News from the 2016 RENEW Wisconsin Energy Policy Summit

The 2016 RENEW Wisconsin Energy Policy Summit was held at the Monona Terrace January 21st and was well attended with renewable energy advocates and policy experts from all over Wisconsin.  Vermont’s Green Mountain Power was represented in the form of the keynote speaker and GMP CEO Mary Powell.  Under her leadership, there have been very impressive results switching from old to new energy systems, and most impressive is the solar portfolio tipping 30% of their peak demand!  Here’s a link for more on Green Mountain Power.

Wisconsin utilities WPPI, Dairyland Power Cooperative, and River Falls Municipal Utility were represented on a panel discussion that gave us the utility’s perspective on just how complex and difficult dealing with the old versus the new energy paradigms is for them.

After lunch, there was a very interesting presentation on the utility of the future, rich with renewable energy and micro-grid gateways to both connect to and disconnect from the outside grid when it makes the most sense.

With policy and incremental improvements in how utility’s are trying to handle the tidal wave of changes coming their way, there were also a lot of one-on-one networking opportunities during the break periods between speakers and panel discussions.  Legacy Solar Co-op shared its table with Union Cab of Madison Cooperative to highlight our recent 20 kW solar project completion, and to sign up new members and sell more solar bonds.  We made quite a few new contacts and signed up one new member for our Co-op!