FSWCD Energy Fair

Energy Fair
Saturday, February 28, 2009 starting at NOON
Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center
28097 Goodview Drive, Lanesboro, MN 55949

Fillmore Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD)

With financial support from Hiawatha Valley Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D) and the Driftless Area Initiative

Afternoon Informational Sessions are FREE.
Cost for the meal is $10/person. Contact the SWCD (507-765-3878, ext. 3) by Feb. 20th to sign up for the meal.

FARM TRACK:

FarmsteadEnergy Efficiency and Conservation
Brad Pecinovsky , Tri-County
Electric

Transportation Fuels:Past, Present, and Future
Doug Root,
Ph.D., Ag Utilization Research Institute (AURI)

Pork and Plants Biomass Pelletizer
Tim Terrill, Winona SWCD

Productive Conservation on Working Lands and Other Financial Incentives
Joe Domeier, Three Rivers Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D)

Small Scale Solar and Wind
Rich Huelskamp, Sun’s Warmth, Red Wing

HOME TRACK:

Small Scale Solar and Wind
Rich Huelskamp, Sun’s Warmth, Red Wing

Windbreaks
Rick Grooters, Fillmore SWCD

Rain Barrels
Jane Bailey, Zumbro Watershed Partnership

Green Building: Monolithic Dome Structures
Jerry Cleveland, Spring Valley

Green Building: Project Licht 'n Stein Energy Efficient Home
Christian Milaster, Be!cause Consulting, Inc., Lanesboro

Financial Incentives for Energy Conservation and Renewables
Phil Smith, Energy Specialist, Minnesota Office of Energy Security, MN Dept of Commerce

Home Energy Efficiency and Conservation
Ted Kjos, Tri-County Electric Co-op

Highlights:
Eagle Bluff renewable energy initiatives: Joe Deden, Director – Auditorium
Keynote speaker: Sarah Nettleton “Carbon Neutral: How can we all be a part of the solution?” -- Auditorium
Meal of local foods, SWCD conservation awards, Q&A for Sarah – Eagle Bluff Dining Hall

WINDPOWER 2009

WINDPOWER 2009 Conference & Exhibition
Chicago, Illinois
May 4 -7

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was signed into law by President Obama on February 17, 2009. The bill will change the wind energy industry and aid in our nation's economic recovery.

Learn how its impact will benefit our industry through renewable energy tax incentives, renewable energy loan guarantees, and a three-year extension of the production tax credit at WINDPOWER 2009 Conference & Exhibition May 4th - 7th, 2009.
Visit Windpower 2009 website for detailed program schedule, registration information and more. Now is the time to be involved in the wind industry!

Dates to Remember:

Early Registration Deadline:
March 9, 2009

Hotel Registration Deadline:
April 13, 2009

Sponsored by:

AMERICAN WIND ENERGY ASSOCIATION
Conference & Education Department
1501 M Street NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 383-2512
Fax: (202) 383-2505

Email: conference@awea.org
Web: www.windpowerexpo.org

Two Wind Farms Proposed for Rochester

Nature Energies, a French energy company, has proposed building a 65 megawatt wind farm east of Rochester and a 50 megawatt wind farm west of the city, in Dodge County, to provide power to Rochester Public Utilities. The farms would be built in the next two years.

Click to read the complete Post Bulletin story.

Land of Cows, Colleges and Wind Turbines

Is there a windy rivalry going on between Carleton and St. Olaf College in Northfield? Each school has erected a 1.65 megawatt wind turbine -- but now Carleton is pursing building a second turbine near its recreation center.

Read the story at the Star-Tribune website.

Town Hall Clean enrgy Forum in Mankato Friday with Rep. Walz

The economic stimulus package will have groundbreaking effects on our economy and our environment for years to come. Join Environment Minnesota this Friday to learn more about how the president’s historic proposal will affect Minnesota's economy, create green jobs in the southern Minnesota, and protect our environment for future generations of Minnesotans.

Will you come and show your support for a bold move to a clean energy economy?
Click here to let us know if you can make it.
Or paste this into your browser: http://www.environmentminnesota.org/action/rsvp-town-hall-forum

WHAT: Repower America Town Hall Forum with Rep. Tim Walz
WHEN: Friday, Feb. 20th, 11:00 AM
WHERE: OSTRANDER AUDITORIUM, Centennial Student Union
Minnesota State University, Mankato

For a map, click here

Minnesota's Rep. Tim Walz is pushing for green jobs and environmental protection for southern Minnesota. Our town hall will be an opportunity to show Rep. Walz that Minnesotans from all walks of life support funding clean energy and green jobs, and help us guarantee Rep. Walz's support for clean energy and global warming policy.

The forum will feature a panel discussion with local leaders from the environmental, labor and business communities, where you’ll learn more about how we can build a clean energy economy. We’ll be joined by Gerry Parzino from the United Steelworkers and the Blue Green Alliance; Dan Juhl, CEO of Juhl Wind; former Congressman Tim Penny, President and CEO of the Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation; J. Drake Hamilton, Science Policy Director with Fresh Energy; and Dr. Vincent Winstead, professor of engineering at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

This forum is free and open to the public! Let us know you’re coming to Environment Minnesota's Repower America Forum by clicking here.

