Nothing gets people interested in conserving energy more than a steep increase in energy prices.
Last year’s steep increases in energy prices generated a lot of interest in Northeast Wisconsin energy companies — firms that sell products that create energy and firms that sell products and services that conserve energy.
GreenSky Energetics of Manitowoc installs two kinds of solar heating devices. Solar water heaters preheat water so that home water heaters don’t have to run as often.
"We use hot water all year long, so this is a way we can use solar heat all year long," says GreenSky’s Richard Larson. "We take more showers and wash more clothes in the summer, so this is a way we can use solar heat in the summer."
Larsen says a 1-square-foot solar panel can heat 1 gallon of water to 120 degrees in four hours of sunshine. Since, he says, the average home occupant uses 20 gallons of hot water each day, a 4-foot by 10-foot panel, the standard size, can heat enough daily hot water for a two-adult house.
GreenSky also sells solar air heaters, which draw air from buildings into a collector for sun heating, and then push the air back into the building with a blower.
"The system basically sits idle four months of the year, and that’s when we have the majority of sunny days," says Larson. "In both cases, you have to think of them as supplemental."
While Wisconsin may not seem like the ideal solar energy state due to the weather, Larson says Wisconsin averages 240 days of sunshine each year.
"If you go to Germany, pretty close to 40 percent of their homes have some kind of solar operation," he says. "They have less sunshine than we do."
Larson says solar collectors last more than 40 years. "Even at today’s [lower] energy costs, you’ll have very good return on investment," he says. "If we double the cost of energy in 15 years, the ROI is going to double.
"We can store heat for the future. If you add a collector or a series of collectors and install a larger storage tank, you can store them as much as needed."
Energy conservation has generated many different kinds of companies in Northeast Wisconsin. In addition to GreenSky, there is Appleton Solar ("Alternative megawattage," Marketplace, May 12), which focuses on solar for electricity. Alternative Energys of Wrightstown installs geothermal heating and cooling units. Gimme Shelter of Amherst has been designing and building energy-efficient passive solar homes and home additions and renovations for more than 25 years.
While renewable energy is far from a new concept — "We’ve been talking about renewable energy for four years; we started the business May 1, 2007," says Larson — the demand is relatively recent. GreenSky sold four systems in the last eight months of 2007, and 26 in 2008, which he says made GreenSky "the largest solar heating installer in Wisconsin" based on Focus on Enegry records. As of mid-August, GreenSky had sold 25 systems, 20 more than it had sold one year earlier.
"The increase in [energy] prices last year was big," says Larson. "Once we had interest, we had to develop that into a sale, and that’s another process."
The definition of "conserving energy" goes beyond energy for electricity or heat, in the mind of Kathy Powell, education and program specialist for Recycling Connections Corp. of Plover, a nonprofit organization that promotes efforts toward "waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and resource conservation."
"When you make goods, it takes energy, and when you throw things away, it takes energy — resources that might be diverted for other reasons," says Powell. "If you’re using these resources, the goods often have to be created again."
Alternative energy is being helped by grants and rebate programs, both for producers of alternative energy ("The $787 billion business opportunity," Marketplace, May 12) and users. A federal tax credit allows 30 percent of the cost of a system to be deducted from tax payments. The initiative also converts the tax credit to a grant for those with lower tax liabilities.
The state Focus on Energy program also gives cash rebates of 25 percent for renewable energy systems.
"This is a very wise investment," says Larson. "Compare a $20,000 system to a new Cash for Clunkers purchase. They’re spending $20,000 out of pocket to get a new car. What do you have in 10 years? You have an old car. If you put that $20,000 in a solar system, you have 10 years of free heat from a system that will be more expensive in 10 years, and you still have 30 years of usable life yet."
