It's Elementary
	Watts from Waste
	Editorial A Case Not Made
	Wisconsin Favorites Wilhelm Tell Festival: A Celebration of Freedom

   Like many of our basic needs, electricity has become so commonplace that we rarely stop to consider exactly what it is, how it comes into being, how it behaves, how much we use, and what we need to do to assure we have it available to use.
    This article and a companion in next month’s Wisconsin Energy Cooperative News will address these issues. Our goal is for co-op members of all ages to gain a clearer understanding of this phenomenon we call electricity. We will explore how and why electricity comes about, how it behaves, and how it is used.

What is it?

   Physicists believe there are four basic forces of nature: gravity, the strong nuclear force, the weak nuclear force, and electromagnetism. What we commonly call electricity is just one form of the electromagnetic force. Examples of other forms include microwaves, radio and television waves, and magnetic fields.
    Electricity is the transfer of energy between subatomic particles with opposite charges. When an electron that has a charge of –1 interacts with a particle with an opposite charge, energy from that electron is transferred in the direction of the particle with the opposite charge. The flow of energy between these very small particles is called an electric current. It is measured in amperes (or amps; see textbox).

Diversity and Electricity

   No two people are the same. Our environment is made up of things that are quite different from one another. A plane flying through the air is very different from the air surrounding it. A building is made of different materials than the office workers and equipment inside it.
    The fact that there are differences between objects all over the earth holds true for the entire universe.
    There are 92 natural elements that comprise the building blocks of which all material objects are made, and all differ from each other. These differences, even though they may be small, are enough to create a difference in electrical potential between them, meaning a current can flow between them.
    The cover of this magazine shows a youngster attempting to verify this. She has taken wires of two dissimilar metals—copper and aluminum—and inserted them into a (Wisconsin-grown) potato. Using a voltmeter, she is measuring an extremely small electric current. Electric potential (also called voltage and measured in volts) is the force that can cause electrons to move. If there is a complete circuit, the voltage created in this young girl’s potato can make the electrons in the wire bump from one atom to the next. This can be measured as the very small current that flows between the two wires in the potato.
    The demonstration is important because it indicates to us that we can find electric current in nature, and this current is not generated by a power plant, a wind turbine, or a portable generator. The young woman has not really created electricity; she has discovered it and measured it.
    Her experiment demonstrates that we can find electricity in unexpected places.
The fact is that electricity, usually in extremely small amounts, is everywhere.
Because of the differences between materials in objects, differences in electrical potential exist everywhere throughout the universe. They existed before human beings and animals appeared on the earth. They have always existed. On the other hand, if everything in the universe was made up of exactly the same material, electricity could not exist.

How do we make electricity?

   Electricity exists in nature because of differences between the atoms that make up various things. But electricity can also be generated by machines built by people.
Rotating a magnet on a shaft inside a huge bundle of copper wire will create electricity. A machine that does this is called a generator. Generators are powered by many forms of energy—coal, nuclear fuel, flowing water, wind, diesel fuel, etc.—but they all operate on the same principle: rotating a magnet a high speeds within a densely-packed winding of copper wires. When this happens, electrons are excited to higher energy states, enabling them to move from one atom in a wire to the next, and in the process, to transfer large amounts of energy into a conductor such as a transmission line, then a distribution line, and ultimately to a place where the energy does useful work.

