Stories

Good clean energy projects do more than just reduce pollution: good projects support people in making their lives better and provide on-ramps to engagement in the clean energy transition. 

Thanks to the generous support of the Carolyn Foundation, CERTs worked side-by-side with numerous community partners to put this idea into practice in a project spanning 2 years and 22 manufactured home parks.

Ridgeway Community School needed help exploring options to reduce their energy costs. While they were able to trim their ongoing energy needs by replacing 200 fluorescent bulbs with LED bulbs, via an Xcel Energy rebate program, a disappointing discovery put their plan for a solar photovoltaics (PV) array on hold. We spoke with Jodi Dansingburg, School Coordinator, Ridgeway Community School. 

With a population of under 350 people, Milan is a small community that pulls together for big projects, like their recent LED retrofit at the Milan Community Center. We spoke with Ann Thompson with the Greater Milan Initiative. 

With funding from a Southwest CERT seed grant, the Balaton Economic Development Authority created a business energy program. Complications from the pandemic meant they needed to adapt their project.

The end result: an efficiency project benefiting multiple businesses and community services in the Balaton Care Center.

Recently, Statewide Director of the Clean Energy Resource Teams Lissa Pawlisch and co-director Joel Haskard sat down virtually for a conversation with CERTs sustainability storyteller Marie Donahue. During the interview, Pawlisch and Haskard speak about CERTs ongoing seed grant program and how this unique opportunity helps launch community-led clean energy projects across the state. The podcast episode also features project highlights from CERT regional coordinators and other staff.

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Even during a pandemic, the West Bank Business Association in Minneapolis made sure that their business owners had the information they needed to make informed decisions around energy, transportation, and recycling and composting.

To learn more, we connected with KJ Starr, Interim Executive Director of the West Bank Business Association in Minneapolis.

We’re all used to blind mailings, cold calls, and emails from salespersons to buy this new thing or refinance that old thing. These same sales pitches extend to clean energy technologies like solar, small wind, and biomass as well. Though these technologies are often well-suited for many rural businesses and farms, it is important not to get swept up in a sales pitch or the novelty of the technology without a little due diligence.

When’s the best time for young people to learn how to reduce their home energy use?

Right now!

With a little help from a CERTs seed grant, Youth Eco Solutions partnered with staff from local utilities – and CERTs – to help 48 students take steps to save energy and water in their homes. As an extra incentive, each student had the opportunity to earn a $30 installer fee for installing the measures in their "Lights! Water! Action!" kit.

United CAP brought together in-home education and energy upgrades to help families reduce their energy costs...and improve the health and comfort of their homes. CERTs seed grants and utility partnerships helped fuel this project in six counties in West Central and Southwest Minnesota.

If you’re going to plan around climate resiliency, you’ve got to have the community involved in the process! We talked with Jodi Slick, founder and CEO of Ecolibrium3, about how they coordinated with multiple environmental and community groups during a pandemic to develop phase 1 of Duluth Citizens' Climate Action Plan.

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Are you curious about how a battery storage system might help your organization? Wondering about how to even begin thinking about what kind of system would work for you? Explore resources and a workshop recording from Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs) and the Institute on the Environment (IonE) and partners geared toward helping you understand the key factors that influence the type of storage project to pursue and how to get started.

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On June 1, 2020, just days before Abe Demmaj was set to move into his newly constructed three-story multi-tenant office and retail building at Grand and West Lake Street in Minneapolis, it was damaged in the shockwaves after the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis Police. The developer and 15-year owner of G & L Furniture on Lake Street had already planned to add solar onto his energy-efficient building. Abe had to delay moving in to the new building and decided to make some additional changes, including increasing the amount of solar—a project financed with PACE and supported in part with a City of Minneapolis Green Cost Share program grant.

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The City of Wadena recently installed its first electric vehicle charging station and hosted a Ride and Drive event to raise awareness about EV technology, joining a growing number of Greater Minnesota communities prioritizing electric vehicles and charging infrastructure.. Utilities Superintendent David Evans shared more about the City’s project, which was supported by a CERT Seed Grant.

