CERTs Monthly Update - September 2008
Hello CERT members and friends, and welcome to the September 2008 edition of our Monthly Update!
We have a couple big announcements this month:
First, CERTs is working with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to roll out the Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon Project. Please spread the word with your local public high school, college or university! (see Link of the Month)
Second, we want to congratulate our SW CERT partner the Southwest Regional Development Commission in Slayton, Minnesota. They have been awarded a 2008 Excellence in Regional Transportation Award from the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) for their Wind Development, Roads, Bridges, and Land Use Initiative. Yea, Netty!
Regional Highlights & Activities
Statewide
Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon: With this program you can save your school money and reduce your carbon footprint! The program is focused on helping schools reduce carbon in two ways: (1) Supporting carbon-cutting student-led projects; (2) Improving school building operations and maintenance. Learn More >>
- Students: We want to help you connect with students across the state and give you free technical and financial resources to help you reduce energy use at your schools during the next three years. There are funds available now to help you get started, and during the second year of the initiative, school teams will be eligible for grants of up to $20,000 for innovative carbon-cutting projects. Sign up here!
- School Administrators: We want to help you cut energy costs in your buildings and have free technical assistance to help you do so. Sign up here!
CERTs 2009 Conference Participant Registration Now Open: You won’t want to miss the Third Biennial Statewide CERTs Conference, Harnessing Resources & Teamwork for Minnesota’s Energy Future, February 10-11, 2009 in St. Cloud. Register now for earlybird rates! Click here to learn more >>
Central Region
Central CERT Tour: Thirty people attended the Central CERT meeting on September 10th in Wadena. The meeting focused on Central CERT member Kent Scheer’s work on sequestering carbon on his land and selling the credits. See meeting summary. Read A Landowner’s Guide to Carbon Sequestration Credits.
Central CERT Video Highlights: If you never got a chance to see video highlights of Central Region energy projects, you’re in luck, because they are now available live on the CERTs site. Click here to watch them now.
Metro Region
Twin Cities GreenDrinks: On September 10th the final installment of the Metro CERTs hosted GreenDrinks was focused on solar energy. Gayle Prest from the City of Minneapolis talked about the Department of Energy Solar City grant that the Cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis were awarded to demonstrate and promote solar use in the Metro area. Doug Shoemaker from Minnesota Renewable Energy Society (MRES) highlighted the great work they are doing to promote solar energy and specifically the Minnesota Solar Tour featuring 70+ homes, businesses and institutions that have incorporated renewable energy into their design and operations.
Hastings Democracy Project: On September 16th, Diana McKeown spoke to a public group in Hastings that wants to take action in their community to have a positive impact on the environment. The meeting ended with a plan to regroup soon to talk about how to increase the number of folks biking in the community, including promotion of the International Walk (and Bike) to School Day on Oct. 8th at the high school. The meeting was also recorded for their local cable access show.
Longfellow Residential Energy Efficiency Pilot Project: The Metro CERTs joined forces on a project being led by The Center for Energy and the Environment (CEE) and the Longfellow Community Council to present the “One-Stop Community Energy Services Residential Pilot Program”: in the Longfellow Neighborhood of Minneapolis. The pilot program is to demonstrate the effectiveness of low–cost measures and behavior change on residential energy use. The pilot will recruit participants on a block level and will use workshops, free materials, and home visits to engage residents in changing their energy use habits. On September 17th, Metro CERTs helped present the block leader training to give community members tools to recruit their neighbors to join this effort. We look forward to sharing our results and lessens learned.
St. Anthony Park Community Foundation: On September 23, Diana McKeown was the featured speaker for the St. Anthony Park Community Foundation annual meeting. The St. Anthony Park community has been working over the past several years to respond to the community’s desire to reduce its carbon footprint and to revitalize their local economy. Metro CERTs will be working with them to focus on a specific project to reduce energy use in the community.