Grants Galore

Check out the CERTS-SE website for an updated list of funding opportunities in the fields of energy and environment, including the new RFP from Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR). Thanks to the State Energy Office for sending out these updated energy grant listings.

Family Workshop on Caring for Creation -Feb 15th

A Family Workshop on Caring for Creation
Presented by St. Olaf Lutheran Church & LCPPM
When: Sunday, February 15, 2009
Who: All churches in a 50 mile radius
What: Fun Family Sunday afternoon Event

An Intergenerational workshop on “Caring for Creation”
A Resource Fair showing how individuals can get involved to take care of God’s Creation – the world.

Where: St Olaf Lutheran Church (ELCA)*,301 1st Street, NW, Austin
Shedule:

Resource Fair 1:30 – 2:00 and 4:30 – 5:00
Workshop 2:00 PM to 4:30 PM

Why: Share biblical basis on “Creation Care” and how churches and their communities can effectively do so.
Cost: $5.00 per participant

Free child care for infants & preschoolers

Contact: St. Olaf Church (507) 433-8857

Rochester Discusses Establishing an Energy Commission

Councilman Bob Nowicki invites the public to the Rochester Committee of the Whole meeting this afternoon where the establishment of an Energy Commission will be discussed. Councilman Nowicki wrote:

ENERGY COMMISSION: A number of you have expressed interest in what the city is doing or has done to address sustainablity, energy conservation, rising costs of energy, etc. and so I'd like to invite you to this Monday's, February 9, COW (Committee of the Whole) meeting at the Gov't Center, Conference Room 104 starting at 3:30.

We will discuss a proposal to establish an Energy Commission for the City and most likely will be looking for candidates for that commission should we decide to move forward on the proposal. I'd suggested in the past for other commissions that each council member appoint a member but in reality I think we should probably have a nominating committee and ask for applications. ???? OPen for suggestions.

Attached is the "prep package" I received for the meeting.

In addition, the League of Minnesota Cities prepared a pretty good video on "Green Cities" that I think we should all look at. It's 27 minutes long so bring a snack, do it while on the treadmill, whatever. Go to http://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/community-projects/project-planning/local-government/green-cities-leading-way"

Region 9 Renewable Energy Task Force Receives Wind Grant

Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF) recently awarded the Region Nine Development Commission $20,000 for wind energy projects.

With the grant, the Region Nine Renewable Energy Task Force will develop up to three small wind energy projects by 2011. The Task Force will hire a staff person or interns to help create the needed partnerships in its Region Nine Wind Energy Initiative, working together with the Gustavus Wind Initiative to conduct four wind studies.

SE CERTS Meeting Notes on Blog

Lissa had a great brainstorm idea : to post our steering committee meeting notes on the SE CERTS blog.

So, you will now find the topics discussed at our January meeting summarized here. To make the information more user-friendly, I divided the notes into different posts by topic. You can find the meeting notes several ways:

a) Scroll down the main page and read through the posts chronologically
b) Click on "SE CERTS Meeting Notes" under "Labels" on the right side of the page and all meeting note posts will appear
c) Click on the subject that interests you under "Labels" and the pertinent posts will appear

You can comment to add information, pose questions, or make clarifications.

A Few Announcements & Resources

From SE CERTS January Meeting:
 NOVA special – “The Big Energy Gamble” – see details and airing times here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/energy/
 Check out OC-Solar’s new website (the Mayo High School solar website) – http://mnsep.org/ - their website is home to a number of good resources, video clips, images, etc.
 http://www.streetsblog.org/ - a suggested link from Ray
 We’re getting in project reports from the 2007 CERT funded projects. Susan will be writing up some brief case studies about each project for the SE CERTS website… and the State site will have in-depth case studies by summer.
 103 schools signed up for Minnesota Schools Cutting Carbon! The Southeast region had 10 schools sign up including all three Rochester High Schools, and schools from Winona, Plainview, Austin, Le Crescent, Mankato, Faribault, Byron, Northfield and Pine Island.
 SE CERTS will be supporting the regional Science Fairs again this year to encourage student clean energy projects. Let Susan know ASAP if you’d like to be a judge.
 League of Minnesota Cities has some good resources for local governments interested in saving energy: http://www.lmnc.org/page/1/sustainability-issue.jsp.