Lazy Electricity and Grounding

   Electricity does not behave in a random manner, but according to predictable patterns determined by the laws of physics. One of the most important and commonly known behaviors of electricity is that it takes the path of least resistance. Resistance is the characteristic of a material that enables it to slow down or obstruct the flow of electrical energy through it or across its surface. We’re all familiar with common items like rubber and glass, which are poor conductors of electricity because they have such high resistance.
    Like fluids, electricity prefers to move along a path with the fewest obstructions. So electricity will “go out of its way” if it encounters resistance in the form of insulators or other non-conductive or poorly conductive materials and has other paths it can follow. Also like fluids, electricity will follow all paths available to it in proportion to the ease with which it can flow on each one. In electricity these are called “parallel paths.”
    Because electricity takes the path of least resistance and because people can become that path, grounding is vitally important.
    Grounding offers a safe, reliable pathway for electricity to reach the ground and eventually get back to its source without causing harm. The less grounding we have, the more we increase the potential for electricity to flow on pathways where it can cause harm. Because human beings are made up of a good deal of water (in which salt and other minerals are dissolved) we are, unfortunately, pretty good conductors of electricity.
    Properly grounded electrical circuits ensure that the ground wire itself—not a human being or animal—will provide a safe, short pathway for electricity in the event of a fault or failure in an electrical circuit.
    But why does electricity seek to flow to the earth, anyway?
    What electricity really seeks is a path back to its source. Remember our young scientist and her potato. Without a piece of metal inserted in the potato and connected by wire to a dissimilar piece of metal also inserted in the potato, she wouldn’t have a very successful experiment. Only because she completes a circuit can she measure a flow of electrons. If she broke the connecting wire and inserted both ends in the earth, she’d be able to measure a small flow of electrons moving through the earth to complete the circuit. This would probably be a lesser current than he measured with the wire intact, because the resistance of the earth is usually greater than that of a wire.

Electrical Myths

   Most of the time, electricity is invisible. Except for controlled experiments, demonstrations by professionals, and in science classes, you can’t usually see electricity. Outside these settings, visible electricity (lightning or an arc resulting from a short circuit or electrical fault) is generally a sign of danger.
    Electricity’s invisibility helps give rise to myths and distortions of science relating to the nature of electricity and other forms of electromagnetic energy. We don’t always trust or feel comfortable with things we can’t see.
    Take radio waves for example. Some people believe radio waves make them sick, and they pay consultants large sums of money to sell them devices to “filter out” radio waves.
But there is no credible medical evidence that ordinary, day-to-day exposure to radio waves is harmful to human or animal health.
    We are all exposed to radio waves, static electricity, and small amounts of electric current all the time. We would be exposed to these things even if there were no radio and television stations, no power plants, and no electric transmission and distribution wires. As noted at the beginning of this article, electricity is a basic force of nature. Like the basic forces of nature it is invisible, yet its effects are not. Like the other forces of nature, it exists in the environment and would do so with or without human or animal presence on the earth.
    There are other myths similar to the “radio wave sickness” myth. One of these is that extremely small amounts of current in the earth—including naturally occurring electricity in the ground—causes humans and animals to sicken and die. Such notions should be evaluated on the basis of reason and common sense, not on emotion and fear. The predominant method of distributing electricity in the world today is based on a distribution system with a well-grounded neutral wire. Because of the laws of physics, this system will have some amount of current traveling in paths through the earth in parallel with the utility’s neutral system. This system has been used for more than a century because no other method of distributing electricity is safer.

In our next issue…

   The citizens of Wisconsin use 65 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year. Usage of electric power will continue to rise in the future. Next month, we’ll look at how we can supply our state’s growing demand for electricity.—David Jenkins and Chuck Spargo, P.E.

Electrical Terms

Ampere—a measure of electrical current. One ampere is 6,250,000,000,000,000,000 electrons passing a point in one second.

Conductor—commonly a wire, but any material that will carry electrical current.

Current—the movement of electrons through a conductor.

Ohm—a measure of electrical resistance, defined as the resistance of a circuit with a voltage of one volt and a current flow of one ampere.

Resistance—the relative ease or difficulty with which a given material will allow an electrical current to pass through it.

Volt—a unit of electromotive force or electrical “pressure.” An electrical potential of one volt will cause one ampere of current to flow through a conductor with one Ohm’s resistance.

Watt—a measure of electrical power or electrical power consumption, equal to 1/746 horsepower. The power used in a circuit with a potential difference (or “drop”) of one volt and a current of one ampere (amp).