Northeast Region
Cleaner Energy Cleaner Duluth: This documentary film put together by Northeast CERT steering committee member Wendy Grethen highlights nine businesses and organizations in the Duluth area that are taking steps to move toward a clean energy future. The video includes St. Louis County, Duluth Transit Authority, MN Power/Allete, D.E.C.C., Whole Foods Co-op, Hartley Nature Center, Unitarian Church, DeWitt Seitz building, and the Rural Renewable Energy Alliance. The film was shown at Chester Creek Cafe/At Sara’s Table, and aired throughout September on PACT-TV Channel 7. Wendy is also working on a local foods network video. She says, “It was born from this project because of the strong tie to energy needs/usage and food consumption. I interviewed 8 different places for it and am working to cut it down to less than an hour. In both videos it’s very interesting to know more about what’s happening, resources available, and the benefits.” Very soon you may be able to watch the video on the CERTs Web site—stay posted.
Orr Renewafuel Biomass Plant gets Iron Range Resources loan funding: Business North Reports in Renewafuel gets IRRB backing that “A proposed biomass briquette production operation slated near Orr in Northeastern Minnesota will get nearly one-fourth of its estimated project financing from a state Iron Range Resources loan. Rosemount, MN-based Renewafuel, LLC, a subsidiary of Cleveland-Cliffs, was founded in 2005 and manufactures renewable energy for industrial sources. On Sept. 10, the company announced plans to construct a 100,000 square foot plant near Orr.” Read the full article.
Update from Bill: NE CERT Coordinator Bill Mittlefehldt provides an update of recent happenings.
- Team Meetings: The NE CERT team met recently in Aiktin, Duluth, Virginia, Ely, Grand Marais, and at Harvest Fest. The Aitkin team includes business leaders, county economic development leaders, the School Superintendent and a number of lead educators. They hope to prepare the community for their graduates. Ely has put together the “Energy Efficiency in Ely” team as a subset of their Chamber of Commerce. They hope to secure the energy future for citizens and customers. Grand Marais has quickly developed four civic teams to help that community develop a more sustainable future. At Harvest Fest, more than a thousand citizens flocked to the Energy Tent.
- NE CERT Tour of Virginia: One of the exemplary team-building activities was the six hour Energy Tour of Viriginia, Minnesota. More than twenty-five citizens from the NE region turned out for a tour of the MNTAC wind turbines, the city’s biomass facility and a presentation from the Virginia Sustainability Taskforce.
- Grand Marais’ Cook County Local Energy Project (CCLEP) has made huge strides toward sustainability over the last year. What began as a winter ice-fishing discussion has become a community phenomenon. A team of civic and business leaders has received an MPCA grant to build a more sustainable economy and climate in the county. This is the only countywide project in the state. They use WTIP radio to launch “Community Conversations” on Thursday nights. Recently the CCLEP team featured Mike Noble of Fresh Energy on the radio live and then turned the 100 members in the auditorium into the first ever Town Meeting on Energy. It was a huge success, raising both information and energy levels for improved teamwork.
Northwest Region
Moorhead Wind Power Progress Report: A recent article in the Worthington Daily Globe explains the city of Moorhead’s wind turbine situation and how citizens are investing in wind energy. The city’s first turbine was built in 1999 and gave Moorhead a head start on reaching the recent 2007 legislation for utilities to provide 25% of their energy from renewable sources by 2025. Read the full article.
Southeast Region
RE-Fest a Huge Success! RE-fest was a celebration of Clean Energy and Green Living held September 20, 2008, at Riverland Community College in Austin, MN. More than 1600 people attended the event, which featured 36 workshops, live music, local food, exhibitors, local artisans, and kids’ activities—including the 20-foot Earth Balloon. The event was sponsored by the Southeast Clean Energy Resource Team, Austin Utilities, Hormel Nature Center, and Riverland Community College. Click here to see news articles and pictures from the event.
Moventas moving in near Faribault: A wind turbine gearbox manufacturer is building its first North American assembly plant in the Faribault area, a move that will provide a multimillion dollar spark for the local economy, said city and company officials Thursday.” Moventas, a Finland-based manufacturer will be building a 75,000 square foot assembly and distribution facility in the Met-Con Business Park that is currently in Wells Township by Interstate 35. Read more about the company and how this expansion will create local jobs.
Building Performance Software Pilot: The Southeast CERT Steering Committee had a presentation from representatives of PureChoice September 16th. PureChoice provides Building Performance Software to help with energy conservation and safe productive indoor environments. Their sales representatives stated that when using their product commercial customers typically notice a 10-20 percent reduction in energy use, and they wanted to offer three indoor data collection devices ($867 value) as a pilot project at no cost. Please contact Brian McQuade at 612-590-8243 or via email at bmcquade@purechoice.com if you want to learn more about this pilot project.
