Solar power has never been more affordable or easier to install, and that’s why the the Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA) has come together with communities, solar manufacturers and installers, financing providers, and more to bring a series of Solar Power Hours to Minnesota.
MREA works with these community partners to offer one-hour seminars—called Solar Power Hours—to educate homeowners, small business owners, and farmers on the benefits of solar energy. Attendees will learn how PV systems work, the financial benefits they provide, describe the solar installation process, and identify available financing options (learn more from their Solar Power Hour Guide).
To further facilitate interest, the MREA maintains a list of Power Pack Installers that meet or exceed our standards for experience, credentialing, and customer relations. In Minnesota, participating installers include:
The MREA works with the approved contractors, suppliers, local manufacturers, and local lenders to ensure that homes, businesses, and municipalities have access to regionally manufactured solar products as well as low-interest financing through community banks and credit unions.
Attend an upcoming Solar Power Hour in Minnesota to get started! Click here to see all dates and times >>
CERTs Seed Grant Case Study: Testing out the Power Hour model at Hibbing Community College
Imagine if you held an event where residents, utility representatives and solar installers all gathered to focus on opportunities to install solar photovoltaic. Interested residents could sign up to have a free solar site assessment, with would be performed by students at the community college. The students would get a foot into the door of the growing solar industry, and the residents would have good information to decide if they wanted to move forward with a solar project or not.
Hibbing Community College piloted this concept with the Midwest Renewable Energy Association (MREA) with mixed results. Here were some of the findings based on the final report submitted by Jesse Dahl, the Hibbing Community College instructor in charge of the project.
The bad news: “The idea of paying the students to do site assessments is a unique and interesting idea, but without continuous contact with the students it is hard to complete. For this to be successful the students must be in daily contact with the instructor and the completion of the site assessments must be part of a “for credit” college course so that not completing the site assessments would result in a failing grade. We tried doing this as a CE type course with students enrolled in another (Electrical) course at HCC. This didn’t work so well. The outcomes of the project were a bit disappointing; the solar class the students took was only 2 weeks long so it was difficult to keep on them on task and doing the site assessments. 5 site assessments were performed, 3 reports were filled, 0 projects were handed to contractors.”
The good news: “Scheduling the “Power Hours” through the MREA was a huge success. The work the MREA did on this project was amazing. We had very good interest in the “Power Hour” presentations in all areas of the state that we targeted. We got local residents good information and answered question they had about solar and small wind. We also were able to get local contractors together and talking about solar PV and energy. There have been a few contractor/customer site visits and Q&A sessions. The hope is that these sessions will kick start an already growing market on the Iron Range through community education.”
Click here to learn more about the Solar Power Hour program >>
