Taxpayers benefit from renewable energy effort
The Sheboygan Press editorialized on May 18 about a new renewable energy project:
We hear lots of talk about reducing the nation’s dependency on fossil fuels, but the partnership between the City of Sheboygan and Alliant Energy is talk in action.
This week, officials from Sheboygan’s wastewater treatment plant and the electric utility unveiled the latest technology in renewable energy — microturbines. There are 10 microturbines at the treatment plant that burn methane gas, a byproduct of the wastewater treatment process. The gas is used to run the turbines to produce electricity.
The electricity produced not only runs the turbines, it also produces 1 percent of Alliant’s 80 megawatts of renewable energy. The microturbines produce enough power to run 150 homes. Alliant saves on the burning of coal to produce electricity as a result.
The bottom line to Sheboygan taxpayers is a 40 percent reduction in the treatment plant’s electricity and natural gas use, a total savings of about $70,000.
In addition to the cost savings for the city, there is also the benefit of cleaner air because less coal has to be burned to produce energy.
The significance of this effort is two-fold. It provides a savings for taxpayers and reduces the burning of fossil fuels. Also, it is the first renewable energy project in Wisconsin since passage of the Energy Independence Act, which requires utilities to spend 1.2 percent of annual operating costs on renewable energy programs.
Successful projects such as this and other biogas projects that Alliant is trying around the state, will pave the way for greater use of renewable energy resources and less reliance of fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil.
Mark Meyer, a member of the state’s Public Service Commission, noted that the use of renewable energy was always talked about “in the abstract.” But now that the microturbines are up and running, the practicality of these kinds of solutions can be tested and quantified.
If successful, you can bet that similar projects will spring up around the state as utilities and municipal government’s search for ways to reduce energy use and cost.
This all fits in well with the state’s renewable energy program, which won overwhelming support in the Legislature and from Gov. Jim Doyle, and is designed to move the state toward greater use of renewable energy by 2015. The program calls for 10 percent of the state’s energy usage to come from renewable sources by that time.
While the Sheboygan project may seem like a drop in the bucket when compared to overall energy consumption in Wisconsin, it is the step toward energy independence that everyone has been tallking about.
