News

Record your own Energy Challenge video pledge and inspire other Minnesotans to save energy!

Are you taking action to save energy in your home? We’d love to give you extra credit and feature your family’s story! In partnership with the Minnesota Energy Challenge, we’re featuring the stories of real Minnesotans who are really saving energy.

This was originally posted by Eden Prairie City Manager, Rick Getschow, on the city’s blog. We’re re-posting it here to spread the word!

The City of Eden Prairie has been striving to be an energy efficient community for several years now.

An excellent example is the 20-40-15 program.

Minnesota is home to several small wind turbine manufacturers, including Jacobs, Ventera, and Talk Inc. (remanufactured turbines). We recently reached out to these companies and heard back from Blake Vermaat, a renewable energy technician with Next Generation Power Systems down in Pipestone, MN. Here are some of the details he provided.

Two years ago a group of green energy entrepreneurs came together to form a new association to promote solar manufacturing in Minnesota.

The nonprofit Minnesota Solar Energy Industries Association (MnSEIA) has attracted 39 members and has held a number of meetings, including co-sponsoring a solar supply chain roundtable last week at Maplewood-based 3M Co.’s Innovation Center.

“Startup America” is a White House initiative to celebrate, inspire, and accelerate high-growth entrepreneurship throughout the nation.

What is the City of Minneapolis Energy Efficiency Business Loan Program?

The City of Minneapolis, through the Business Finance Department of Community Planning and Economic Development (CPED), has established a low-interest loan program to assist Minneapolis-based businesses interested in reducing energy consumption.

YES! (Youth Energy Summit) is seeking a highly motivated, multi-talented team player who can help move YES! to the next level. The position will include a combination of grant project administration, direct interaction with students and YES! team advisers, and network development to expand YES! to serve 30-plus communities in west central and southwestern MN during 2011-2013.

Earlier this week the Rural Minnesota Energy Board (RMEB) toured two facilities and got to kick the tires on biomass harvesting equipment in Emmetsburg, Iowa. Below is more about what we saw and learned.
Click here to see photos from the tour!

POET’s Project Liberty

Plans to construct a 25 million gal/yr cellulosic ethanol plant co-located with their corn ethanol plant.

Xcel Energy just launched a new game for the iPhone called Bulb Blasters that lets you shoot laser beams at incandescent bulbs with your more powerful, more efficient CFL.

Here’s what Ken Paulman at Midwest Energy News had to say about the gameplay: “It’s simple to play—you tilt the screen back and forth to move the CFL, and tap the screen for extra firepower.

Hello all you creative film makers and energy geeks (we know you are out there)! Take a look at this short film contest Putting the Sun to Work for Minnesota from Environment Minnesota.

Environment Minnesota is kicking off their first-ever short film contest: Putting the Sun to Work for Minnesota. The contest started this week on June 1.

You may not have known it, but there is a tremendous amount of thermal energy in waste water. This fact has folks in Brainerd wondering how they can harness that energy. A recent story by Becky Parker with Lakeland Public Television on May 18 highlights the innovative research being done around harvesting heating and cooling energy from city waste water.

Jukka Kukkonen wrote an excellent piece for plugincars.com about the recent Electric Vehicle Experience at the 10th Annual Living Green ExpO at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. To learn more about Jukka’s work, you can visit www.pluginconnect.com.

Minnesota has not been known as a hotbed of EV activity in the past, but things are starting to move forward here.

If you’ve never been there, The Bakken Museum is a one-of-a-kind museum exploring the mysteries of our electrical world. The Bakken’s Green Energy Art Garden, started with a grant from Metro CERT, showcases innovative art that demonstrates that renewable energy generation can be fun, beautiful, and thought-provoking—as well as functional.

While years from completion, a board of directors in south central Minnesota is laying the groundwork to answer the chicken and egg question that has plagued renewable fuel development beyond the first generation of ethanol.

The answer Prairie Skies Biomass Co-op of Madelia has arrived at is that a cooperative and it’s fuel shed need to develop in unison.

Cleantech Open is inviting clean tech innovators to submit an application to enter the program and compete on a unique national platform for over $1 million in training, cash and start-up services for clean tech businesses. The application deadline is May 24, 2011.