News

National Plug-In Vehicle Day is on Saturday, September 28th, and folks from the Twin Cities and beyond will be heading to the Capitol to see the cars and learn more. We caught up with Jukka Kukkonen, owner of PlugInConnect, LLC—an EV market and technologies consulting company in Minnesota—for the details and thoughts for those interested in owning a car.

There are about 370,000 housing units within Minnesota’s rental multifamily building stock. Nearly three-quarters of these are located in the seven-county Twin Cities region.

For CenterPoint Energy and Xcel Energy, gas sales to the multifamily sector are greater than to any other commercial market sector, accounting for approximately 20 percent of gas sales.

Minnesota Public Radio’s Ground Level project kicked off a new series on Making Energy Local this week. From the opening article: “Whether they want to be forward thinking, save money on energy or cut their greenhouse emissions, some Minnesota communities are trying different ways to generate power.

Monday, September 9 at 6:30pm Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association will be welcoming community members and interested Minnesotans to the dedication of their first Solar Community project. It will be at WH’s headquarter facilities at 6800 Electric Drive, Rockford, MN. You can click here for more about the event.

The National Association of Counties (NACo) and the Distributed Wind Energy Association (DWEA) paired up recently to promote wind power by reducing permitting barriers, while also protecting resident interests.

The report, County Strategies for Successfully Managing and Promoting Wind Power’s%20Counties.

High tunnels (also commonly referred to as polytunnels, hoop greenhouses, or hoophouses) are large, generally semi-circle-shaped structures made of polyethylene. Main benefits derived from using the tunnels include shelter from extreme weather and simultaneously being able to trap solar heat and retain warmth.

Being an energy efficiency authority requires practicing what you preach—and that is exactly what Cook County is doing. In 2012, Cook County Higher Education and the Cook County Local Energy Project partnered to develop an energy efficiency education pilot project for contractors and homeowners in the community. But before they could teach anyone, they had to start at home.

Director and Instructor of the Center for Renewable Energy Education & Demonstration, Roger Aiken recently took some time to sit down with CERTs own Joel Haskard to talk about the Discovering Science on the Range in the Field of Energy (DSRFE) project, one of the statewide 2012-13 seed grant recipients.

The City of Hoffman, located in the West Central region of Minnesota, may be small in size, but they are looking at the big picture when it comes to energy efficiency.

If imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery, Chuck Waibel and Carol Ford should be blushing. In the fall and winter of 2012 in Ashby, Minnesota, Paradox Farm used Waibel and Ford’s model for the Garden Goddess deep winter greenhouse. Within northern climates, a three-season growing period is normally all that can be achieved due to the bitter cold and heavy snow.

The field of solar energy is growing at an amazing rate. But before new technologies can make it into our homes and businesses, extensive research must be done first. This is precisely what the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance (RREAL) and Apex Solar have done recently with solar thermal air heating for ventilation.

The Ely Area Senior Center is an important fixture in the Ely community. It has operated out of an old mechanic’s garage since 1982 and provides services to seniors six days a week.

Alexis Madrigal, senior editor at The Atlantic, has been looking at all things energy in a series of videos and reports on energy use. He and other reporters have been trying to break down how and where different types of energy are employed in the U.S.

As it stands, renewable energy makes up only about 10 percent of what we use in the United States.

In 2011 the Town Board of Thomson Township was looking for a way to increase energy efficiency in the township’s public buildings as a way to reduce costs for their citizens. Every public building got an energy audit to determine the best ways that energy could be saved through upgrades such as new light fixtures, occupancy controls, and heating and cooling adjustments.

Tis’ the season for new steering committee members! We’re excited to introduce you to our new batch of volunteer steering committee members who will be working hard to bring more clean energy projects into their regions across Minnesota.

Do you work for or own a green business or organization? NOW is the time to get your business or organization more exposure to the green community in Minnesota.

As many folks know, the cleanest energy of all is the BTU we never use. With this in mind, recycling products is a great energy saver. CERTs has participated for several years with the Recycle Your Holidays campaign to help homeowners recycle old, broken holiday light strands, and we also have a fantastic location finder available for recycling other lights, like CFLs and fluorescents.

The Northland Arboretum (the Arb) in Brainerd, Minnesota, has worked to educate and engage its visitors on important environmental issues for decades. This nonprofit organization provides nature trails that are available year-round for hiking, biking, snow-shoeing and skiing. The Arb also offers classes, workshops, and seminars that are held at the Arboretum’s Visitor Center.

The Minnesota GreenStep Cities program includes 28 best practices that cities strive to achieve, some of which involve making energy efficient changes to both existing buildings and infrastructure and new developments. Although progress can be tracked within the program by how many best practices have been achieved, hard data of the improvements has been lacking—until now.

The City of River Falls has broken ground on a net-zero home community called Eco Village. The collective goal is to show that sustainable housing can and should be “beautiful and affordable for all.” Main partners in the project include Habitat for Humanity, the City of River Falls, University of Wisconsin, Frisbie Architects, St. Croix Institute for Sustainable Community Development.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Energy reported that in 2012, wind energy was the fastest-growing power-generation sector for the first time in our nation’s history. The sector accounted for 43 percent of all new U.S. electric generation capacity and $25 billion in new investment.

A drafty city shop in Warren, Minnesota was the first target in the city’s work to improve the energy efficiency of their buildings. In 2011 Warren passed a resolution to join the Minnesota GreenStep Cities Program. This program allows cities all over the state to follow best practices targeted at improving energy efficiency, sustainability, and quality of life.

The Minnesota Renewable Energy Society (MRES) is a member-run non-profit organization that promotes the use of renewable energy in Minnesota through education and practical demonstrations, with a particular emphasis on solar technologies. One of the ways MRES has tried to keep people informed about renewable energy is through various publications.

Metro CERT Director Diana McKeown recently caught up with Scott Cramer, owner of Northern Sun in south Minneapolis (pictured on right side of photos), to ask him about the community solar garden that will be installed on the roof of his business.