.jpg)
From a news release issued by Focus on Energy:
(March 15, 2011) – Focus on Energy, Wisconsin utilities’ statewide program for energy efficiency and renewable energy, is now accepting applications from businesses that want to fund energy project manager positions. Applications can be downloaded at focusonenergy.com/staffgrant and are due May 15, 2011. These staffing grants help businesses, manufacturers, schools, and government facilities throughout Wisconsin hire employees or consultants who oversee the organization’s energy-efficiency and renewable energy projects.
“Businesses often overlook the value of having a staff person or a consultant who’s solely focused on energy-saving projects,” said Ken Williams, Focus on Energy’s business programs director. “However, many companies can recoup this employee or consultant’s pay many times over due to unexploited energy savings opportunities. Focus’ staffing grants help prove this concept to businesses by offsetting the first year’s salary costs.”
Indeed, Focus has found that having an employee or consultant who oversees energy efficiency and/or renewable energy projects makes an organization more likely to reap significant energy and cost savings. For example, the City of Fennimore received a Focus staffing grant in 2010 and is benefiting from the energy and dollar savings in part because of its energy project manager.
“It was a great learning opportunity for our staff and allowed us to better understand our energy use,” said Margaret Sprague, City Clerk Treasurer. “Our energy manager allowed us to reduce energy needs and save money during these tight economic times.”
Industrial businesses can apply for a maximum staffing grant of $80,000. Commercial businesses, schools, and governments are eligible to apply for up to $40,000. Grants can be used to cover the salary and benefits of a full- or part-time employee or consultant. Partnering or neighboring companies are encouraged to submit a joint application and share an employee or consultant between the businesses.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Focus offers competitive grants to businesses for large renewable energy projects
From a news release issued by Focus on Energy:
Completed proposals due April 30, 2011
MADISON, Wis. (March 11, 2011) – Today, Focus on Energy, Wisconsin utilities’ statewide program for energy efficiency and renewable energy, announced that businesses can compete for incentives for large renewable energy systems. The Large Renewable Energy System Competitive Incentives allow Wisconsin businesses and organizations to apply for funds to help implement large renewable energy systems.
Businesses can receive an incentive of up to 30 percent of the project costs to complete a renewable energy project that is well-researched, documented, and justified. Eligible, large-scale renewable energy systems may include: solar electric, solar hot-water, wind electric, biomass energy, and anaerobic digestion (biogas).
“Renewable energy technology offers businesses deeper energy cost savings after energy efficiency measures are implemented.” said Ken Williams, Focus on Energy’s business programs director. “Focus’ large renewable energy competitive incentives help businesses defray some of the upfront investment cost of a renewable energy system, resulting in a quicker payback."
Any type of business, school, government entity, agribusiness, and apartments/condo facilities can apply for a Focus competitive incentive. The application and details are available online at focusonenergy.com/competitive_incentives. Applications are due by April 30, 2011.
Completed proposals due April 30, 2011
MADISON, Wis. (March 11, 2011) – Today, Focus on Energy, Wisconsin utilities’ statewide program for energy efficiency and renewable energy, announced that businesses can compete for incentives for large renewable energy systems. The Large Renewable Energy System Competitive Incentives allow Wisconsin businesses and organizations to apply for funds to help implement large renewable energy systems.
Businesses can receive an incentive of up to 30 percent of the project costs to complete a renewable energy project that is well-researched, documented, and justified. Eligible, large-scale renewable energy systems may include: solar electric, solar hot-water, wind electric, biomass energy, and anaerobic digestion (biogas).
“Renewable energy technology offers businesses deeper energy cost savings after energy efficiency measures are implemented.” said Ken Williams, Focus on Energy’s business programs director. “Focus’ large renewable energy competitive incentives help businesses defray some of the upfront investment cost of a renewable energy system, resulting in a quicker payback."
Any type of business, school, government entity, agribusiness, and apartments/condo facilities can apply for a Focus competitive incentive. The application and details are available online at focusonenergy.com/competitive_incentives. Applications are due by April 30, 2011.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Energy programs get Walker ax
From an article by Mike Ivey in The Capital Times:
If you like burning fossil fuels - hey, aren't those Koch brothers in the pipeline business? - then you'll love Gov. Walker's proposed budget.
The 1,345-pager takes a whack at scores of environmental efforts, from nixing the state Office of Energy Independence to actually encouraging state vehicles to use more gasoline.
Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. And with pump prices marching toward $4 a gallon, you wonder if any thought went into the long-term fiscal impacts.
But here's the skinny.
Walker wants to eliminate the Office of Energy Independence, which works to reduce the state's annual energy bill. Launched by Gov. Doyle in 2007, it has 10 staffers and an office at 201 W. Washington Ave.
Since Wisconsin has no coal, natural gas or oil reserves, its citizens send over $20 billion out of state every year to Wyoming, the Gulf of Mexico and the Middle East evil-doers who hate America.
The OEI was designed to work with the biofuels industry, renewable energy markets and alternative energy researchers here at home.
Instead, Walker wants the Department of Administration to develop a "cost-effective, balanced, reliable, and environmentally-responsible energy strategy to promote economic growth." As in growth for the oil and gas guys?
The state has also been operating under a directive that by 2015 it reduce gasoline use by at least 50 percent from 2006 levels. Walker wants to eliminate the requirement and drop the reduction goal to 20 percent.
If you like burning fossil fuels - hey, aren't those Koch brothers in the pipeline business? - then you'll love Gov. Walker's proposed budget.
The 1,345-pager takes a whack at scores of environmental efforts, from nixing the state Office of Energy Independence to actually encouraging state vehicles to use more gasoline.
Seriously, you can't make this stuff up. And with pump prices marching toward $4 a gallon, you wonder if any thought went into the long-term fiscal impacts.
But here's the skinny.
Walker wants to eliminate the Office of Energy Independence, which works to reduce the state's annual energy bill. Launched by Gov. Doyle in 2007, it has 10 staffers and an office at 201 W. Washington Ave.
Since Wisconsin has no coal, natural gas or oil reserves, its citizens send over $20 billion out of state every year to Wyoming, the Gulf of Mexico and the Middle East evil-doers who hate America.
The OEI was designed to work with the biofuels industry, renewable energy markets and alternative energy researchers here at home.
Instead, Walker wants the Department of Administration to develop a "cost-effective, balanced, reliable, and environmentally-responsible energy strategy to promote economic growth." As in growth for the oil and gas guys?
The state has also been operating under a directive that by 2015 it reduce gasoline use by at least 50 percent from 2006 levels. Walker wants to eliminate the requirement and drop the reduction goal to 20 percent.
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Wisconsin poised to be energy exporter
From an article by Matt Hrody on NewsBuzz:
After the brownouts of the late 1990s, electric utilities in Wisconsin got serious about adding generating capacity. Although the new power plants that followed, including ones in the Milwaukee area, ultimately increased rates for customers, they could become a boon for them as the economy rebounds, according to the state’s new Strategic Energy Assessment. Wisconsin could become a leading exporter of electricity in the Midwest with profits helping to keep a lid on rates at home.
The Assessment, released earlier this week, projects that the state’s generating capacity will exceed demand in the state by 20 percent until 2015. The “reserve margin,” as it’s called, will peak this year at 26 percent. To the state Public Service Commission, which regulates electric utilities in the state and produced the report, the margin may be too large. “There is reason for concern,” it says, “when reserve margins are in excess of 20 percent.”
According to Charlie Higley, executive director of the state Citizens’ Utility Board, the costs for running and maintaining unneeded power plants, particularly older, less efficient ones that burn coal, are passed onto consumers.
The Commission suggests that the state’s excess capacity could become an opportunity. While Wisconsin has undergone a large build-up of power plants, other states haven’t. “Other states may not be as well-positioned with capacity in their near futures,” the report says, “and Wisconsin utilities may increasingly serve as energy exporters.”
Profits from those exports – wholesale power sales to municipalities or other customers throughout the Midwest – must be used to pay for rising fuel costs, according to Higley. Fuel costs are a major driver of rate increases, which could be offset by an increase in wholesale profits.
The Commission agrees. “While this market is evolving, the opportunity exists for excess generation sales to benefit ratepayers,” the report says.
“Any profit is returned to ratepayers, and that’s fine with us,” says Higley, but neither he nor the Commission yet knows how large the returns could be.
After the brownouts of the late 1990s, electric utilities in Wisconsin got serious about adding generating capacity. Although the new power plants that followed, including ones in the Milwaukee area, ultimately increased rates for customers, they could become a boon for them as the economy rebounds, according to the state’s new Strategic Energy Assessment. Wisconsin could become a leading exporter of electricity in the Midwest with profits helping to keep a lid on rates at home.
