Wisconsin could see an energy investment of nearly $400 million, with money allocated toward weatherizing poorly insulated buildings, expanding renewable energy and making factories more energy efficient.
The economic stimulus package making its way through Congress could yield $390 million for Wisconsin in energy investment alone, though the latest version of a bill being considered by the U.S. Senate would send $150 million less to the state.
That assessment comes from David Jenkins, who is facilitating energy investment at the state's new Office of Recovery and Reinvestment.
The final shape of a federal stimulus bill is still unclear, but backers of energy efficiency and renewable energy are awaiting the infusion of loans and grants to help consumers save on energy bills and put people to work retrofitting buildings to save energy.
Among them is Johnson Controls. The company's Milwaukee building efficiency business and its competitors such as Honeywell and Siemens will be hunting for funding to retrofit government buildings from high schools and colleges to federal buildings like the Pentagon.
"We have a team that's looking at it and doing the stuff we need to do," said Mark Wagner, a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., for Johnson Controls.
The bill calls for tens of billions of dollars of investment in energy efficiency – targeting energy-wasting buildings through weatherization funds for states, and higher appropriations for federal government agencies to cut energy costs.
Energy-saving measures are the most striking aspect of a bill that, on energy policy, marks a dramatic shift from the past administration.
Energy measures in this bill are aimed at helping President Barack Obama fulfill a recent pledge to double the amount of power generated by wind turbines and other renewable sources of energy within three years.
Among other areas targeted for funding:
• Research and manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries. That's another priority for Johnson Controls, which this month won a contract to supply batteries for hybrid-electric delivery trucks. The battery business is working with Ford, Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz and BMW on future hybrid vehicles.
• Biofuels. The Wisconsin Bioindustry Alliance has submitted a list of projects to state officials to further develop renewable fuels.
"It ranges in scope from $30 million for a biomass digester to thousands of dollars for energy efficiency programs," said Josh Morby, the alliance's executive director.
• Modernization of the grid, both to encourage construction of transmission lines but primarily for advanced technologies, dubbed "smart-grid" measures.
Alliant Energy Corp. of Madison says the legislation could allow it to receive grants to help advance technologies that can help customers use energy more efficiently, said utility spokesman Steven Schultz.
The utility is rolling out an advanced-metering initiative in which it is replacing electric meters and retrofitting natural gas meters. The program started with customers in Beaver Dam and is expanding to Fond du Lac, Sheboygan and Dane counties, Schultz said.
Those advanced meters will serve as a backbone on which consumer-friendly, energy-measuring devices – such as inside-the-house energy-use sensors – could be installed at some point, Schultz said.
The City of Milwaukee is hoping to put energy efficiency funding into a pilot program designed to boost energy efficiency of the city's aging buildings.
Called ME2, or Milwaukee Energy Efficiency, the program was pitched by the Madison-based Center on Wisconsin Strategy as a way to help city residents who don't have the cash to afford energy-efficiency upgrades to pay for those upgrades through the savings they yield on their energy bills, said Ann Beier, director of the city's Office of Sustainability.
Jenkins said the two bills in Congress have various funding levels for different programs. Funding for weatherization would amount to $194 million in the House bill, compared to about $90 million in the Senate stimulus plan.
But the Senate bill would offer more money to the state for energy efficiency and conservation block grants – $90 million vs. $70 million in the House bill, he said.
"Renewables and efficiency really are the two most important energy initiatives we have," he said. "Doing those two things are the only way we're going to (cut) our energy use and dependence on foreign oil."
A key challenge for the stimulus package, and the subject of debate in Congress, is how quickly the money can be spent and how quickly it can create jobs.
"That's the $875 billion question," said Wagner.
Johnson Controls considers itself well positioned because it is pre-certified as a government contractor on energy-saving projects. Among other projects, the company had done energy-efficiency work at the Pentagon during its reconstruction after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
José Delgado, chief executive at American Transmission Co. in Pewaukee, said he wonders how quickly the money can be spent.
There is funding for transmission line projects, but ATC isn't having problems finding financing for new power lines.
"In our case, it's thanks but no thanks," he said.
