Wisconsin Renewables Review of 2011
Federal and state policies along with funding have been key to growing the renewable energy sector and its well-paying jobs. Wisconsin’s nationally recognized renewable energy successes suffered in both arenas in 2011. As of July 1, 2011, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission cancelled support for non-residential renewable energy projects, including agricultural projects. Policies designed to spur progress and investment in renewable energy, including statewide wind siting rules and the renewable energy portfolio standard, were halted or weakened.
Yet, more than 300 companies serve wind and solar energy markets in Wisconsin with 171 companies in the state’s wind energy supply chain and 135 companies in the state’s solar energy supply chain according to a study by The Environmental Law & Policy Center. Released in October 2011, The Solar and Wind Energy Supply Chain in Wisconsin http://elpc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/ELPCWisconsinWindSolarReport.2011.pdf, reports that the solar and wind industries provide over 12,000 jobs in Wisconsin. A list of Wisconsin’s solar and wind companies and their locations is provided in the study. Nationally, Wisconsin is ranked fifth for solar job employment (National Solar Job Census Report). Wisconsin’s bioenergy sector historically has been another renewable energy growth area where the state is a national leader.
With its strong existing base, renewable energy projects were installed and new business startups occurred in 2011, though not at the rate of previous years. There may have been more renewable energy installations in 2011 than reported here, but the central source for this information, Focus on Energy, no longer collects the information and makes it available.
Wind
Wind energy, an emerging area of job growth in Wisconsin, suffered setbacks in 2011 on the whole. In March 2011, a state legislative panel suspended the wind siting rules (PSC 128) promulgated by the Public Service Commission (PSC) that were a result of an agreement reached by stakeholders after more than 12 months of work. As a result, a wind energy project that would have brought the construction of 100 turbines to generate 150 megawatts of energy to Brown County was cancelled by the developer, Invenergy, LLC and investors who cited the uncertainty in Wisconsin’s regulatory environment. That was followed by cancellation of a 98 megawatt, $230 million project in Calumet County by Midwest Wind Energy, LLC. That project would have created 130 construction jobs, ten permanent high-tech jobs, and $400,000 to the local governments and more than $500,000 to the landowners hosting the turbines reported RENEW Wisconsin (The Renewable Quarterly, Spring 2011).
With the wind siting rules still in limbo, in December, the PSC received an application from Emerging Energies, a Wisconsin-based wind developer, to build a 41 turbine, 102.5 mega-watt wind energy farm projected to cost $250 million. The Hyland Wind Farm Project would be located in St. Croix County in the towns of Forest and Cylon. This project has been in development for years and was recently enlarged to meet the threshold for PSC review after the Forest town board passed more restrictive regulations in 2010 in an effort to stop the project http://www.newrichmond-news.com/event/article/id/34712/. At a local level, renewable energy derived from wind remains controversial.
Yet residents in Columbia County are now living with turbines. The state’s largest wind farm, the Glacier Hills Wind Park, owned by We Energies, was placed into commercial service late December 2011. Totaling 162 MW and spread across 17,000 acres, the 90 – turbine installation will produce enough energy to power 45,000 homes. Project construction generated 350,000 labors hours, mostly involving Wisconsin workers, according to channel 3000.
Portage 12/22/2011 http://www.channel3000.com/goinggreen/30039411/detail.html
A few individual small scale wind turbines were installed around the state in 2011 even though Focus on Energy incentives for non-residential renewables were suspended in July. Seventh Generation Energy installed several individual, 50 kW wind turbines in Dodge, Waukesha and Outagamie counties. Kaukauna High School in Outagamie County installed two 20kW turbines manufactured by Oshkosh-based Renewegy.