Renewable Energy Payment Conference (Follow Up)

Notes from SE CERTS January meeting:
Discussion in response to Renewable Energy Payment Conference at St. Olaf College
- "Renewable Energy Payments" formerly described as "Feed-in Tariff" – see a detailed white paper here: http://www.newrules.org/de/feedin.html
- Conference website includes all presentations: http://www.newrules.org/de/fitconference.html
- The way Europe funds their solar and wind systems; Government sets a tariff structure - @ ~ $0.40 - $0.50 / kW – to establish a structure for selling wind and/or solar energy; compensates for the cost to actually put it up and gears incentive toward smaller producers – say this is the driver for Spain and Germany
- Models being developed in United States, WeEnergies program in WI is similar (subscribed right away, geared directly toward production); Michigan is also examining this
- Rep. Hilty, Sen. Anderson, Rep. Bly were all at conference; think this may have legs
- Could there be issues with handling the supply and the load? Distribution management level (micro) vs. transmission management level (macro). Is the smart grid the answer to all of these concerns?
- Reimbursed based-upon the effectiveness of what you’re installing; pay more to folks who put up systems in less efficient areas, but claim that this helps disperse where development occurs so that it’s not overly concentrated. This also speaks to the idea that if you have a renewable energy system on your home or business, you’re more likely to actually know what a kWh IS and how much you USE.
- Almost exclusively designed to be grid connected (not to serve both sides of the meter by powering your home and business and the grid)
- Article: “taking the red tape out of green power” – good national summary: http://www.newenergychoices.org/uploads/redTape-rep.pdf - Who pays for the differential cost in power? Good question – our rate might be closer 15-20 cents/kW – rate payers would subsidize one another; it’s a guaranteed income for those who install systems at the expense of the “average person”
- Grid parity for solar by 2015? Is the renewable energy payment system ill-timed for the current pricing structure? What if parity happened in 5 years? Would it really be necessary, with the existing 30% tax credit, to move it forward? You still have to pay for the system up-front and need to get that cash somewhere.
- 67 turbines on I-90 south of Dexter (not yet commercial)… SMMPA has had to shut down their turbines cause it cost money to inject it (not sufficient transmission); what about storage? Battery storage technologies cost $3.2 million/MW (almost 50% more costly than the wind generation itself); what about flywheels, compressed air storage? There are (ONLY) 850 MW of storage worldwide right now.
- Iowa State project for wind-generated hydrogen that could then be pipelined. Does anyone know the status of this project?

Renewable Energy Installer List

Discussion at January SE CERTS Steering Committee meeting

MN Department of Commerce has updated the Renewable Energy Installer List: Folks should check the revised list and see if there are contractors missing; Send out to the CERT list serves to gather other contractors and information; Contacted Bergey wind out of Kansas, they have installers in Pine Island, Plainview, Faribault

Here’s the link to the list: http://www.state.mn.us/mn/externalDocs/Commerce/Hiring_a_Renewable_Energy_Dealer_121302010223_How2Hire.pdf
Comments:
- It only covers solar and small wind; maybe this defined list is the right target
- Doesn’t do much for geothermal (would Commerce put out a list on this?) or biogas (anaerobic digesters, WWTP, farm-based, would you need to tailor this list to ensure you draw the “bubble” correctly?), etc.
- What does energy use evaluation mean? Should they do assessments and look at conservation and efficiency first?
- On list starting to get plumbers, HVAC, electricians, etc. – how do we get a hold of existing contractors and get them to start thinking about the alternative energy business opportunities/avenues – NABSEP PV installers, MRES does program for plumbers to do solar thermal, Energy Auditor classes already exist… would it be worth bringing those here (SE)?
- There’s a disconnect between getting the energy audit and then getting the work done to weatherize your home… building envelope issues are significant, but people install new systems without making the necessary upgrades
- If you showed increased demand, more of the contractors may choose to opt in
- Would be good to show folks that the payback of their energy efficiency improvements would come out of their bill savings; in the same business model (of sorts) freEner-g solar PV leasing program: http://www.freener-g.com/
- 700-750 is average kWh/month residential energy usage statewide
- What about the recent State offering for micro-energy loan fund? Per the October 2008 press release, “$10 million is now available for micro-energy and conservation home improvement loans to help Minnesotans save on energy costs.” See more information here: http://www.midwesternaccord.org/News%20Page/MN%20Microenergy%20and%20conservation%20loans.pdf.

Next Steps:
o Contact Stacy re: list – send out draft for input; then send it out again with noted gaps (see link above)
o Follow-up with MRES on trainings; follow-up with Bruce Nelson on energy auditor training
o Develop articles that highlight offerings within the federal economic recovery package – specifically for WX and air-sealing $ - need shovel ready, this is IT

Small Vertical Axis Wind Turbines

Discussion at January SE CERTs Steering Committee meeting:

Small vertical axis wind turbines: Lots of changing developments, pilots, companies doing more business. There is a sense that this is becoming a more reliable technology option. Dan Hayes mentioned that he heard about two vertical axis turbines near Century High School in Rochester.

If you are interested in reading more, check out the following articles and links:
 http://www.awea.org/faq/vawt.html - a good summary of types of VAWT.
 http://www.motherearthnews.com/Renewable-Energy/2008-02-01/Wind-Power-Horizontal-and-Vertical-Axis-Wind-Turbines.aspx - this is an interview with Mick Sagrillo, a well-known small wind guru. He’s not so high on vertical axis turbines, but the interview is from a year ago and on the 4th page he does talk about the potential promise of some emerging technologies.
 Wind Power 2008 Conference – had a number of vertical axis machines and lots of blog/article posts about said technology afterward (google this and you’ll even get YouTube Videos).
 TreeHugger.com has also had a series of articles on vertical axis wind turbines