CERTs Monthly Update - October 2009
Hello CERT members and friends, and welcome to the October 2009 edition of our Monthly Update!
The Midtown Farmers Market: Fresh and local low-carbon veggies, neighbors getting to know one another, Clean Energy Resource Teams, the Minnesota Energy Challenge, and 350.org all in one place? Now that’s a bright idea!
Regional Highlights & Activities
Statewide
University of Minnesota to lead new wind energy consortium: The project will receive up to $8 million from U.S. Department of Energy. A consortium of wind energy researchers led by the University of Minnesota will receive up to $8 million from the U.S.Department of Energy (DOE) for fostering wind energy development in the United States. The consortium was one of only three across the country receiving funding. The grant, funded from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, will support research to improve both land-based and offshore wind generation. Fotis Sotiropoulos, director of the University of Minnesota’s St. Anthony Falls Laboratory and principal investigator on the project, along with a group of faculty from the University of Minnesota’s Institute of Technology, University of Minnesota Morris, Syracuse University, and Dakota County Technical College, will work in close collaboration with a powerhouse consortium of industrial partners to help reach the DOE’s nationwide goal of achieving 20 percent wind power by 2030. Read the Department of Energy press release >>
Energy Self-Reliant States Report: How self-sufficient in energy generation could states be if they relied only on their own renewable resources? This report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) is focused on electricity, but includes virtually all renewable resources (on shore and off shore wind, micro hydro, combined heat and power, geothermal, rooftop PV). It also discusses the potential gains from improving energy efficiency and estimates the per-kWh costs for each state to become energy independent. Click here to learn more >>
Researcher Links Green Buildings with Improved Health: Green buildings don’t just conserve energy—they also improve their occupants’ health. That was the message of David Jacobs, director of research for the National Center for Healthy Housing, to a panel of state lawmakers. Speaking at a joint meeting of the House Housing Finance and Policy and Public Health Finance Division and the Senate Housing Subcommittee, Jacobs argued that investments in affordable green housing could improve public health and ultimately lower health care costs. Read the full story here >>
U of M Rocks Solar Decathalon: The University of Minnesota has finished fifth in a national competition between teams trying to build the most attractive and energy-efficient solar-powered house. The University of Minnesota’s team competed against 19 other colleges and universities from the U.S., Germany, Canada and Spain, with each team building a house on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Solar Decathlon team from the U of M finished in fifth place, even after winning both the lighting design competition engineering competition. Read the full MPR article >>
National Solar Tour in MN: Minnesota, with coordination from the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society and groups across the state, once again participated in this year’s National Solar Tour on Saturday October 3rd. Several sites in Central, Northeast, Southeast and Southwest Minnesota were highlighted. Click here for a map of all of the participating locations and click here to find specifics on all of the tour sites including a handy key to let you know what sorts of technologies each site employs.
CERTs Testimonials: Read what individuals in Minnesota have to say about the Clean Energy Resource Teams, and submit your own CERTs testimonial! Visit testimonials >>
Central Region
Help RREAL win $100,000! RREAL has been entered to win $100,000 from Levi Strauss for their Go Forth Challenge. With $100,000 RREAL could help keep 20 families warm the winter while reducing hundreds of thousands of pounds of greenhouse gas emissions, or purchase new vehicles that would help RREAL staff more reliably travel to farther reaches of Minnesota. Voting closes November 17th at http://www.levi.com/goforth.
Pine River Community Task Forces on the move: Four task forces are now moving ahead—the Community Gardens Task Froce, the Food Co-op Task Force, the Dam Park Task Force, and the Green Step Program task force—with their plans to move their Healthy Green Community Partnership effort forward. See all the details, and track the progress of this effort at http://www.pinerivergreensteps.org.
Metro Region
First Neighborhood Energy Service Workshop: On October 19th Metro CERT, the Neighborhood Energy Connection and the St. Anthony Park District Council sponsored the first energy efficiency workshop for the Neighborhood Energy Service (NES) program in St. Paul. Over 95 people turned out for a standing room only crowd at the St. Anthony Park Library to learn about simple energy-saving measures in their home. The first 88 people are now registered for home visits, in which a team of energy efficiency experts will come to their houses to do diagnostic testing, install energy efficiency materials and walk them through their personalized home energy-use report. There will be one more workshop in St. Anthony Park this year, and recruitment in the Thomas-Dale/Summit-University neighborhood has already begun for the next round of workshops. As this program rolls out we will reach every neighborhood in St. Paul and bring basic energy savings to at least 2,000 homes. Click here to learn more about the program >>
Hennepin Cool County Green Expos: Metro CERT was one of several organization represented at a series of Green Expos sponsored by Hennepin County this month. The events, which happen at 3 Hennepin County Library branches, are a party of the Hennepin Cool County initiative, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050. At the Green Expo Metro CERT staff spoke with citizens about our network and did a presentation on easy, inexpensive ways to save energy at home.
