Bills target renewable energy standards in three states

Posted on 02/27/2013 by Dan Haugen

A bill in Missouri would allow energy from large hydro facilities, like the Table Rock Dam, to count toward the state’s renewable standard. (Photo by jeff brown via Creative Commons)

Ohio’s energy efficiency and renewable standards will be on trial again this year in the state’s legislature.

The Buckeye State is among a few Midwestern battlegrounds where lawmakers associated with a conservative policy group are working to freeze, repeal, or otherwise weaken renewable energy policies.

Others so far include Missouri and Kansas, where fossil-fuel-funded groups have actively attacked the state’s renewable standard at public events and legislative hearings.

The efforts follow a call to action last fall by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) for its members to pass legislation repealing renewable standards in their home states.

“[ALEC] is definitely on the march,” says Gabe Elsner, who tracks oil and gas company lobbying for the Checks and Balances Project, a nonprofit watchdog group. →

Tintable glass maker expanding with DOE help

Posted on 02/02/2012 by Dan Haugen

Siemens Wind Turbine Facility, Hutchinson, Kansas (photo via SageGlass)

The long, glass facade on the front of Siemens’ wind turbine component factory in Hutchinson, Kansas, could have been a window for the long, hot summer sun to cook the building’s interior, or at least run up a serious air conditioning bill.

Instead, as the sunlight intensifies, the panes of glass gradually tint like sunglasses to block out the heat and glare but preserve the view and some daylight.

The magic happens thanks to a thin, electrochromatic coating on the glass made by a Minnesota company called SageGlass.

SageGlass has been producing its energy-saving, electronically tintable glass in Faribault, Minn., in small runs since 2005. Now, the company is gearing up to open a high-volume, 250,000-square-foot manufacturing facility by the end of the year.

Midwest Energy News spoke with the company’s CEO, John Van Dine, last month to find out how the expansion is coming along.

The building’s exterior is complete. The progress can be seen in a timelapse video SageGlass posted on YouTube in December. About half of the equipment has been installed inside, and the rest has been ordered and is expected in time to open later this year, said Van Dine. Meanwhile, the company has intensified its sales and marketing efforts in hopes of having customers ready when it can boost production.

Van Dine founded the company in New York in 1989. After a decade and a half of research and development, he moved the company to the Midwest to be in what he calls the “Silicon Valley of windows.” Companies like 3M, Andersen Windows and Marvin Windows and Doors are all a short drive from its Faribault headquarters and manufacturing plant.

SageGlass’ expansion will more than quadruple its manufacturing space. The growth is being financed in part by a $31 million Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credit and a $72 million loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy. The latter comes from the same program that bet on Solyndra, whose bankruptcy has politicized the loan program.

Van Dine says it’s disappointing that the Solyndra situation occurred, but the political fallout hasn’t affected SageGlass’ project.

“It just sounds like things weren’t done correctly. I can tell you that is certainly not the case with Sage. A tremendous amount of oversight, scrutiny, due diligence and analysis by the DOE has gone into the Sage project,” Van Dine said. The aftermath has probably frustrated some, “but it hasn’t at this point affected our project.”

Research by the DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study has concluded that SageGlass windows have potential to reduce a building’s heating and air conditioning costs by up to 25 percent. The windows allow sunshine to warm a building’s interior during the winter, but also block out solar heat and glare in the summer.

Van Dine says electronically tintable glass also gives architects a new tool to design with. Traditionally, a building with windows needed blinds or shades to manage sunlight. SageGlass can eliminate the need for those in many buildings. The Siemens building in Kansas, for example, originally was designed to have a rotating exterior shade that would block out sunlight during peak hours. The elimination of shades and blinds also has cost and sustainability impacts, Van Dine said.

“In the case of blinds and shades and sun shades, we don’t have to mine the material, we don’t have to process it, we don’t have to fabricate it, we don’t have to deliver it to the job site, we don’t have to install it, we don’t have to maintain it, and ultimately we don’t have to recycle it,” Van Dine said.

While the construction has been in progress, Van Dine said the company’s sales and marketing efforts are building awareness and interest in the technology.

“Until you had the iPhone or the iPad, you didn’t know you needed it. Once it’s in front of you and you start playing with it, experimenting with it, and most importantly experiencing it, then you start to say ‘I can’t live without it,’” Van Dine said. “I think there’s some of that phenomenon going on with regards to electronically tintable glass.”

Changing the conversation to conservation

Posted on 01/19/2012 by Ken Paulman

In Kansas, it seems, the first rule of climate change is: Don’t talk about climate change.

That’s what EnergyNOW found in this segment (originally aired in August) on Kansas towns that have embraced renewable energy and conservation efforts in large part by avoiding politically divisive conversations about global warming.

Take, for example, Father Kerry Ninemire of Salina, who was heavily involved in the formation of Interfaith Power and Light, a religious group formed to fight climate change. Ninemire was unable to convince his own congregation to sign on with the organization (“It got associated a little bit more with the Democrat party. And Kansas is very Republican.”), but they nevertheless adopted efficiency measures that helped the church cut energy use by 10 percent.

At Keystone XL hearings, expect out-of-towners

Posted on 09/27/2011 by Ken Paulman

While TransCanada remains publicly confident that the State Department will approve the Keystone XL pipeline, they’re taking no chances as a series of hearings gets underway along the pipeline’s routes.