The Assessment, released earlier this week, projects that the state’s generating capacity will exceed demand in the state by 20 percent until 2015. The “reserve margin,” as it’s called, will peak this year at 26 percent. To the state Public Service Commission, which regulates electric utilities in the state and produced the report, the margin may be too large. “There is reason for concern,” it says, “when reserve margins are in excess of 20 percent.”
According to Charlie Higley, executive director of the state Citizens’ Utility Board, the costs for running and maintaining unneeded power plants, particularly older, less efficient ones that burn coal, are passed onto consumers.
The Commission suggests that the state’s excess capacity could become an opportunity. While Wisconsin has undergone a large build-up of power plants, other states haven’t. “Other states may not be as well-positioned with capacity in their near futures,” the report says, “and Wisconsin utilities may increasingly serve as energy exporters.”
Profits from those exports – wholesale power sales to municipalities or other customers throughout the Midwest – must be used to pay for rising fuel costs, according to Higley. Fuel costs are a major driver of rate increases, which could be offset by an increase in wholesale profits.
The Commission agrees. “While this market is evolving, the opportunity exists for excess generation sales to benefit ratepayers,” the report says.
“Any profit is returned to ratepayers, and that’s fine with us,” says Higley, but neither he nor the Commission yet knows how large the returns could be.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Suspension of wind siting rule endangers state’s economic future
For immediate release:
March 1, 2011
More information
Michael Vickerman
Executive Director
608.255.4044
mvickerman@renewwisconsin.org
(Madison) - The wind industry in Wisconsin suffered a serious setback when a joint legislative panel voted to suspend the wind siting rule promulgated by the Public Service Commission (PSC) in December, according to RENEW Wisconsin, a statewide renewable energy advocacy group.
The five-to-two vote tracked along party lines, with all five votes to suspend coming from Republican members of the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR).
Many companies involved in windpower supported the PSC’s rule as a workable compromise that would have created a stable and predictable permitting environment for all wind energy systems regulated by local governments. The rule, which was scheduled to take effect today, would have fulfilled the Legislature’s intent to create uniform siting regulations to replace what had become a restrictive hodgepodge of local requirements.
“The committee gave the state of Wisconsin a black eye that, in the view of the wind industry, will linger well into the future,” Vickerman said.
“The suspension rolls the wind permitting environment back to the dark days when wind project developers routinely faced arbitrary and ever-shifting local regulations – the kind of chaos that will hasten their departure from Wisconsin to more business-friendly states.”
“As of today, Wisconsin utilities have placed more megawatts of wind capacity in neighboring states than in Wisconsin. As indicated in the following table, importing wind generation from other states deprives Wisconsin of a valuable source of employment, income for rural residents, and property tax relief,” said Vickerman.
The figures compiled by RENEW show that the 219 utility-owned wind turbines that will be operational by January 1, 2012, will yield nearly $2.7 million per year in potential property tax relief for towns and counties hosting wind projects. All told, these projects will be responsible for nearly 300,000 construction-related job-hours.
“We have a hard time foreseeing in-state utility-scale wind development going forward without statewide siting standards.”
“It’s a shame to see the end of bipartisanship that led to the passage of the rule requirement in 2009. What we are seeing here is a breakdown of governance that will rob the state of one of its brightest economic hopes for the future,” Vickerman said.
Click on table to enlarge.
RENEW Wisconsin is an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that acts as a catalyst to advance a sustainable energy future through public policy and private sector initiatives. More information on RENEW’s Web site at www.renewwisconsin.org.
March 1, 2011
More information
Michael Vickerman
Executive Director
608.255.4044
mvickerman@renewwisconsin.org
(Madison) - The wind industry in Wisconsin suffered a serious setback when a joint legislative panel voted to suspend the wind siting rule promulgated by the Public Service Commission (PSC) in December, according to RENEW Wisconsin, a statewide renewable energy advocacy group.
The five-to-two vote tracked along party lines, with all five votes to suspend coming from Republican members of the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR).
Many companies involved in windpower supported the PSC’s rule as a workable compromise that would have created a stable and predictable permitting environment for all wind energy systems regulated by local governments. The rule, which was scheduled to take effect today, would have fulfilled the Legislature’s intent to create uniform siting regulations to replace what had become a restrictive hodgepodge of local requirements.
