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Sanjay comes to Metro CERT as a participant in the Environment and Sustainability program of HECUA (Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs). After he completes a semester with HECUA, Sanjay will finish his bachelor’s degree in Geography with focuses in sustainability and GIS at the University of Minnesota.

On September 10, 2013 about 50 people, mostly city staff, attended a workshop to learn more about how to create the environment in their communities to provide the pathway for developing local solar resources. The workshop was co-sponsored by the GreenStep Cities partnership and Met Council; organized by the National Association of Regional Councils.

This past year at the CERTs 2013 Conference, a new interactive session was tried. Regional groups met and brainstormed potential community energy efficiency projects that could be implemented specifically in their region. One such idea involved installing LED lights on the University of Minnesota, Crookston (UMC) campus.

Detroit Lakes Community & Cultural Center has been working to improve lighting efficiency over the course of the past few years. Overall, 409 light fixtures were affected by the retrofit. We are 100% pleased with the lighting project,” said Stu Omberg, DLCCC’s chief executive officer.

Everyone would like to save money on utility bills, and most people want to conserve our natural resources, right? Well, in Southwest Minnesota, what initially started as an effort to raise awareness among tenants, management, and community members about the importance of the responsible use of natural resources such as energy and water turned out to make connections among generations.

Comprehensive energy program at Discovery Middle School achieves big energy savings and healthier indoor air quality. Alexandria’s Discovery Middle School has trimmed its energy use by nearly 50 percent, thanks to a host of energy improvements.

For students like Kimberly Colgan, participating in the Youth Energy Summit (YES!) program is a life-changing experience. “YES! has definitely impacted my college and career plans.

Nearly 300 people gathered in Rockford, Minnesota on September 9th for a celebration, ribbon cutting, and tour of the Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association’s “Solar Community,” the first community solar project completed in Minnesota.

CERTs staff members Lissa Pawlisch, Diana McKeown, and Trevor Drake attended to help celebrate this milestone for Minnesota.

Several years ago the City of Royalton embarked on a mission to increase energy efficiency through clean energy initiatives that save money. Royalton is now cheering its solar energy project as a success on many levels. “We were excited to see the benefit to the environment and to the bottom line for our city,” said Royalton Mayor Andrea Lauer.

Stacey Pederson is the new Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs) Communications Assistant with the University of Minnesota’s Regional Sustainable Development Partnership and Extension.

She decided to become more involved with CERTs after attending the 2013 CERTs Conference.

Several YES! teams worked to change behavioral and social norms in their schools this past school year. That was the easy part. Next came the hard part, convincing their fellow students to adopt necessary behavior changes to implement changes, starting with lunch trays.

One Youth Energy Summit (YES!) event featured a video that depicted passengers on an elevator.

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Youth Energy Summit (YES!) students are cultivating knowledge and eating it, too! Many YES! teams have found that they are passionate about local foods and school gardens. This past school year 4 YES! teams built greenhouses at their schools and 13 YES! teams worked on projects related to school gardens and composting.

As I staffed the Energy House at the Minnesota State Fair’s Eco-Experience, I got a bit more familiar with the Nest Thermostat, which is a smart thermostat developed mostly by former Apple employees.

Menards, one of the largest home improvement chains in the world, will begin selling SolarPod solar photovoltaic (PV) systems this month. SolarPod is manufactured by Mouli Engineering. Inc., a company based in Eagan, Minnesota.

“Menards has worked extensively in evaluating Mouli Engineering’s SolarPod products.

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.