News

This summer on Saturday, August 20th Badgersett Farm in Southeast Minnesota had a huge public event, that, among other exciting activities, provided an opportunity for CERTs folks to tour their awesome solar greenhouse. I asked owner Phil Rutter to tell us a little more.

Article by Rachel Raveling at Minnesota Daily

University researcher Fotis Sotiropoulos made one last phone call Tuesday afternoon, and the person on the other end flipped the switch on a wind turbine at the Eolos Wind Research Station. The 426-foot tall, 2.5-megawatt wind turbine is part of the University of Minnesota Outreach, Research and Education Park in Rosemount, Minn.

Updated Nov. 10, 2011.

The Division of Energy Resources, Minnesota Department of Commerce is hosting a series of Distributed Generation Workshops to examine opportunities and issues related to greater development of distributed generation resources in Minnesota.

As the weather gets colder, we’ve decided to re-post our most popular blog post of all time from one of our favorite people of all time!

Phil Smith, a now-retired Energy Specialist at the Minnesota Division of Energy Resources, MN Department of Commerce, answers a question from a Southeastern Minnesota resident preparing to re-shingle her roof.

Story by Tom Robertson, Minnesota Public Radio.

Near the shore of the Mississippi River, a small brick facility called a screen house is an example of this city’s efforts to save money, and cope with dwindling amounts of Minnesota’s local government aid.

The Minnesota Division of Energy Resources website recently went through a major overhaul, and it looks great!

Even more importantly, they’ve made it easier for you to find the information that you’ve come to depend on for various technologies and funding and financing opportunities.

There was a lot of media coverage of the solar panels being installed on the south side of the RiverCentre’s parking garage.

CERTs thinks this is a great example of how to combine energy efficiency with renewable energy.

As electric cars start to hit showrooms in Minnesota in the coming weeks, we wanted to help folks understand more about this exciting technology.

The Nelson Farm in Litchfield, MN is home to what we think must be the nation’s best corn maze this year. The maze features a wind turbine and the phrase “Go Green” in celebration of local wind energy production.

“We’ve seen two wind farms go up since the past spring,” says Don Nelson, owner of Nelson Farm.

The University of Minnesota has a fantastic program called the Power Police, which is a partnership between the student group Energy Efficiency Student Alliance and Energy Management at the U. The big idea is for students to help U of M office workers save power—especially the “phantom” or “vampire” power that electronic devices draw even when they’re turned off.

This past Tuesday Metro CERT launched a new series of workshops to help communities learn about solar, connect to resources, and take steps to act on an opportunity to install a solar array on their home or business.

O

Community-Based Social Marketing (CBSM) is an approach to achieving broad sustainable behavior in our communities. It combines the knoweldge from psychology and social marketing to leverage community members’ action to change behavior. CBSM is more than education, it’s spurring action by a community and for a community.

Duluthian Rick Carter has been named one of 34 of the world’s most distinguished green building professionals in September by the U.S. Green Building Certification Institute (USGBCI). Carter, an employee of LHB, an engineering and architectural firm, is part of the inaugural class of LEED Fellows.

Since 2006, the Minnesota Energy Challenge has helped over 27,000 people statewide learn about energy saving actions they can do in their own homes, and at the same time save gobs of money on their utility bills.

We’re big fans of the work they have done, and they in turn have special tracking set up for each of our Regional CERTs.

Minnesota is home to several small wind turbine manufacturers, including Jacobs, Ventera, and Talk Inc. (remanufactured turbines). We recently reached out to these companies and heard back from Adam Suelflow, President of Talk Inc. in Sauk Centre, MN.

Next month CERTs will be releasing a new Request for Proposal for seed grants, likely for $10,000 per CERT region.