The Quad Report Is Out!

The Minnesota Quad Report (Energy Policy and Conservation Quadrennial Report) comes out every four years and is energy geek heaven, or bedtime reading at least. It covers the state of the energy state from 2020-2023, with some 2024 stats where feasible.

This is a herculean task, and hats off to all the folks at the Minnesota Department of Commerce who put in long hours to create this tome. It was released to the public July 1, 2024, but hey, it’s summer and we just had a chance to look it over. I mean, this baby has an acronym key that is three pages long! In no particular order, here are some things that jumped out at us: 
 

We’re a top 10 state for wind! 

Renewable energy, specifically wind energy, is the largest source of electricity generation within Minnesota (page 20).

“Wind development here in the southwest (region of Minnesota) has not slowed down, and now we also see solar becoming popular in our region.”

— Nadya Bucklin, Southwest CERT Coordinator

Utilities are meeting and exceeding their energy efficiency goals.

Huzzah! Minnesota’s electric utilities have met or exceeded 1.5% annual energy savings each year since 2011, and the state’s natural gas utilities have generally met or exceeded 1% energy savings each year.

What does this mean to you and me?

• Just in 2020 and 2021, these mandated energy efficiency measures saved Minnesota’s businesses and residents over $287 million in energy costs.
• It supported over 43,000 energy efficiency jobs.
• It saved roughly 14.4 trillion British thermal units (Btus) of energy — enough energy to heat, cool, and power more than 147,000 Minnesota homes for a year (page 22).

CERTs gets a shout out on pages 47-48! 
 

The Solar for Schools program rocks! 

In its first three years, the program is on track to nearly double the number of Minnesota K-12 schools with on-site solar energy, with a combined added solar capacity of roughly 20 MW (page 51).

“Schools are rising to the challenge of lowering utility expenses and carbon footprint and educating today's youth to be tomorrow's energy decision-makers.”

— Peter Lindstrom, CERTs Manager of Public Sector and Community Engagement

There was a big leap in distributed energy recently.

As of December 31, 2023, there were 26,459 distributed energy resources systems, which was 40.8% increase over 2022 (page 61)!

Minnesota obtained 13% of its total energy (electricity and thermal energy) from renewable resources in 2021 and is at risk of missing its 25% by 2025 goal (page 70).

Let’s hear it for all of us ratepayers supporting Minnesota’s Energy Conservation and Optimization (ECO) Program! An independent study in 2020 found that each dollar spent on conservation investments generates $3.75 in benefits to society. 
 

Minnesota households receiving Energy Assistance Program benefits in 2023 saw an, on average, 26% reduction in their energy burdens.

Two-thirds of annual funding for Minnesota’s Energy Assistance Program is spent in Greater Minnesota. Furthermore, households receiving weatherization assistance under the Weatherization Assistance Program saw long term energy cost reductions averaging 30% and large reductions in their energy burdens.(pages 153-154).

“Energy assistance and weatherization are two crucial programs for those most in need, and Minnesota is fortunate to have outstanding people working in those sectors. It is great to see these impressive numbers.”

— Nik Allen, Northeast CERT Coordinator, who leads much of CERTs residential energy efficiency work.

In 2021, buildings in Minnesota consumed 42.1% of the total energy consumed in the state.

19.2% which was from commercial buildings, including large multifamily buildings (page 165).

Buildings designed to the voluntary Sustainable Building 2030 Energy Standard are predicted to save approximately $16.7 million per year assuming an average cost of $18.18 per million Btu (page 168).

As of January 13, 2024, more than 50,000 electric vehicles (EVs) were registered in Minnesota (page 177).

The Twin Cities-based Evie carsharing program is the largest fleet of all-electric carsharing vehicles in the entire United States. Evie is powered by 100% renewable energy, and in the first year of service, 2,637 Evie users drove over 675,000 miles, which the organization estimates represents a two thousand ton reduction in GHG emissions (page 178).

“As a northern Minnesota resident and EV driver, while I do most of my charging at home, I’ve also seen a significant increase in public charging infrastructure over the past couple years, which makes it easier to travel around the state and improves access for people without home charging.”

— Melissa Birch, CERTs Co-Director

As of March 2024, there are 1,973 public ports for electric vehicle charging in Minnesota (page 180).