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The City of Grand Marais and Cook County's Local Energy Project recently recruited five electricians to participate in a solar installer certification program. Supported by a CERT Seed Grant and the Carolyn Foundation, the solar workforce training project helped expand the number of local, qualified solar installers in Northeast Minnesota.

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How will we site and build out the sheer amount of solar and wind energy needed to reach ambitious renewable energy targets while preserving farmland, expanding habitat, and maintaining the sense of place that communities have come to appreciate? That was the focus of the conversation among leading renewable energy planners and practitioners during this Energy Futures event from CERTs.

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The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe has recently worked to prepare new guidance that strengthens and supports the Band’s journey toward sustainability and clean energy leadership on the Reservation and beyond. Created with support from a CERT Seed Grant, these new guides help advance local policies and action ranging from electric vehicle and solar readiness to creating pathways for net zero energy.

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After adopting its climate action plan in 2019, the City of Northfield has taken steps to advance clean energy by implementing both solar and energy efficiency measures with support from a CERT Seed Grant. Project lead Beth Kallestad shared details of the city’s progress including an assessment of on-site solar and outreach efforts to multi-family buildings that promote energy efficiency.

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In June 2021, Gabe Chan, Assistant Professor and lead of the Chan Lab at the University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs in the Twin Cities, sat down virtually for a conversation with CERTs sustainability storyteller Marie Donahue. During the interview, Chan speaks about his career path and early interests in climate change and clean energy, his approach to engaged scholarship on energy technology and policy, and current projects working to explore utility business models, community solar programs, and energy justice and equity.

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Small town grocery store Winthrop Market recently completed a major lighting retrofit project to save energy and improve the shopping experience for its community with the help of a CERT Seed Grant.

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While the Coronavirus pandemic has kept many of us in our homes, a coalition of public and private partners have been hard at work to bring electric vehicle (EV) car sharing to Minnesota. The project, known as the EV Spot Network, is a collaboration between the cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, and private organizations including Xcel Energy and HOURCAR that aims to create a network of 150 shared electric vehicles, supported by 70 charging hubs placed around the cities. The project builds upon the existing HOURCAR car-sharing model to bring electric vehicle access to a broader audience.

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Over the past year, the nonprofit Rethos: Places Reimagined hosted a combination of in-person and virtual do-it-yourself workshops to teach homeowners in the St. Cloud region and beyond how to maximize energy efficiency and minimize heat loss in their homes, with the help of a Central CERT Seed Grant.

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Since 1993, Headwaters Science Center in Bemidji has inspired “scientific discovery and love of learning for all” by providing hands-on science and technology exploration in northern Minnesota. So it’s no surprise that the organization sees an opportunity to inspire and educate others about clean energy after completing a project to replace outdated lighting in the building with energy efficient LEDs, which the Center completed last year with the support of a Northwest CERT Seed Grant.

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It’s clear that energy storage is necessary to reach our clean energy goals, but the amount, technologies, and applications we need are still emerging. We continued our CERTs Energy Futures events in 2021 in collaboration with the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment to talk about community-scale deployment of energy storage technologies, specific applications, workforce development, and growing the market.

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Rachel Wagner of Duluth-based through design LLC sat down with CERTs to discuss her firm's focus on ecologically and socially conscious "responsible design" solutions, from single family residences to comprehensive public policy. Wagner shares about recent projects working to engage local youth and community members in green building design and solar energy through a workshop and video series supported by CERTs Seed Grants, as well as a new, collaborative Green New Deal Housing effort that seeks to address climate, social and economic inequities through energy efficient, affordable housing.

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Since opening its doors in 1983, the Hubbard County Food Shelf has provided families in the Park Rapids area with emergency food assistance. As its operations expanded and adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic, food shelf volunteers and partners identified energy efficiency projects to save energy and improve the organization’s operations. We spoke with assistant director Denny Ulmer to learn more about these recent investments, including LED lighting upgrades supported by CERTs.

