Powering K-12 education with clean energy

Get an energy assessment

• Contact your utility: Your utility may provide energy assessments at either a low cost or free. Contact your utility to find out about available energy assessment options and rebates. A good start to find out about available incentives is the DSIRE website.
   
• RETAP: The Minnesota Retiree Environmental Technical Assistance Program (RETAP) employs skilled, retired professionals to provide facility assessments and community sustainability assistance to small businesses, institutions, and communities in Minnesota at no cost.
   
• Energy Savings Partnership: The Energy Saving Partnership is a municipal lease program offered by the Saint Paul Port Authority in partnership with U.S. Bank. Local governments and schools have access to 100 percent financing and reduced interest rates for projects that incorporate renewable energy or result in energy savings. Interest rates are low due a significant loan loss reserve.

Start by getting educated on options. CERTs provides technical assistance to understand the pros and cons of renewable energy options including community solar gardens, on-site solar, green pricing programs, and green tariffs. Your options and what might work best will vary based on your utility, energy usage, and goals. 

• Community Solar Gardens
  Community Solar Gardens are centrally-located solar photovoltaic (PV) systems that provide electricity to participating subscribers. Community Solar Gardens allow participating subscribers to gain many of the benefits of solar without having to install solar on their own building/at their own facility.
   
• Green Pricing
  Green pricing is an option offered by electric utilities that allows customers to support investments in renewable energy technologies like wind and solar. Through green pricing, participating customers pay a premium on their electric bill to cover the extra cost of the renewable energy.
   
• Renewable*Connect
  Xcel Energy customers can sign up to utilize a blend of wind and solar energy. 

Choose your site

• Solar Site Selection Checklist [PDF]: Thinking about where best to locate solar at your school property? This checklist helps you walk through your options.
• Minnesota Solar Suitability App: Wondering if a particular site in Minnesota is good for solar energy? This app can help.
• Solar for New Construction: If you are considering solar on a building that hasn’t yet been constructed, you may need to conduct an energy model and you should ensure that the building is built solar-ready. You can start with these resources: Grow Solar Toolkit and Solar Ready Guidelines [PDF].

Know the Rules

Check in with your local city and county about ordinances that might impact your solar project. Some local jurisdictions require setbacks or structural assessments, for instance. Your solar installer should know this process, but it’s worth learning in advance.

Understanding Financing Options

• Third-Party Financing is a popular means for local governments to finance renewable energy. Typically, the local government enters into a Power Purchase Agreement whereby they pay a fixed price per kWh for power generated by the solar array (typically lower than the local utility rate). The third-party company installs, owns, operates, and maintains the solar array and can tap into tax benefits not available to the public sector.
• Grants: Another way to finance your project is through grants like the MN Solar for Schools Grant or the Solar Moonshot Program. 
• Solar Incentive and Rebate Opportunities: Grant and rebate opportunities will largely depend on your utility. Find contact info for your utility.
• Xcel Energy Solar*Rewards: Provides $0.06/kWh for 10 years for “commercial” systems up to 40kW. Local governments are considered a commercial system.
• Xcel PV Capacity Credit: PV Demand Credit Rider is in effect for any customer with solar systems over 40kW with a single production meter. The bill credit is 6.9648 cents per kWh for solar energy generated between 1 p.m. and 7 p.m.
• OtterTail Power Publicly Owned Property: Publicly owned facilities receive $1,500/kilowatt (kW) of installed solar PV nameplate (DC) capacity — up to 50% of project costs — for systems 40 kW or less in size, based on nameplate capacity. 
• Minnesota Power SolarSense: Rebates to reduce the upfront costs of installing solar based on how much energy a customer’s PV system is expected to produce. Systems are capped at 40 kW (AC) or less.

Get Bids

• Model Request for Proposals (RFP): This RFP is specifically for schools seeking solar. CERTs will send out the RFP to its list of solar developers on your behalf.
• State of Minnesota Solar Master Contract: A master contract is a base contract with pre-qualified vendors that outlines terms, conditions, and ceiling prices for design-build services. It allows for simpler, faster procurement by purchasing authorities. The State of Minnesota has a master contract for the design and installation of ground mount, pitched-roof, and flat rooftop solar installations. Individual projects may include energy storage and may be stand-alone or interconnected for net metering. The state will assist you through the RFP process. While your entity will “own” the procurement process, the state administers the master contract. To ensure your entity’s success, the state will provide templates and documents, will guide you through development of your site-specific RFP, will coordinate the bidding process, and will consult with you on the evaluation methodology. Contact Peter Lindstrom for more information.