Watts from Waste
Landfill Gas to Enhance Power Supply

   Methane gas harvested from a landfill will be turned into at least three megawatts of electricity beginning this fall, the product of a partnership between Dairyland Power Cooperative and ONYX Waste Services brought together by Eau Claire Energy Cooperative.
    Announced in mid-June, the project will initially generate enough power to run about 2,600 homes and has the potential to expand to five megawatts.
    The source of the energy will be the Seven Mile Creek Landfill at Eau Claire, owned by ONYX, which is an Eau Claire Energy Co-op member and one of the largest solid waste management organizations in North America. The landfill is a regional collector of residential waste, and it already has a system in place to capture the methane gas that is produced by the natural decomposition of landfill waste.
    Dairyland will purchase the methane under contract with ONYX and will install and own the methane-fired generating equipment that will produce the electricity for residential and business consumers in the cooperative system.

Harnessing the Burn

   Among the environmental benefits cited in the project’s announcement was saving the energy equivalent of almost a quarter-million barrels of oil annually. Currently, the energy from the methane gas is wasted, as it must be burned off into the atmosphere. Project coordinators also say local air quality will benefit from the new system, as the methane will be harnessed as a “green” energy source instead of just being burned with no benefit.
    Mark Vinall, General Landfill Manager, said, “Eau Claire Energy deserves a lot of credit for helping to spearhead this progressive project by bringing Onyx and Dairyland Power together and making this become a reality.”
    Co-op CEO John Luehrsen called the environmental benefits “fantastic” and said the project will “help us to be a good neighbor to our community and remain a quality energy provider. We are delighted that this energy will go into the community that supports the Seven Mile Landfill.”

Win-Win Proposition

   Incorporating the landfill gas-to-energy program into Dairyland’s power supply helps to expand the cooperative’s use of renewable forms of electricity and conserve the use of traditional fuel sources, according to William Berg, CEO of the La Crosse-based Dairyland Power. “It is a win-win prospect for all parties involved, especially the consumers, who will truly benefit from this reliable and environmentally beneficial energy resource,” said Berg, commenting that Dairyland is looking at developing additional renewable energy facilities at other landfills in Wisconsin and Iowa.
    Dairyland Power currently supplies renewable energy to Eau Claire Energy Co-op and its other member distribution cooperatives from its Flambeau Hydro Station near Ladysmith and from a wind farm in southwestern Minnesota. The cooperative power supplier has also signed a letter of intent to produce renewable electricity at dairy and swine farms within its 62-county service area—developments that would use manure digesters to produce methane gas.

Stabilizing Electric Supply

   Bryan Johnson, project development engineer at ONYX, said that in addition to being renewable, landfill gas is a reliable energy source, allowing generation to operate 24 hours per day, seven days a week. “Unlike the case of some other popular renewable sources, the wind doesn’t have to blow and the sun doesn’t have to shine for methane production to continue,” he observed. “Because of this, from an electrical distribution standpoint, methane facilities can be a stabilizing force for energy supply.”
    The company Johnson works for has considerable experience with projects of this type. ONYX Waste Services works with more than 125,000 commercial/industrial firms and one million residences in 11 states, the Bahamas, and Mexico. The company operates 49 collection facilities and 26 solid waste sanitary landfill facilities in the United States.

 

   A Case Not Made
Editorial by Perry Baird

   Was the evidence of danger ample enough and sufficiently reliable to warrant such government response? What did agency officials know—or not know—before recommending action?
    Although the questions might sound like those currently being pressed on the Bush administration about the war in Iraq, we’re actually asking them about a statewide matter concerning the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
    A plan requiring 80-percent cuts in mercury emissions from Wisconsin power plants won unanimous approval by the Natural Resources Board in late June—an endorsement that apparently sprang from thin evidence supporting need and prospects for accomplishing much.

