from Edison’s first power plant in 1882, to cooperation among utilities in the 1920s, to the Rural Electrification Act of 1936, to the 1994 development of the Buffalo Ridge Wind Farm, to Minnesota’s first large-scale solar + storage facility in 2018, to now in 2025, when a third of our electricity comes from renewable energy.
It’s an incredible system that makes it possible to light up our homes by just flipping a switch.
There are people at every step in that system. Utility employees providing generation, transmission, and distribution services. People in manufacturing facilities making everything from transformers to heat pumps, solar panels, and batteries. Contractors showing up to fix heating systems in the middle of the winter. Small business owners and farmers implementing efficiency measures and installing renewable energy to reduce their costs. Parents teaching their children to turn off the lights when they leave the room.
It’s a remarkable human system, one that has come about because people dared to imagine something different than what had come before, dared to innovate at every level and in every part of our energy system. And now it’s our turn to imagine!
So, look at your community. What’s your clean energy dream? How can CERTs help you make it a reality?
Melissa, Joel, & Diana
CERTs Co-Directors
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