Decide on a Developer

Review and evaluate the proposals you receive based on your goals and budget. For an apples-to-apples comparison of financed proposals, you can use you can use the Solar PPA calculator. The calculators compare bids and provide estimates of costs and savings over the term of the contract. 

Tell Your Story

You could be an inspiration for others! Tell your neighbors, family, friends, colleagues, and local media outlets about your experience so they know how easy and rewarding it is to go solar. You might be surprised how influential you are! Need a helping hand? CERTs can provide guidance on communicating your success and help get the word out to local media. Contact: Shaylyn Bernhardt, [email protected]

Host a Community Event

Get out your ribbon, giant scissors and cameras for a fun celebration of your success. CERTs will help get the word out and provide guidance to make your event a big win for your district. Contact: Maggie Kozak, [email protected]

Integrate Renewable Energy into the Curriculum

• RREAL Solar Schools Curriculum brings age-appropriate, STEAM-integrated solar energy education to the K-8 classroom, and can be adapted for older students and adults. Lesson plans include hands-on activities that cover the basics of electricity, considerations when installing renewable energy, solar energy careers, and more.

Invite Energy Experts into the Classroom

• Citizen Utility Board (CUB)
  CUB is a non-profit consumer advocate for Minnesota residential and small business customers.  We can help support school district clean energy goals and projects by providing educational activities that complement community goals.  Example activities include interactive classroom or community talks and free energy bill consultations for households.
• Minnesota Energy Center of Excellence
  The Minnesota Energy Center serves as an information highway for energy education opportunities throughout the Minnesota State Colleges and University (MnSCU) system. The Energy Center of Excellence launched an “educate the educator” (E3) program that includes: (1) E3 Workshops that help teachers bring math and science classroom instruction alive; (2) Free classroom presentations, curriculum, lab kits, and industry tours; (3) Access to the Energy Trailers that bring complete instructional kits and curriculum guides to high schools across the state.
• CERTs Regional Coordinators
  The Clean Energy Resource Teams have on-the-ground staff in each of our seven regions across Minnesota. Find your coordinator and invite them to provide a presentation and more.

• Youth Eco Solutions Teams: YES! (Youth Eco Solutions) empowers youth in grades 7 to 12 to create solutions to today’s ecological challenges through hands-on. Annually, YES! impacts over 500 students, and as many as 20,000 community members. Through successful completion of over 1,200 ecological action projects in 12 years, YES! has demonstrated that youth are the innovators for solutions to today’s challenges while building the skills they need for their future. As one student commented, “I learned the power of what just 5 people can do to make a difference in my community.” We hope you will join the network of over 25 school districts that are currently hosting a YES! team and we can work together to make “Solar Possible” along with other earth-friendly projects. 
• Minnesota Renewable Energy Society (MRES) Solar Boat Regatta: At the MRES' Solar Boat Regatta teams demonstrate knowledge of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to design and build boats powered by the sun. They compete in a number of races at a lake in Eden Prairie, culminating with a one-hour endurance race.
• GreenStep Schools: Minnesota GreenStep Schools program a free and voluntary statewide best practices framework, community of practice, and recognition program for public and private K-12 schools and districts to reduce environmental impact and costs, improve health and well-being of students and staff, and provide effective environmental and sustainability education.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is using Volkswagen settlement funds to reduce harmful air pollution, address climate change, and invest in a cleaner transportation future. Minnesota will receive $47 million total from the national settlement, and will distribute these funds in three phases over 10 years. MPCA can use VW funds in two primary ways: fund vehicle replacements that take older, more polluting diesel vehicles off the road and replace them with new, cleaner models, and invest in electric vehicle infrastructure. To distribute funds, MPCA offers grant opportunities with a competitive application process.

Federal Clean School Bus Program 
Authorized by the recently signed Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, EPA’s Clean School Bus Program provides $5 billion over the next five years to replace school buses with low- and zero-emission school buses. The first federal funding opportunity under this program was the 2022 Clean School Bus Rebates. EPA will offer $500 million for zero-emission and clean school bus rebates.