Midtown Farmers’ Market Energy Fair: On Saturday, October 24th Metro CERT sponsored an Energy Fair at the Midtown Farmers’ Market as a part of the 350.org International Climate Change Day of Action. The sponsorship was made possible by a City of Minneapolis Climate Change Innovation grant focused on energy conservation with renters in the Phillips community. Minneapolis created the grants to help local neighborhoods and organizations fund creative ways to engage residents in the fight against climate change. The day was themed 350 because 350 is the number that scientists say is the safe upper limit for parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We set a few 350 goals of our own as part of this international day of action: to sign up 350 people for the MN Energy Challenge and to distribute 350 three-packs of energy efficient lightbulbs (CFLs). See photos from the event >>
Green Institute Annual Meeting: In October the Green Institute will celebrated its 16th year, with an annual meeting at Patrick’s Cabaret. The Metro Clean Energy Resource Team has been a program hosted by the Green Institute for over 2 years now.
ReUse Center Winterization Workshop: Metro CERT staff helped to support another workshop in a series hosted by the ReUse Center. This workshop focused on winterization, and featured a speaker from the City of Minneapolis and a contractor who specializes in energy efficiency. Over 20 people attended the workshop and left with more knowledge of how to prepare their homes for the winter and simple steps to reduce energy at home. The Green Institute hopes to sponsor more such workshops.
RiverCentre going green with solar energy installation: City officials announced Friday they’re getting $1 million in federal stimulus money to put a 1-MW solar energy facility on the roof. The project will include a hot-water system to help heat the RiverCentre and may also generate electricity. Read the MPR article >>
Big Green Conference: Presentations from the event are now available online. Click here >>
Minnesota Solar Tour: This annual tour, sponsored by the MN Renewable Energy Society (MRES), features over 50 homes, businesses and institutions that have incorporated renewable energy into the design and operation of their buildings. The Phillips Eco Enterprise Center (PEEC), which is home to the Green Institute and the Metro CERT program, is always a “cornerstone of the tour” and this year got about 40 visitors. Metro CERT organizer Carl Samuelson hosted the tours on behalf of the Green Institute this year and commented, “Despite a little rain, folks were excited to see our solar array and were really interested in the other sustainability features in the building, too.”
Northeast Region
Ely Meeting Recap: On October 26th the community of Ely hosted the NE CERT to share both their clean energy successes and their clean energy plans for the future. Mayor Roger Skraba kicked off the day with an apt description of Ely—it’s not the end of the road, but rather the beginning. As members of Ely’s Alternative Energy Task Force, Energy Efficiency Ely, Vermilion College, Energy Smart, Minnesota Municipal Utilities Association, and local local businesses spoke about what they’ve accomplished thus far and their plans for future energy efficiency work and a potential biomass district energy system, participants began to see that Ely is working hard to demonstrate to itself, and to others around the state and nation, how a community can come together to implement its own clean energy solutions.
New Video: Ely in the Balance: Ely in the Balance chronicles how solar power was introduced to Ely, MN with help from CERTs. The video features A Laundry Room, Inc, a full-service laundromat in Ely, MN that installed a solar thermal hot water system with grant funding from NE CERT and a whole lot of community support. Runtime is just 6 minutes. Click here to watch the video now >>
Updates from NE CERT Organizer, Bill Mittlefehldt:
- Work with schools: NE CERT organizer Bill Mittlefehldt did outreach with high school students from Denfeld, East and Central High Schools of Duluth, as well as college students from the College of St. Scholastica and UMD. Time was also spent developing new relations for possible funding opportunties with the Northland Foundation and the Science Education and Civic Engagement for Responsibility team at Harrisburg University in PA.
- Work with congregations: NE CERT also shared some of our Interfaith perspective at a Creation Stewardship event held at St. James Episcopal Church in Hibbing. This was the first community initiative taken by the St. James Stewardship team and was designed to improve conservation, add efficiency and increase renewable energies.
- Duluth Improvement System: In addition to outreach initiatives, NE CERTs spent time engaged in team-building activities with a broad range of existing partners. Working with Duluth Mayor Don Ness, Asst.Supt. Joe Hill and UMD Education Professor Randy Hyman to develop a community collaboration which will engage students in improving their community. This team hopes to use community targets for teamwork and mentors to challenge high school and college students to add quality to their futures. This is the first local collaboration involving three institutions planning for new processes which increase resilience of students and community in the 21st century. The Kick Off event for the Duluth Improvement System was November 9th, 2009.
