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So, what do former Metro CERT staff do when they leave? They put together videos about net zero buildings, of course! You can take the clean energy advocate out of the CERT, but you can’t take the CERT out of the clean energy advocate! Former Metro CERT staff Julia Eagles and Matt Santori collaborated with classmates at the Hubert H.

Thanks to a massive energy efficiency renovation, the Burnsville Ice Arena has become an impressive model of sustainability. Prior to the renovation, which began in 2010, the facility was in serious need of improvement. The ice center was producing 46% of CO2 emissions from city-owned buildings, making it one of the largest CO2 producers in Burnsville.

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Elk River, Minnesota, is proactive about energy savings. The city earned Energy City status in 1997 from the Minnesota Environmental Initiative, and it has been a model for efficient and renewable energy ever since.

Golden Valley, a western suburb of Minneapolis that is home to a number of corporate headquarters, is crisscrossed with city, state and county roads. As a consequence, the city is responsible for maintaining and paying electricity bills for numerous traffic signals.

Solar energy is a big deal in Minnesota—and it’s getting so hot that it’s hard to keep up with everything that’s going on! That’s one of the main reasons why the Minnesota Solar Challenge is providing support for communities across Minnesota that may be interested in capturing the benefit of their local solar energy resource.

The City of Harmony’s Community Center is located inside a refurbished 1950’s-vintage elementary school but it now boasts new energy efficient lighting and occupancy sensors that are saving the community both time and money.

As the Redwood County Building Supervisor, Loren Gewerth oversees the general maintenance for county buildings – which means also overseeing a lot of energy use. With the county facing both budget constraints and a reduction in government aid, Gewerth was growing concerned about energy costs and maintenance and began looking for ways to make efficiency improvements to the county buildings.

Small towns across the country are operating on tight budgets, and the City of Cold Spring, Minnesota (population 4,025) is no different. With poor lighting in several buildings, the city staff longed for better lighting but budget and time constraints kept the projects in limbo.

The Kingfield Neighborhood Association (KFNA) has recently worked hard to make local businesses shine. Currently, there are only a few solar photovoltaic (PV) flat roof type installations on Minneapolis small businesses and the Kingfield Neighborhood Association is trying to change that.

Buffalo Public Utilities Director Joe Steffel was looking for a way to engage small businesses in his community by helping them to take advantage of energy-saving opportunities. “I knew that there was no substitute for knowledge,” said Steffel, “and using that knowledge to get people to act.

The Mary MacDonald Business Center is a 58,500 square foot facility located in the town of Silver Bay that was made possible thanks to the time and efforts of community members. Originally an elementary school, the building served a number of purposes after the consolidation of area schools left it student-free.

Several of the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants (EECBGs) that were distributed to towns and counties across Minnesota focused on increasing the efficiency of commercial buildings that serve the public. Among the businesses that used EECBG funding to make efficiency improvements were food service businesses, municipal liquor stores, and retail stores.

Angela Headlee, Central Region CERT Coordinator, interviewed Jolene Bengtson, Business Manager for the Pine River-Backus School District about a district-wide lighting project done to improve the energy efficiency of classrooms at the elementary and high schools that replaced over 260 lights.

A lot of energy goes into powering parking garages, street lamps, traffic signals, and vehicles. Minnesota has begun to take notice and in 2009, several communities were given a great opportunity to try out transportation efficiency ideas with Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) funding. The hubs of transportation in Minnesota, St.

Do you have a nice-looking solar energy installation in Minnesota? If so, we need photos! As part of the Minnesota Solar Challenge (a US Department of Energy funded effort to remove barriers to rooftop solar PV deployment), we’re looking for high-quality photos of your best and most beautiful solar projects in Minnesota.

The City of Woodbury is quickly becoming one of the more energy efficient communities in the Twin Cities Metro area. Having already completed recommissioning studies and lighting retrofits in a majority of its city buildings, Woodbury took another major step toward energy efficiency with the renovation of Bielenberg Sports Ice Arena refrigeration system.

If you’re in Xcel Energy’s service territory, complete your T12 lighting upgrade projects soon so you can take advantage of the utility’s 30 percent bonus rebates for T12 retrofits! These rebates will no longer be available due to changes by U.S. Department of Energy lighting efficiency standards. Qualifying lighting upgrades must be invoiced and installed on or before December 31, 2012.