2025 Metro CERT Annual Event Recap

July 2025

Recap by Aaron Backs and Diana McKeown

On April 29, 2025, over 300 members of the clean energy community joined the Metro region of CERTs (Clean Energy Resource Teams) for our 18th Annual Event at Quincy Hall in Northeast Minneapolis. Our team’s goal for the year is to continue to be a light for community-based clean energy projects, and since 2025 is a mile-marker year (and a nice, square number), we designed our event’s theme to achieve that in two different ways:

A 25-year community-based clean energy retrospective, featuring panelists speaking on our warty history, and their perseverance to get projects done when clean energy wasn’t nearly as popular or easy.
And, a 25-year look forward, envisioning our clean energy future without boundaries. Emerging youth, energy democracy, and energy justice community organizers leading the audience in a conversation about what we want energy in our communities to look and feel like in the year 2050.

We opened up the night with our annual “Metro CERT Year in Review,” celebrating some of our biggest achievements from the past year:

Connecting over 1,000+ energy-burdened residents with energy-saving materials and information.
Hosting several events and places for people to connect, including a cross-Corps AmeriCorps Lunch ‘n’ Learn (fun fact: 5/6 of the Metro CERT Annual Event planners are current or former AmeriCorps!).
CERTifying our first four Community Energy Ambassadors!

Metro CERT Year in Review

To set the stage for our first round of panelists, we showcased two beautiful timelines our friends at Two Line Studios helped us design (and as with last year’s event, they provided graphic notetaking during both of our sessions!). The first focused on a clean energy landscape timeline in Minnesota, and the second on a history of community-based clean energy projects in the Twin Cities Metro.

Also celebrating this history were 30 unique profiles of community-based clean energy stories displayed on each table at the venue.

First panel: A History of Community-Determined Clean Energy Stories

A history of community-determined clean energy stories

The retrospective half of our program featured a lightning round of community leaders from around the metro region sharing stories about their projects.

Featuring:

Blowing in the wind (2009) | Mahtomedi Area Green Initiative, Paul Hoff
Solar for Schools (2009) | Chisago Middle School, Pat Collins
Small Business Clean Energy (2013) | Lake Street Council, Matt Kazinka
Cities Charging Ahead (2019) | City of Eden Prairie, Jennifer Fierce
Solar Access for All (2020) | MN Renewable Now, Kristel Porter
Energy Access for All (2022) | Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy; Phitz Nantharath

They talked about how they made progress. Sometimes incrementally, sometimes in leaps and bounds, and sometimes they had setbacks. Policies changed, incentives changed and went away. It was never a straight line in the past. Often progress happened at the community level no matter what was happening elsewhere.

Pat Collins’ story exemplifies this. As a science teacher at Chisago Lakes Middle School, three students asked him a simple question – why doesn’t our school have solar? Collins wasn’t sure, and the question stuck with him. When he took a proposal to the school board in 2009, they said it would be impossible to fit a $100,000 solar array into the budget – it was the Great Recession. Undeterred, Collins and other community leaders banded together and started a 5K fundraiser. Within a year, the community had raised more than enough money (including a $5,000 CERTs Seed Grant!), to cover the cost of a solar array – it was installed, and Collins helped incorporate lessons on the array into the school’s curriculum. They have since gone on to install several more arrays!

Phitz Nantharath of Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy

Attendee in dark green cardigan, blonde curly hair, and glasses gives thumbs up

Attendee with glasses standing at black table, networking

Second panel: Visioning our Clean Energy Future Without Borders

Poster board that says "Visioning our clean energy without boundaries"

Our second panel featured three torch-bearers for the next generation of clean energy leadership, speaking to how we should frame our next 25 years of progress.

Featuring:

Melody Arteaga, Metro CERT Steering Committee Member
Athena Geer, Climate Generation
Analyah Schlaeger dos Santos, MN Interfaith Power & Light

Each panelist spoke to how they continue to build on the narrative shifts that community leaders in the previous panel started: transitioning out of a scarcity mindset where communities lack the resources to effect change, to one of abundance; shifting our lens from ‘sustainable power’ into a more transformative mindset of ‘regenerative power’ (“When we talk about sustainability, we talk about sustaining the things that harm people.” Schlaeger dos Santos); and empowering youth by valuing youth time (read: paying them!) and encouraging them to believe that their own experiences qualify them for stepping into powerful and capable roles (“When I think of being a youth educator in my role now, it’s trying to ignite the already existing fires within my students’ voices.” Geer).

The panel closed with each panelist speaking to what they envisioned energy to look and feel like in 2050.

Arteaga spoke of her experience as part of a delegation visiting an organization called Casa Pueblo in the rural city of Adjuntas, Puerto Rico. Because of Casa Pueblo’s foresight in recognizing the value of solar and battery storage, they were able to serve their community as a resiliency hub when Hurricane Maria devastated the island in 2017. Residents were able to refrigerate their medicine and had electricity to power their dialysis machines; and since, the community has come together to invest even more in renewable energies.

“This is a solar-powered community that was done through community engagement, community conversations, and grassroots fundraising. So when we think about our future in 2050, I say what if we did that here? What if we did that now? Why do we have to wait until 2050?” —Melody Arteaga, Metro CERT Steering Committee Member

group photo featuring panelists Athena Geer (far left) and Analyah Schlaeger dos Santos (far right)

Thus concluded our program, and we opened for networking!

MANY, MANY THANKS to our sponsors for helping to keep the event free and accessible for all who would like to gather and envision a cleaner, community-based energy future together.

Sponsorship poster

Megawatt Sponsors
Great River Energy, Xcel Energy

Kilowatt Sponsors
Center for Energy and Environment, City of Minneapolis, Clean Energy Economy Minnesota, Energy Division at MN Dept. of Commerce, Energy Smart, Fresh Energy, Hennepin County, Minnesota Municipal Utility Association, Minnesota Solar Energy Industry Association, Ramsey County

Watt Sponsors
Citizens Utility Board, Dakota Electric Association, Wildan (B3)

July 2024

Metro CERT 2024 Annual Event Recap

April 2023

CEED connects with Southeast Asian community members to reduce energy burden

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