- Twin Ports Interfaith Initiative on Global Warming: In October, an effort was made to utilize the power of media to accelerate learning. The Twin Ports Interfaith Initiative on Global Warming was produced and mailed to interested Faith partners in the state and region. This DVD tells the story of five Faith teams in the Lake Superior watershed that can measure the reduction in their carbon footprint; copies are available by contacting Bill at billmittle@aol.com. The NE CERTs office has been planning a short DVD to highlight the leadership in energy efficiency and community synergy in Ely. This community has accomplished a tremendous amount of planning and initiative in the last year and a half. Click to see one such example >>
Northwest Region
Sustainable living, one cord wood home at a time: Check out this innovative approach to build energy efficient and inexpensive homes that involve home-owners in the building process. Read the MPR article here >>
Southeast Region
A report from Mary Bell & Joe Deden from the Solar Decathlon in Washington DC: At the 4th semi-annual Solar Decathlon on the National Mall in Washington, D. C. we toured 20 solar homes that were designed and built by University students from the United States, Canada, Spain, Germany and Puerto Rico. An example of one creative idea was the University of Arizona home that had a canvas-like window fabric that had irregular shaped holes that automatically expanded and contracted like a camera lens that was designed to control the inside temperature. Two homes displayed unique exterior walls that were made of water, which has three times the temperature retention of cement. Home viewers were privy to brilliantly creative ways to incorporate space flexibility and adaptability with energy efficiency. To win the competition, each home was judged on attractiveness, effectiveness and energy-efficiency. Team Germany won first place, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign won second and Team California came in third. The University of Minnesota took 5th place. For great information, connect to http://www.solardecathlon.org and this SE CERT blog post.
Southwest Region
CERTs Supports Brown County Congress Energy Forum: Bridging Brown County’s Congress of Elected and Appointed Officials held an open forum on energy-related issues Oct. 30. Topics discussed included the Southwest Clean Energy Resource Team (CERT), the Youth Energy Summit (YES) and Schools Cutting Carbon Team from Springfield and cap-and-trade legislation. Annette Bair, CERT coordinator for southwestern Minnesota, kicked the meeting off with some details about her oganization. Bair explained that CERT has a goal of “creating opportunities for local ownership and energy independence.” They seek to accomplish this task by informing community members about energy-related projects already happening in their area. Following Bair’s presentation, a group of Springfield High School students gave an update to the group about their Youth Energy Summit (YES) and Schools Cutting Carbon Team. The group of teenagers reviewed some of the projects they currently have under way. The students are approaching their goal in a tech-savvy manner, as they send out weekly text messages with energy-related facts to those who desire to learn more. Read the full Sleepy Eye Herald Dispatch article >>
Woodstock wind turbine on the way: Plans by the City of Woodstock to build a wind turbine would make it the first city in Pipestone County to own a municipal wind turbine. Read the full story from the Pipestone Star >>
West Central Region
EmPowering Kandiyohi: An Energy Self-Reliance Challenge: Over the past 6 months CERTs has been working in partnership with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Kandiyohi Power Cooperative, Willmar Municipal Utilities and UM West Central Regional Partnership, among others, to explore new models to encourage residential energy efficiency and increase investment in solar PV. The effort, now named “EmPowering Kandiyohi: An Energy Self-Reliance Challenge,” is a work in progress, but has demonstrated the creative and innovative ideas that we can advance when we work in partnership and collaboration to meet our clean energy goals.
Wind in Willmar: One of the Empowering Kandiyohi project partners, Willmar Municipal Utilities, was recently the subject of a Washington Post article that references a CERT-staff facilitated EmPowering Kandiyohi meeting. Willmar Municipal Utilities is a good example of community wind at the municipal level. To learn more about their two new wind turbines, please visit http://www.wmu.willmar.mn.us/WTfaqs.htm. We’re seeing a lot of these projects in Minnesota, including the Hometown WindPower program through the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency (MMPA), a consortium of 11 member cities. Each city is erecting a 165-kilowatt wind turbine, plus MMPA is installing another in the Faribault Energy Park that they operate.
New wind turbine has Olivia buzzing: These are not the large, utility-scale turbines such as those recently erected in Willmar. The Minnesota Municipal Power Agency turbine in Olivia is 80 feet tall at the hub, and has three 35-foot blades giving it a maximum height of 115 feet. Yet the turbine, located next to the city’s public works building north of U.S. Highway 212, just can’t be missed. It has a capacity of 160 kilowatts. The power will be fed directly into the city’s own electrical distribution system.
St. John’s Abbey will build Upper Midwest’s largest solar farm: The largest experimental solar farm in the upper Midwest will sit on land that belongs to St. John’s Abbey of Collegeville. The solar farm will be four times bigger than Minnesota’s current largest solar power system, and it will generate five times more energy. The groundbreaking took place Wednesday afternoon. The solar farm, which will sit on four acres of farmland, will consist of 1,820 solar panels in 35 rows. Listen to and read the full MPR story >>
Link of the Month
Project ReEnergize, a program distributing homeowner rebates, mailed directly to the homeowner, for energy efficient home upgrades was created as a result of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Learn more today at www.ProjectReEnergize.org
Action Alert
Reduce Diesel Emissions with Project Green Fleet
GET FREE EQUIPTMENT AND INSTALLATION FOR BUS FLEETS TO CLEAN DIESEL EMISSIONS!
Does your school district partner with Project Green Fleet? Project Green Fleet has funds immediately available to any school bus fleet (district owned or privately owned) that wants to participate. Dollars fully fund the equipment and installation costs—ongoing costs are fairly minimal (about $50-$100 per bus/year). Find out if your school district participates by contacting Emily Franklin 612-334-3388 ×114 or efranklin@mn-ei.org.
Clean Energy Resource Teams 