And neither are pipeline opponents.

In Topeka yesterday, pipeline opponents participated in a rally organized by the National Wildlife Federation, while TransCanada representatives and dozens of union members, some from as far away as Tulsa, Oklahoma, attended the hearing.

The New York Times reports that the tiny town of Atkinson, Nebraska, where a hearing is scheduled for Thursday, has called in additional officers from neighboring communities to buttress its police force of three. Amid rumors that TransCanada will be busing in supporters and union members to the hearing, a company spokesman confirms that “supporters from the pipeline industry and organized labor would also be in attendance.”

And today’s hearing in Lincoln, Nebraska, is expected to be so contentious that even the government of Alberta is sending a representative. David Sands, a provincial spokesman and oil sands booster, is in town for the hearing (or perhaps just to enjoy some chicken wings), according to his Twitter feed.

Whether the “listening sessions” will have any effect on the State Department’s decision is yet to be seen. But they will nevertheless provide a clear window into the political forces involved.

Not in my (desert) backyard, either

Posted on 07/25/2011 by Ken Paulman

California dreamin'.

Two stories today highlight the efforts of organized wind farm opposition in Michigan and Minnesota. Coincidentally, another article from the Los Angeles Times over the weekend looks at similar backlash to wind and solar projects in desert areas of California and Arizona.

The anti-development arguments will be familiar to anyone who follows these things. But in the sun-drenched southwest, there’s the additional angle of distributed vs. centralized energy:

Activists there and elsewhere say that the fight is more than a classic case of “not in my backyard” resistance. Large, remote projects aren’t the only solution to the nation’s energy woes, they say.

City-dwellers could produce just as much clean electricity without the transmission hassles, they said, using rooftop solar panels, small wind turbines, fuel cells and other adaptable forms of renewable energy generation.

“Large, remote projects.” Isn’t that the case with most types of electricity generation? Some cities get their energy from local, municipal dams and power plants, but generally, big generating stations are located in rural areas far from the people that consume the energy.

A recent editorial in the Wichita Eagle makes a similar criticism of the controversial Sunflower coal plant proposed for western Kansas:

The Sunflower coal plant has been the subject of exhausting legislative and legal fights for five years, in part because Colorado would get most of the power while Kansas would get the air pollution and provide the water.

That’s an important social dynamic – rural culture is steeped in the mythical ideal of self-reliance (I know this, having grown up in small towns). So, it’s understandable that people in these communities would be resistant to a large, industrial-scale project that will primarily benefit city dwellers. That’s an oversimplification, but it’s nevertheless part of the equation that is often ignored.

In the L.A. Times story, Tom Soto, a California environmental activist, offers this salient warning:

“These large projects enter at their own peril without involving the community. Just because they’re renewables instead of landfills doesn’t mean they’re off the hook.”

Photo by Xavier de Jaureguiberry via Creative Commons

Keeping up with the Joneses

Posted on 03/23/2011 by Ken Paulman

Cedar Crest, the Kansas governor's mansion, outside Topeka.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback wants a wind turbine at the governor’s mansion.

Brownback, a former U.S. Senator, is staunchly conservative, but has been supportive of tapping the state’s vast wind power reserves, and backed a federal renewable energy standard proposal while in Congress (however, he also notably campaigned against wind development in the scenic Flint Hills area of eastern Kansas — and yes, there are scenic areas in Kansas).

The idea to put up a wind turbine at the governor’s mansion called to mind the iconic oil rig in front of the Oklahoma state capitol – a counterpoint of sorts, energy future vs. the energy past and that sort of thing.

But it turns out that Oklahoma is also the first state in the U.S. to install a wind turbine at its governor’s mansion — a 10 kW project completed last May. A similar turbine went up on the capitol grounds a few weeks later.

Solar panels have been installed on state capitols in Wisconsin, Colorado and Oregon.

There’s nothing unusual about renewable energy projects at public buildings. But there’s a high level of symbolism to putting up a wind turbine at the governor’s mansion or the state capitol.

And the fact that the first states to make such a visible statement about wind power are also among the most conservative in the U.S. is further proof that the politics of renewable energy don’t break as cleanly along red/blue lines as some would have you believe.

Photo by Jimmy Emerson via Creative Commons

Regulations bad for business?

Posted on 12/16/2010 by Ken Paulman

Earlier this week, the incoming Attorney General of Kansas, Derek Schmidt, announced that his office would consider litigation against the EPA over rules regulating greenhouse gases. Schmidt says he’s concerned that the rules will force small farmers to make expensive upgrades to their equipment – a claim that simply isn’t true.

Schmidt’s comments reflect a common narrative – that is, regulations, by default, are bad for business.

But not all businesses fear the EPA. On Wednesday, a group of 14 business organizations issued a news release voicing support for stronger environmental regulations. In all, the groups represent more than 60,000 U.S. businesses of varying sizes.

To be fair, at least two of the groups, the American Wind Energy Association and Environmental Entrepreneurs – include companies that stand to gain financially from crackdowns on pollution.

But that’s exactly the point. A dollar spent controlling pollution doesn’t just vanish into thin air. It saves money in other areas – lower health costs, reduced absenteeism, etc., – and may help stimulate other areas of the economy.

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