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Urban Design Perspectives (UDP) is a small woman of color-led architecture firm in Minneapolis. It came into existence because of the determination and dreams of founding principal Alicia Belton and her associate Jessica Holmes. Their mission is to “design wellness in the world” through architectural designs that promote economic growth, sustainability, and accessibility. One of the huge ways they integrate equity in their work is by hosting the Camp SEE Architecture program. Camp SEE, which received a Metro CERT Seed Grant in 2020, is a STEAM camp that educates middle school girls on climate change, passive design in architecture, carbon footprints, and emissions reduction. We interviewed Alicia to learn all about it.

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Timothy DenHerder-Thomas with Cooperative Energy Futures (CEF) joined CERTs to talk about his journey working on climate and clean energy issues, and his organization’s vision and approach to community-scale solar energy. He offered an overview of Minnesota’s leading community solar garden program and how CEF is working with residents and communities to address energy burden and strengthen participation in the energy system.

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Several years in the making, a community solar garden on the rooftop of the EMERGE Second Chance Recycling Facility in Minneapolis has been installed and will be coming online this year. The new project led by Minneapolis Climate Action with developer Renewable Energy Partners and installer S3 Solar Service Solutions aims to broaden access to solar energy among residents while prioritizing equitable and inclusive climate action.

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Farmers are innovative folks. They are serious practitioners in multi-dimensional thinking. Daily considerations range from crops at the surface, soil conditions below, the weather above, local market prices, and global market trends, just to name a few. This multi-dimensional approach applies to land use as well, and applies equally to solar farms. Farmers in New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and even in Minnesota are grazing sheep under solar farms and making honey for sale on the side.

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The Rural Renewable Energy Alliance (RREAL) based in Central Minnesota recently published a comprehensive and adaptable solar energy curriculum that they are now working to distribute to educators and schools across Minnesota and beyond. "Educating students about renewable energy is invaluable in creating a green energy future for Minnesota," said Martha Risedorf, lead curriculum developer with RREAL and Minnesota GreenCorps member. The new curriculum underscores how both knowledge and solar energy are powerful tools that educators and schools can use to inspire future generations.

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Tribal Council President Shelley Buck and General Counsel Jessie Stomski Seim joined us to discuss Prairie Island’s energy story and how the Tribe fought for and won a $46 million appropriation from the Minnesota Legislature to support the Prairie Island Net Zero Project. They share how tribal culture, seven generations, and storytelling motivate this work, outline the process that has led Prairie Island to this point, talk about their hopes for robust community engagement in the project’s next phase, and offer encouragement for other tribal nations considering ambitious clean energy work.

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With the support of the McKnight and Carolyn Foundations, the Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTs) launched a dedicated effort geared toward energy efficiency in manufactured home parks across Minnesota in 2020. This work has helped grow relationships and jump-start projects in communities across the state, and has also led to the creation of a new energy guide and videos specific to manufactured homes.

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Sanctuary Covenant Church in North Minneapolis is dedicated to growing a multiethnic, multigenerational community of Christ's followers. Sanctuary staff have been devoted to their community and making sure everyone they can reach is taken care of since their inception in 2003. Sanctuary's desire to care for people is what led them to install solar arrays on their worship and office spaces in June of 2019, so they could invest the cost savings from solar in their community. This became more important than ever during the pandemic when the need for both food and compassion were at all-time highs.

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From their headquarters in Minneapolis, Impact supports clients around the Twin Cities and across the nation each day. However, while their company was hard at work, their 145,000 square foot roof lay unused. Now, thanks to the power of two solar arrays funded in part by the City of Minneapolis' Green Cost Share program, that roof is giving back—to the company, and the community.

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In November of 2020, Carmen Carruthers, Outreach Director at the Citizens Utility Board of Minnesota (CUB), sat down virtually for a conversation with Marie Donahue, Sustainability Storyteller with CERTs. Carruthers shares how CUB uses advocacy and outreach to advance affordable and reliable utility service and clean energy for households and small businesses across Minnesota. The discussion digs deeper into how Carruthers and her team have adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they are connecting consumers struggling to pay their utility bills with support and resources.

