News

Interest continues to build around electric vehicles (EVs) and the growing infrastructure to support their successful implementation. Read more about a recent Saint Paul event that highlighted the vehicles, a solar-powered charging station and lots of happy EV owners.

September 23 was the second annual National Plug-In Vehicle day.

About 250,000 people visited the Eco Experience at this year’s Minnesota State Fair and virtually all of those fairgoers checked out the Energy Solutions Home (ESH), the centerpiece of the Eco Experience that was sponsored and coordinated by the Minnesota Department of Commerce, Division of Energy Resources (DER).

A report published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the Renewable Electricity Futures Study (RE Futures), is an initial investigation of the extent to which renewable energy supply can meet the electricity demands of the continental United States over the next several decades.

Ever wondered if anyone has a good Spanish language home energy efficiency guide?

Earlier today I ran across this new brochure from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy office in a email blast from the Western’s Energy Experts eNews.

The Clean Energy Resource Teams are very pleased to welcome Michelle Palm to our staff as the new Southeast CERT Coordinator.

Michelle just graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in May 2012, where she got a degree in Environmental Studies, focusing on International Issues and Peace Studies.

If you’re anything like my family, this cool weather gets you thinking about what you can do to save energy heating your home this fall and winter. Here are some things you can do in the next couple months (if you haven’t already):

Things you should do now to save on heating costs:

Change your furnace filter every 1-2 months, unless it is filter specifically designed for longer life.

If you drive an electric or plug-in car and drive to work every day in it, you’ve probably given the topic of workplace charging stations some thought.

Convincing your boss to shell out company cash for a charging station might not be that easy, but now charging station provider ChargePoint wants to help you sweeten the deal through its new JumpStart program.

A year ago, the U.S. Army’s Energy Initiatives Task Force (EITF) was approved by Secretary of the Army, John M. McHugh, with the goal to enhance the Army’s commitment to energy security and sustainability.

Now the Army is looking for business partners in Minnesota and across the country to help them meet their 25% by 2025 Renewable Energy Standard.

I’m a huge fan of the Minnesota Vikings (even considered getting the solar panels on my home in purple), and an even bigger fan of wind energy, so the news this week that the Vikings are planning to tackle their energy use in partnership with Juhl Wind is a major touchdown.

Just last month, the Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association, serving communities just north and west of the Twin Cities metropolitan area, announced Minnesota’s first community solar project. The 40 kW solar array will be located at the cooperative’s headquarters, with members allowed to purchase individual panels in the project for $869.

Metro CERT is excited to announce our newest staff member, Trevor Drake, who started today as the Metro CERT Organizer!

Trevor spent the past year working with the City of Rogers where he helped them to become designated as a Minnesota GreenStep City and invest over $50,000 into energy efficiency projects.

Finland, Minnesota is on the path to incorporating renewable energy education into the construction of its new community center. With the implementation of geothermal technology, the new community center will serve as an educational model for other initiatives, as well as for the community that utilizes the building.

In their 2008 research project, RREAL researchers determined that while the upfront cost may be intimidating at first, it seems that using solar heat to dry agricultural crops eventually pays off—and not only in the financial sense.

Exergy Development Group’s 36 MW Big Blue Wind Farm, which will be built in south central Minnesota, will feature Gamesa’s newest wind turbine model.

The G97-2.0 MW Class IIIA wind turbine is designed specifically for low-wind sites and features nacelle enhancements and a newer, more aerodynamic blade design that optimizes energy output, Gamesa says.

Although I completed my contract with the Clean Energy Resource Teams last month and am no longer working for them, recently the CERTs crew came to the farm for their annual summer staff gathering.

It was wonderful to see my old colleagues. I gave them the obligatory farm tour (including solar panels on the barn, of course) and they fed cow cookies to the bovines.