of the energy center in downtown Muskegon.Anyone who sat through last year's hearings on offshore Lake Michigan wind farms proposed by Scandia would be hard-pressed to see the Ludington City Council or the Pentwater Village Council...

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Fond du Lac County, host of 168 wind turbines, supports PSC siting rules

Testimony of Sam TobiasDirector of Planning and ParksFond du Lac CountyBefore the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative RulesFebruary 9, 2011(starts at 3:45:30 pm on Wisconsin Eye)Thank you for the opportunity to speak before you today -- chairs and committee members as well.I’ve been with Fond du Lac County for 25 years in a couple of different roles but at this point I’m with the county planning and parks director. You have to know just a bit about Fond du Lac County to understand where I’m coming from and what’s been happening in Fond du Lac. In our county we do not have county zoning, every town in our county, all 21, each has their own individual zoning ordinance. They administer their zoning ordinances. At times, with wind siting issues especially, they depend heavily on their...

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Committee takes no steps to ban wind turbines

RENEW Wisconsin submitted the following statement at the public hearing of the Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules on wind siting rules (PSC 128). Governor Walker and legislative leaders reportedly will seek a change in the rule when the governor appoints a new chair of the three-person Public Service Commission when Commissioner Mark Meyer's term expires March 1. With no legislative action, PSC 128 will become effective on March 1, 2011, and will remain in effect until changed by the PSC.Good morning, my name is Michael Vickerman. I am here to represent RENEW Wisconsin, a nonprofit advocacy and education organization based in Madison. Incorporated in 1991, RENEW acts as a catalyst to advance a sustainable energy future through public policy and private sector initiatives....

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Scientists see no basis for turbine ‘infrasound’ health problems

From an article by Jim Dulzo on the Web site of Michigan Land Use Institute:. . . when they could not find an independent organization willing to underwrite such a study, they paid for it themselves. AWEA [American Wind Energy Association] and CanWEA [Canada Wind Energy Associaiton] assembled eight scientists and doctors to survey the available scientific literature on the known health effects of living near wind turbines.Collectively, the eight have strong research or clinical experience in public health, otolaryngology, noise-induced hearing loss, balance and hearing disorders, clinical medicine, audiology, infrasound acoustics, industrial sound pathology, wind and turbine physics, and turbine sound measurement and siting.Their review of 140 different studies and papers issued in 2009, largely...

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Business associations clash over wind siting rules

From an article by Tom Content in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:The state Legislature moved with remarkable speed during its special session to enact proposals advocated by Gov. Scott Walker.The single great exception: a bill to restrict development of wind farms.Of 10 bills considered by the Legislature in the special session that began Jan. 4, the wind siting bill is the only one that didn't clear the state Assembly.Legislative leaders last week decided to stop consideration of the Walker bill, saying they would move to address wind siting in a different way. The move came one week after Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's largest business lobby, announced its opposition to the wind siting bill. It's the only plank of Walker's special session platform that WMC opposed.The...

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Gov. Walker's office to keep pushing new wind turbine rules

From a story on WTAQ, Madison:MADISON, Wis. (WTAQ) - Governor Scott Walker’s office says it will keep trying to limit the locating of new wind energy farms in Wisconsin – even though his own Republicans in the Legislature are not going along with it for now.Spokesman Cullen Werwie says Walker will try to get the state Public Service Commission to adopt his proposal. That’s after Republican legislative leaders said they wanted more time to review the impact.Walker wants wind turbines to be at least 1,800 feet away from neighboring homes, instead of the current 1,250 feet. The Wisconsin Realtors Association pushed for the change.Walker said it would help property owners who say the turbines cause too much noise and flickering light. But the wind energy industry says it would be the most restrictive...

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Will Wisconsin's emerging technologies survive under Walker?

From an article by Mike Ivey in The Capital Times:When President Obama toured the state last week, he visited two companies in Manitowoc to promote Wisconsin's high-tech, clean-energy economy.First, the president stopped at Tower Tech Systems, which manufactures utility-scale wind towers. Then he toured Orion Energy Systems, which makes high-efficiency lighting and solar-focused products."These aren't just good jobs that can help you pay the bills and support your families," the president told some 200 workers at Orion. "They're jobs that are good for all of us; that will make our energy bills cheaper; that will make our planet safer; that will sharpen America's competitive edge in the world."But some are wondering whether Gov. Scott Walker, despite his "open for business" mantra, and the...

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35 Milwaukee County cars now hybrids

From an article in The Daily Reporter:Milwaukee County’s vehicle fleet is becoming more fuel-efficient, thanks to an infusion of Ford Fusion Hybrid vehicles unveiled Monday at Milwaukee County’s Fleet Maintenance facility.The vehicles will replace 35 aging Chevy Impalas currently used in a variety of county departments that were driven a total of 332,500 miles and cost nearly $40,000 in fuel annually, according to a news release from acting Milwaukee County Executive Lee Holloway.The new hybrid vehicles are estimated to cost $26,000 in fuel annually — a 35 percent fuel savings – and will save more than 4,400 gallons of petroleum per year, according to the relea...

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