More than $2.5 million in grants to develop wood energy teams in 11 states were awarded by USDA in mid-July. Wisconsin received $250,000 in grants funds. The partners in the Wisconsin team are: State Energy …
Newsletter Blog Post
Virent Receives EPA Approval for Biofuel
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has given fuel registration to Madison-based Virent Inc’s BioForm gasoline, which allows the fuel to be used in on-highway motor vehicles. During testing, the plant sugar-based fuel, which contains …
Wind Tower Manufacturing Big Business for Wisconsin Firm
A Manitowoc Wisconsin company, Broadwind Energy Inc., received orders worth $34 million to produce new wind turbine towers from an unidentified U.S. turbine manufacturer. The order represents two-thirds of the company’s tower production capacity for …
Wisconsin’s Second Solar Community Garden Launched
St. Croix Electric Cooperative (SCEC) held a ribbon cutting July 19th for the new 103 kW community solar garden called Sunflower 1. One hundred and twenty co-op member subscribers paid for one to five, 500-watt production …
Wisconsin Utility Rate Cases Open for Comment
Public comments are being taken now by Wisconsin’s Public Service Commission for each of the utility’s rate restructuring plans. These will affect two-thirds of Wisconsin ratepayers. We Energies, WPS and MGE have filed major rate …
EPA Adds Natural Gas From Landfills to Renewable Fuels Program
The Environmental Protection Agency said natural gas from landfills that is compressed or liquefied can be classified as a cellulosic biofuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard, a decision that could boost the use of natural …
Farm Bill Funding for Bioenergy Research and Converting to Biomass Fuel Systems
On June 13, 2014 Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced up to $14.5 million in funding for two USDA bioenergy programs made available through the 2014 Farm Bill. USDA’s Rural Development (RD) announced it is accepting …
New Federal Energy Initiatives
In May, President Obama announced a number of energy initiatives. More than 300 private and public sector leaders committed to create jobs and reduce carbon pollution by increasing their solar use. These commitments add up …
U.S. Sales of Plug-ins and Hybrids Growing
In 2013, the sales of plug-ins and hybrids grew 21 percent to 592,232 cars and light trucks according to the Electric Drive Transportation Association compared to 7.6 percent growth in total light-vehicle sales. Analysis in …
Milwaukee County’s First Fast Electric Car Chargers
Two new fast-charging stations for electric have been installed at parking structures at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In contrast to traditional charging stations, which can take four to eight hours to charge a vehicle, fast-charging …