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Sustainability is more than just eye candy according to Christine Lantinen, President of Minnesota-based candy maker Maud Borup. "A lot of business owners think it's going to cost more to be more renewable, when in reality you're going to save your company money." Maud Borup has grown dramatically in recent years, and their chocolate-brown wind turbine has powered some sweet energy and costs savings during that time. Learn how Maud Borup has become a sustainability leader in their industry.

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From providing access to emergency solar recharging at community spaces in Minneapolis following the killing of George Floyd earlier this year, to aiding recovery efforts following earthquakes in Puerto Rico, storms in Iowa, and now wildfires in California, the Footprint Project has stayed busy in 2020, with no shortage of crises demanding attention, care, and clean energy.

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Mounds View Public Schools recently finished installing solar PV systems on the roofs of 13 school buildings. The projects are estimated to save the district $1-2 million in electricity costs over the next 25 years, while also enhancing student education and helping the district meet its sustainability goals. We talked to students, teachers, and staff to learn more about their efforts.

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There are many people putting forward compelling ideas and visions for the future, and we have been craving a little time to step back and consider these fresh perspectives and how they can contribute to the clean energy future we’re building together. During the second virtual gathering of CERTs' new Energy Futures on October 21, 2020, we explored how energy efficiency and renewable energy work that is community-led and place-based can lead to real change, and has in the Lincoln Park neighborhood in Duluth.

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Jennyffer Barrientos and Natalia Marchan work for Growing Up Healthy in Rice County. One of the services they provide is helping people with resources to weatherize their manufactured homes. They are using energy efficiency to not only cut energy bills for Latinx, immigrant, and refugee families, but also to cultivate neighborhood leadership.

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In September of 2020, Kristel Porter, Founder and Executive Director of MN Renewable NOW, a nonprofit working to advance a renewable energy future in North Minneapolis and beyond, sat down virtually for a conversation with Marie Donahue, Sustainability Storyteller with CERTs. Porter shares what inspires her to work on clean energy, how she and her team navigated challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic this year, and her grassroots vision to advance local renewable energy and address issues of climate change and racial inequities block by block.

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Plainview, MN corn, soybean, hay, and cattle farmers Roger and Judy Walkes and their daughter Rachel added solar to their operation. According to Roger, "It's hard to control the farm economy, but with solar we can control our energy costs for years to come," a fact that brings him comfort when he thinks about passing the farm down to his daughter.

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Students at Mankato West High School participating in the Youth Eco Solutions (YES!) program will help reduce the electricity used to light school hallways by almost 50%. The Scarlets RetroLED the Hallways project was a tangible way for students to put their values into action and save serious energy for their school. This summer school electricians installed 1,333 LED tube lights (15-watt) in place of the existing fluorescent bulbs (28-watt). The upgrade will save over $5,000 per year by reducing electricity used, and pay for itself in under 2 years.

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Jamez Staples, president of Renewable Energy Partners, a clean energy training and construction services company based in North Minneapolis, sat down to talk with CERTs about the challenges and opportunities in the development of a clean energy workforce training center that empowers both youth and adults from North Minneapolis to engage and have access to opportunities in clean energy. He emphasizes the need to prioritize equity in decision-making and to include those who have “been traditionally left behind” when forming partnerships and building projects—from electric vehicle charging to microgrids and beyond.

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"St. Cloud is most proud of our renewable energy actions," shared Liz Kramer, Public Services Analyst with the City of St. Cloud. "Starting at almost 0% of energy coming from renewable sources in 2016, we are at 70% from renewables in 2019." Learn how the city has innovated across their operations, in particular at their Nutrient, Energy, and Water Recovery Facility.

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There is something happening in Ponsford, MN near Pine Point. A new generation of energy entrepreneurs are building solar thermal panels for use in Minnesota and across the continent. We spoke with Ava Mart and Nick Bellrock with 8th Fire Solar to learn more, starting with a little background on the new company.

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