Working for Efficient Lighting in Winona

The city of Winona is one community in Southeast Minnesota that stands to benefit greatly from the Clean Energy Resource Teams effort. Anne Morse, a member of the SE CERTS team and an environmental officer in Winona County, has spearheaded a conservation project that is making it easier and less expensive for area businesses to convert to energy efficient lighting.

“Lighting accounts for 20 percent of commercial energy costs,” Morse said. “The reality is, upgrading from incandescent to fluorescent, from T12 to T8 bulbs, is a huge step in efficiency,” she said.

Collaborating with the Center for Energy and Environment, Xcel Energy and CERTs, the project uses the savings from the reduction in energy use in Winona to pay for the investment in new bulbs. The project is targeting local companies that use a sufficient amount of energy to see a significant savings in their utility bills.

“As this plays out, our local businesses are seeing an economic benefit in their bottom line, she said. “Their expenses are going down. Wastefulness is not a conservative value.”

Morse met with contractors in December 2004, and rolled out the program to area businesses early in 2005. After April, they moved on to the residential sector.

“It is a wonderful opportunity for businesses in the community to reduce their energy use,” Morse said. “As part of the CERTS process, we hope to replicate what is happening in the City of Winona in other communities.”

Minneapolis-based Center for Energy and Environment had attempted to bring this program to Greater Minnesota before, Morse said, but did not have much success because it lacked relationships with the communities.

“CERTs has provided the link to the community that was not there before. It was the link to the community that was missing,” she said.

For more information contact:
Anne Morse
Winona County
507.457.6468
amorse@co.winona.mn.us