Off-grid energy spells profit for Wisconsin businesses

Mar 07 - The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Wisconsin has much to gain in business opportunities as a shift toward more on-site generation of power takes hold, the head of the Wisconsin Energy Research Consortium said Wednesday.

The group, which was formed several years ago, includes engineering schools, technical colleges and some of the state's largest businesses in the fields of energy, power and controls.

"When we went through our strategic plan we had to identify the technology areas where we thought we could get national and international leadership," said John Bobrowich, who runs WERC. "If you're going to be really good at something you ought to narrow your focus."

Chief among the niches that can help position the state as a leader is distributed energy generation systems -- systems that can combine renewable energy and energy storage in one spot, on site, and can either tap into the power grid or be independent of it.

The market for the products that make up these systems is more than $1 billion a year -- but projected to triple, to more than $3.19 billion, by 2019.

"That spells opportunity for Wisconsin," he told an audience at the first day of the Sustainability Summit, held at the Delta Center. "What's really exciting is every piece of the distributed energy resource system is manufactured in Wisconsin -- every one."

Bobrowich cited the work of S.C. Johnson & Son Inc. as an example of the distributed, on-site generation that may become more prevalent. The maker of Windex, Glade and other products has moved to build its own independent energy generation system for its Waxdale manufacturing plant in Mount Pleasant, a factory that extends the length of 36 football fields.

Two months ago, the company commissioned two utility-scale wind turbines -- 415 feet tall -- that complement other on-site generation including a turbine powered by biogas from the local landfill, said Kelly Semrau, S.C. Johnson senior vice president.

"And guess what? We are 100% off the grid, in that largest factory of ours in the world," she said. "The good news is we're going to save $500,000 per year because we're generating our own energy."

WERC, in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, is moving to help businesses in the field by setting up distributed energy system test research centers in Madison and Milwaukee, Bobrowich said.

Also at the summit Wednesday:

--Students at the Milwaukee School of Engineering displayed their "SuperMileage Vehicle," a concept car they designed and built to compete with other schools, showcase fuel-saving technologies and provide experience in working on sustainable energy technologies.

The aerodynamic, low-riding vehicle achieved a fuel efficiency of 842 mpg last summer, according to MSOE, and the team will compete in a "eco-marathon" sponsored by Shell next month in Texas, faculty adviser Chris Damm said.

--The State of Wisconsin is assisting in the expansion of fueling stations that dispense compressed or liquefied natural gas, said Maria Redmond of the State Energy Office. Wisconsin currently has 26 of the stations, but low natural gas prices and expanded domestic supply are creating more and more interest. She projected there could be 100 to 300 stations across Wisconsin within five years.

--Milwaukee is seeing strong returns from its initiative to retrofit homes and businesses to make them more energy efficient, said Matt Howard, the city's director of environmental sustainability.

A program funded in part by the federal stimulus package led to energy efficiency audits on more than 1,500 homes and improvements to more than 550 of them, he said.

A separate program for manufacturers aims to make them more competitive by helping them save energy. That program has seen returns of 19-to-1 for factories, since it produces immediate savings to their bottom line, Howard said.

"Through one project, at one 20-person firm with five furnaces that run 24-7, we were able to work with them and remove one of those furnaces off the grid," he said.

That's the equivalent of taking 6,000 homes off the grid in the winter, Howard said.

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