“The committee gave the state of Wisconsin a black eye that, in the view of the wind industry, will linger well into the future,” Vickerman said.
“The suspension rolls the wind permitting environment back to the dark days when wind project developers routinely faced arbitrary and ever-shifting local regulations – the kind of chaos that will hasten their departure from Wisconsin to more business-friendly states.”
“As of today, Wisconsin utilities have placed more megawatts of wind capacity in neighboring states than in Wisconsin. As indicated in the following table, importing wind generation from other states deprives Wisconsin of a valuable source of employment, income for rural residents, and property tax relief,” said Vickerman.
The figures compiled by RENEW show that the 219 utility-owned wind turbines that will be operational by January 1, 2012, will yield nearly $2.7 million per year in potential property tax relief for towns and counties hosting wind projects. All told, these projects will be responsible for nearly 300,000 construction-related job-hours.
“We have a hard time foreseeing in-state utility-scale wind development going forward without statewide siting standards.”
“It’s a shame to see the end of bipartisanship that led to the passage of the rule requirement in 2009. What we are seeing here is a breakdown of governance that will rob the state of one of its brightest economic hopes for the future,” Vickerman said.
Click on table to enlarge.
RENEW Wisconsin is an independent, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that acts as a catalyst to advance a sustainable energy future through public policy and private sector initiatives. More information on RENEW’s Web site at www.renewwisconsin.org.
Monday, February 28, 2011
State electricity needs won't rise as much as thought, according to report
From an article by Judy Newman in the Wisconsin State Journal:
Projections for the rise in state electricity needs have dropped by nearly two-thirds, according to a report approved by state regulators Thursday.
The Public Service Commission's Strategic Energy Assessment, looking at Wisconsin's energy needs through 2016, shows state utilities now expect the need for electricity at times of highest demand will grow about 1 percent a year, down from peak demand growth of 2.75 percent a year, projected just two years ago. The figures were scaled back because of the economic downturn, the PSC said.
Projections for the rise in state electricity needs have dropped by nearly two-thirds, according to a report approved by state regulators Thursday.
The Public Service Commission's Strategic Energy Assessment, looking at Wisconsin's energy needs through 2016, shows state utilities now expect the need for electricity at times of highest demand will grow about 1 percent a year, down from peak demand growth of 2.75 percent a year, projected just two years ago. The figures were scaled back because of the economic downturn, the PSC said.
Friday, February 25, 2011
AESP’s 22nd National Conference & Expo Call for Abstracts
Call for Abstracts Abstracts
Due: April 7, 2011
Conference Dates: February 6-10, 2012
Feb. 6: Pre-conference Training Courses and Opening Reception
Feb. 7 – 9: Conference Sessions
Feb. 9 & 10: Post-conference Training Courses
Location: Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel, San Diego, CA
The Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP) invites abstracts for conference papers and panel sessions for its 22nd National Conference & Expo. The topic and program committees look forward to reviewing abstracts that showcase the latest thinking, best practices and trends affecting the industry.
This call outlines what is required for submitting your abstract and important deadlines (as well as consequences for missing deadlines). Developing and delivering a compelling program is AESP’s first priority. Please do not submit an abstract until you have received travel approval and confirmed that your speakers are able/approved to attend (schedule/travel approval).
Over 600 attendees came to the 21st National Conference & Expo held a few weeks ago in Orlando. We look forward to welcoming you next year!
Due: April 7, 2011
Conference Dates: February 6-10, 2012
Feb. 6: Pre-conference Training Courses and Opening Reception
Feb. 7 – 9: Conference Sessions
Feb. 9 & 10: Post-conference Training Courses
Location: Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel, San Diego, CA
The Association of Energy Services Professionals (AESP) invites abstracts for conference papers and panel sessions for its 22nd National Conference & Expo. The topic and program committees look forward to reviewing abstracts that showcase the latest thinking, best practices and trends affecting the industry.
This call outlines what is required for submitting your abstract and important deadlines (as well as consequences for missing deadlines). Developing and delivering a compelling program is AESP’s first priority. Please do not submit an abstract until you have received travel approval and confirmed that your speakers are able/approved to attend (schedule/travel approval).
Over 600 attendees came to the 21st National Conference & Expo held a few weeks ago in Orlando. We look forward to welcoming you next year!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)