Geothermal Heat Pumps
Wisconsin received $1.8M for four geothermal heat pump projects of the $360.8M of federal funding provided to the geothermal industry via ARRA. (ANNUAL GEOTHERMAL POWER PRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT REPORT: APRIL 2011, Geothermal Energy Association)
WI DOE Funded Projects
| Amount | Cost Share | Expenditure | |
| Energy Center of Wisconsin |
$190,395 |
$55,605 |
$95,560 |
| Johnson Controls |
$311,324 |
$311,324 |
$64,906 |
| RiverHeath |
$978,168 |
$978,168 |
$21,300 |
| Skychaser Energy |
$325,124 |
$463,832 |
$36,026 |
| Total: |
$1,805,011 |
$1,808,929 |
$217,792 |
Solar
Solar programs in Wisconsin, like wind, suffered in 2011 due to changes at the state level. Focus on Energy, Wisconsin’s energy efficiency and renewable energy program, suspended all incentives to businesses for on-site solar installations while leaving only those for small residential systems. We Energies cut the majority of the $6million dollar renewable energy development program. Fortunately, the market price for solar panels fell substantially. Some projects did move ahead nonetheless, and federal grant assistance from US DOE to the Solar America Cities of Madison (MadiSUN program) and Milwaukee (Milwaukee Shines) helped to get solar systems installed.
The largest customer sited commercial solar system built in Wisconsin in 2011, and the third largest in the state, was installed at Epic Systems in Verona. Their 360 kilowatt system, installed by the Morse Group on a parking canopy, contains 1300 solar modules manufactured by Universal Solar. Epic also started construction on a larger installation at an adjoining field. Combined with the arrays on the parking canopy, Epic’s solar electric systems will total 2.2 megawatts. The two largest systems to date are at Milwaukee Area Technical College (540 kW) and Johnson Controls (385kW).
The city of Madison orchestrated bulk purchasing and installation contracts for solar photovoltaic projects on behalf of residential customers in 2011 resulting in a 10% boost of residential- owned solar systems. Twenty-two homeowners participated and installed 90kW of solar electricity.
MadiSUN negotiated a group discount price for an average savings of 20% on the cost of solar panel installation. The cost of 1 kW of solar through MadiSUN Group pricing before incentives was $7,080. After the 30% Federal tax credit and Focus on Energy Incentives it was $4,536. Further, a Focus on Energy bonus for energy efficiency brought the cost down to $4,116 for 1 kW. A 3kW system (typical for homes on average providing approximately 70% of electric use) cost $9.198 after all incentives and rebates through the MadiSUN group program.
Over 3million kWh of renewable energy will be produced over the lifetime of these installations which will reduce the emission of 124.3 ton of C02 per year into the environment, reports Bryant Moroder of MadiSUN Solar Program http://madisungroup.wordpress.com/howitworks/ . Further, these investments in installations created $500,000 of economic activity for local solar markets. Madison is pursuing a volume discount program with area businesses in 2012.
The City of Milwaukee, with its Milwaukee Shines Solar America City program http://city.milwaukee.gov/milwaukeeshines, partnered with Summit Credit Union in 2011 to launch a solar financing program to help homeowners finance the costs of both solar electric and solar hot water systems. The program provides a low-interest, fixed rate loan at prime + 1.5% for up to $20,000 over 15 years. A $1,000 early-bird rebate was offered to for the first 20 installations. Summit Credit Union is leveraging donated funds with a total of $2million for the solar loans. The loan is directly with the owners so that when they move, they can make an arrangement with the buyer, pay off the balance of the loan, or take the panels with them
One of the big motivations for the City to support this program is the potential for creating well-paying jobs. Milwaukee teamed with the Midwest Renewable Energy Association to train people to be solar installers to help create a local service base. When the program started in 2008, the closest solar installers came from Madison.
Two solar manufacturers set up shop in the Milwaukee area in 2011. Milwaukee-based Helios USA LLC, began producing solar panels in February 2011. The company purchases solar cells and then manufactures photovoltaic panels. Ingeteam Inc., a Spanish solar and wind industry manufacturer, opened a US arm in the Menomonee Valley in October. The $15 million, 100,000-square-foot facility is expected to create 275 jobs by 2015, as reported in BizTimes.com (November 11, 2011 http://www.biztimes.com/news/2011/11/11/milwaukee-solar-industry-still-shining ) Ingeteam makes solar inverters that help solar panels convert light to energy.
Solar activity will continue at some level in 2012 with funding for A SunShot Grant awarded by USDOE for the Wisconsin Grow Solar program. The grant will be administered by the Midwest Renewable Energy Association www.the-MREA.org with six subgrantees including the cities of Madison and Milwaukee. The ultimate goal of this national program is to reduce the cost of PV systems by 75% to be competitive with conventional power sources.
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