Michigan school to test Lake Michigan's wind

From an article by Dave Alexander in the Meskegon Chronicle:

Grand Valley State University’s wind turbine testing project for Muskegon Lake is shifting in a new direction.

Instead of a wind turbine at the east end of Muskegon Lake, GVSU’s Michigan Alternative and Renewable Energy Center now is planning to move a wind test platform to Lake Michigan, where data can be collected on the pros and cons of turbines on a major lake.

The university has received $1.4 million in an “earmark” from U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Holland, to advance wind turbine generation on the Great Lakes.

The idea of testing a turbine on Muskegon Lake is cost prohibitive with the federal dollars available, according to Arn Boezaart, interim director of the Muskegon-based MAREC. Efforts to partner with L-3 Communications in Muskegon have not been successful.

Discussions with officials from the U.S. Department of Energy and those interested in advancing a Great Lakes wind industry in West Michigan led to the idea of a floating, data-collection platform in Lake Michigan.

The platform would hold a anemometer that gauges wind speed. . . .

A data-collection platform established from 6-10 miles off the Muskegon shoreline would be left on the lake for two or three years. It would provide year-round wind data.

The floating platform also could test anchoring systems and show how Lake Michigan ice movements in the winter would affect an eventual lake-based turbine installation, Boezaart said.

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North America - 40,000 new wind turbines by 2015

North America, particularly U.S. desperately needs much stronger renewable energy sector, and the most promising look to be solar energy and wind energy. The latter one could looks to be soon experiencing new boom with the deployment of 40,000 new wind turbines across North America, and in the period of only 6 years, by the year 2015. Well, this is at least what report from Pike Research has to

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Closed duck farm may reopen as renewable energy site in Racine

From an article by Rick Barrett in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

A group of local businessmen have proposed using a waste treatment facility at the former Maple Leaf Farms in Yorkville to process food waste into electricity.

Maple Leaf was one of the nation's largest duck farms. It closed in 2008, resulting in the shutdown of its manure-to-energy methane digester.

DF-1 Associates is a group of Racine-area businessmen involved in restaurant grease recycling. They're hoping to reopen the methane digester and fuel it with restaurant garbage and waste from food-processing plants. The company would make money by hauling away the waste from restaurants and food processors and selling electricity generated from the digester.

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Rumors fly about offline wind turbines

From an article by Colleen Kottke in the Fond du Lac Reporter:

BROWNSVILLE — As the blades of the 86 turbines on the Forward Wind Energy Center remain still, rumors have been circulating faster than the wind as to why the wind farm has been offline since Sept. 29.

Invenergy LLC officials attributed the shutdown to scheduled maintenance of the wind farm's substation. However, the latest buzz that a major utility pulled out of its power purchase contract and has left Invenergy without a new customer to fill the void simply isn't true, said Laura Miner, asset manager for Invenergy.

"There was a delay in getting parts for the transformer at the plant, and now we have completed testing of the equipment and will begin bringing the unit back online," Miner said. "This is a very time-consuming process as we have to manually prepare the unit. We expect the plant to be back online sometime early next week."

Calls to the Forward Wind Center's four major power purchasers confirmed that all contracts negotiated with the Chicago-based firm remain in place. Invenergy currently has contracts with Madison Gas & Electric, 40 megawatts; Wisconsin Public Power Inc., 40 megawatts; Wisconsin Public Service, 70 megawatts; and Alliant Energy, 50 megawatts.

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UW-M team slipping; U. of Minn still in solar decathlon competition

From an article by Jim Dawson and Devin Powell on MinnPost.com:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Team members from the University of Minnesota were tense as they prepared their 565 square foot solar home for a visit by jurors from the engineering and lighting judging panels. Experts in their respective fields, the jurors' visit would determine the team's score for the aesthetics and functionality aspects of their design that cannot be properly evaluated by measurements alone.

The judges would also be taking comfort zone and appliance measurements, and the students were worried about every operational detail inside their $501,000 house.

The Minnesota team was in 7th place out of the 20 teams that built entirely solar-powered homes on the National Mall in downtown Washington as part of the Department of Energy's 2009 Solar Decathlon competition. . . .

At the other end of the Mall, the team from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee was struggling. The team was in last place, and were struggling to get the house's sliding doors to move smoothly on their tracks. Their house, valued at $485,000, had tabletops made out of pressed paper and cashew shells and the ability to warm up just from the heat of the people inside.

But its last-place standing reflected a 3-inch problem in the design.

"The west end of the house was 3 inches too tall to go through Indiana [on the transport trailer]," said Eric Davis, the project's chief engineer. "So we had to go down through Illinois, then cross Kentucky."

There was another height regulation problem when they got to the edge of Washington, and it took another 20 hours to finally get their structure to the National Mall. While the other teams were fine tuning their home's systems, the Wisconsin team was still wearing hard hats and putting their house together.

"We missed the metering contest, so our score is down," Davis said.

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Two excellent films about the importance of water

From an announcement by the Waukesha County Environmental Action League:

Water is on its way to becoming the oil of the 21st century. World water shortages brought about by increasing demand of growing populations and the results of mis-use and overuse of water, in conjunction with globalization, and the privatization of government roles and responsibilities, are adding up to what may be a world water crisis. While improved technology and new and alternate sources may provide answers to the energy crunch, no scientists have discovered how to make more water yet.

Two award-winning documentary films begin to address this issue: "Thirst" and "FLOW" (For Love of Water). Beginning on Sept. 23, WEAL (Waukesha County Environmental Action League) will show these films around the County.

Think of it as the "No Excuses Film Fest":

Seven showings ("Thirst" -- 4 showings. "FLOW" -- 3 showings.)
On different nights of the week
From Sept 23 to Oct 22, 2009
At locations all around the County
Free parking at easily accessible Public Libraries**
Free admission
Light refreshments
Discussion to follow

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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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