Cobbled Claims

   The DNR’s posture is that dramatically reducing in-state mercury emissions will shield the public from health hazards the agency attributes to eating fish that contain mercury. Frankly, we think there’s been scant data to support the agency’s assumptions.

   "The department has been extremely careful to minimize any claims about environmental improvements,” said Dave Hoopman, who for the past two years has represented Wisconsin’s electric cooperatives on a citizens’ advisory panel assembled by the DNR. He said at the very first meeting of the committee in the summer of 2001, he called for an estimate of the “environmental and public health effects of complete success” applying the regulation, but he has never heard a clear response from the agency.

   “I don’t believe any proponent of this rule has come up with an answer to that question that would stand five minutes’ scrutiny,” he told the Natural Resources Board members the day they gave their nod to the emissions-reduction proposal.

Methodical Sidestepping

   Mercury deposition patterns predicted in at least two different computer models—including one from an organization to which the DNR Air Bureau itself belongs—say the rule will have no significant mercury-reduction effect.

According to Hoopman, if all coal-fired power plants in the state were to be totally shut down, it would reduce mercury deposition here by less than 5 percent.

   “The department has methodically ignored this data,” Hoopman charged, noting that the DNR has requested federal funds to create its own computer model to estimate the rule’s effects. The money was approved almost two years ago, but the DNR says the model won’t be ready until 2004.

   “Meanwhile, we’re supposed to implement the regulation without knowing what it will do,” he continued. “Personally, I think we do know what it will do, and that’s why the model won’t exist until after the rule is enacted.”

   One thing the rule would unquestionably do is cost utilities and their consumers. We think government has a responsibility to refrain from piling financial cost and other burdens on people unless its regulations can be reasonably expected to accomplish something useful.
The Legislature is the next step for the rule. We hope lawmakers agree.

  Wilhelm Tell Festival: A Celebration of Freedom

   Plan on spending this year’s Labor Day weekend in New Glarus, Wisconsin. For the 66th year in a row, America’s Little Switzerland will be putting on the Wilhelm Tell Festival. Not only can you experience the story of Wilhelm Tell reenacted with frisky goats, mooing cows, and whinnying horses, you’ll have an opportunity to take part in a parade, an ethnic fashion show, an outdoor art fair, and much more.
    The official start of the festival is the Laternenzug (lantern parade) at 8 p.m. on Friday. The children of New Glarus parade through the streets at dusk with candle-lit lanterns of all shapes and sizes. End the evening listening to the Swiss music of the New Glarus Kinder Chor.
    The highlight of the festival is the Tell Pageant. The play, written by the German playwright Friedrich Schiller, tells the story of Wilhelm Tell, who helped Switzerland achieve independence from Austria in 1291 with an arrow and apple.
    The pageant is set outdoors in a secluded meadow surrounded by woods. Guests are ushered down a shady path to rustic bleacher-like structures formed from large flat rocks (chair seating is also available). Adding to the atmosphere are authentic Swiss folk dances performed by girls of all ages prior to the performance and during intermission. The performers, dressed in traditional costumes, act out a story of patriotic heroism.
    The pageant is presented in English on Saturday, August 30, and in German on Sunday, August 31. Both performances begin at 1 p.m. All reserved seats are $8 (purchased in advance). General admission tickets are sold on the day of the show and are $5 for students and $8 for adults. Reservations are not necessary and tickets can be purchased the day of the pageant. Enjoy an evening of traditional Swiss entertainment at the Alpine Festival on Saturday night at 8.
   On Sunday, festival activities include a book sale, ethnic fashion show of authentic folk costumes, an art fair, and the annual street dance in the heart of downtown.
    For detailed information on festival activities, visit www.wilhelmtell.org or call 800/527-6838. To order tickets, send an email to tickets@wilhelmtell.org or order by mail and send to Wilhelm Tell Community Guild, PO Box 456, New Glarus, WI 53574.