13K People Expected To Attend Renewable Energy Fair In Custer

About 13,000 people are expected to attend the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in Custer this weekend to review dozens of exhibits and workshops with the mission of learning more about “clean energy and sustainability.”

The event, now in its 29th year, gets underway on Friday at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association grounds, located about 7 miles east of Stevens Point. It features more than 200 workshops and 200 exhibits.

One of the highlights in this year’s fair is an expanded clean transportation show, said MREA executive director Nick Hylla.

“This is probably one of the most exciting things that’s happened during my tenure here … the incredible growth in electric transportation and options that are out there,” Hylla said. “We’ll have probably every variety of electric vehicle here on display, probably more than 100 vehicles.”

The vehicles include the Chevy Bolt, Chevy Volt, Honda Clarity PHEV, Mitsubishi Miev, Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model 3 and Toyota Prius Prime. On Saturday, fairgoers will be able to take many of the electric vehicles on test drives.

The fair will also feature an array of speakers. Among the keynote speakers is best-selling author, singer-songwriter, humorist and “Tent Show Radio” host Michael Perry, who will speak at 1 p.m. Sunday.

Hylla said Perry fits with the theme of this year’s fair, which is reconciliation.

“I think Michael Perry really exemplifies that in his writing,” Hylla said. “This idea of volunteerism and getting to know your neighbor and dropping the judgment and really trying to become a productive part of the community. We lined up speakers this year that will really help us broaden our perspectives and maybe learn to talk to each other once again.”

Perry said that he would touch on conservation issues in his remarks.

“I’m not a cause guy. I’m just trying to get through the weekday, trying to get the kids fed, trying to get health insurance. We’re a self-employed family,” Perry said. “But I have a great appreciation for people who are out there working hard trying to make the world a better place, and the Energy Fair is just bustling with people like that.”

Perry said one of the best ways to change the world is with your own example. He pointed to the installation of solar panels on his farmhouse.

“Yeah, we wanted to get a little electricity from the Sun, and that has happened,” Perry said. “But we also knew that by us putting our panels up, we’d have a little more data, and the folks who put them up could learn about them, and the local electric cooperative has been out to our farm many times to look at how we’ve done things, and what’s working, and what doesn’t work. So you hope in some way that you’re contributing.”

Perry expressed concern about pollution of the oceans and the Great Lakes with plastic. He pointed to a visit that he took to a remote beach in the Virgin Islands.

“You see this beautiful beach and then when you start to walk it, it’s just stacked with plastic. That stuff is coming from all over the world just to land on that beach in that little place,” he said.

Friday’s keynote speaker is author and journalist Lily Raff McCaulou. Her memoir, “Call of the Mild: Learning to Hunt My Own Dinner,” describes her change in attitude toward hunting when she moved to a small town from New York City.

Saturday’s keynote speaker is investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill, one of the founders of the The Intercept website. He is the best-selling author of two books about the “war on terror,” “Blackhawk” and “Dirty Wars: The World Is A Battlefield.”