The Women of Wind Energy: On Thursday, September 4, the Women of Wind Energy (WoWE) Minnesota Chapter visited the Grand Meadow Wind Farm located about 27 miles southwest of Rochester. The Grand Meadow Wind Farm will be the first wind farm owned and operated by Xcel Energy in the state of Minnesota. The project consists of 67 1.5 Megawatt GE turbines and will generate enough energy for 33,000 Minnesota homes. Click here to learn more.
Southwest Region
WASHINGTON, DC – The Southwest Regional Development Commission in Slayton, Minnesota has been awarded a 2008 Excellence in Regional Transportation Award from the National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) for the Wind Development, Roads, Bridges, and Land Use Initiative.
NADO is a Washington, DC-based association that promotes programs and policies to strengthen local governments, communities and economies through regional cooperation, program delivery and comprehensive strategies. The Excellence in Regional Transportation Awards showcase organizations for noteworthy projects and practices in rural and small metropolitan transportation planning, program delivery and special initiatives. Award winners received national recognition at the 2008 National Rural Transportation Peer Learning Conference, August 17–19 in Duluth, Minnesota.
According to NADO President Leanne Mazer, Executive Director of the Tri-County Council for Western Maryland in Cumberland, Maryland, “The Excellence in Regional Transportation Awards highlight the major impact of programs and projects like the Wind Development, Roads, Bridges, and Land Use Initiative. Such initiatives are central to fostering economic growth in our nation’s communities by promoting effective transportation networks.”
The Initiative stemmed from work the Regional Development Commission does with project reviews and review and comment of state regulations and rules, and connecting resources of the Clean Energy Resource Team. The initiative pulled together road authorities, zoning officials, developers, and the state wind permitting staff to discuss wind development and share both good and bad experiences where improvements could be made. This networking meeting/workshop was sponsored by the Southwest Clean energy Resource Team. One result of this project was initiating next steps to improve communication, efforts that the SRDC and the SW CERT are coordinating.
Click here to view February 11th Wind Development, Roads, Bridges, and Land Use meeting notes.
West Central Region
Youth Energy Summit Kick-Off:
A unique and exciting program, the Youth Energy Summit (YES!) engages teams of youth in action projects to literally put energy into our future. Youth (grades 8-12) participate in four special events during the school year to learn about and discuss renewable energy, climate change, energy entrepreneurship, and energy economics. In their home communities, each team undertakes an energy action project of their choosing. An award ceremony culminates the year, with prizes for outstanding teams. Learn more about the recent kick-off and how your school team can get involved.
Couple focuses on productive conservation with native prairie grasses: A recent article by Tom Cherveney in the West Central Tribune highlights a couple near Benson who took their fields out of agricultural production and converted the acres to native prairie grasses. This switch was spurred by a yearning for “productive conservation”. Mary Jo and Luverne Forbord plan to harvest the grasses and sell them in either Benson or Morris. Click here to read the full article.
Links of the Month
LINK 1: Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon
100 Schools, 3 years…How much energy can we save? With the Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon program you can save your school money and reduce your carbon footprint! The program is focused on helping schools reduce carbon in two ways: (1) Supporting carbon-cutting student-led projects; (2) Improving school building operations and maintenance. Learn more about the program, and spread the word!
LINK 2: The Power of the Wind
The National 4-H Council and the 3M Foundation have launched The Power of the Wind, an educational resource that teaches youth how to use engineering principles to design and to build alternative energy projects. This new national curriculum, funded by a $500,000 grant from 3M Foundation, adds to 4-H’s commitment to provide hands-on science, engineering and technology programs to youth. The project is part of 4-H’s One Million New Scientists. One Million New Ideas effort that it hopes will help spark youth interest in science and increase the number of young adults pursuing science-related careers.
Click here for more information about purchasing the curriculum.
Action Alert
Spread the Word about the Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon program!
Congratulations to Dawson Boyd School from Dawson in West Central Minnesota! They are the first school to apply for the Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon program.
Your assignment, if you choose to accept it, is to spread the word about Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon with students, teachers, and school administrators. This program is built to help infuse additional funds and technical resources to schools already reducing their carbon footprint, as well as to help those schools just getting started.
Clean Energy Resource Teams