DECEMBER VIDEO: Gregg Mast, CEEM's Executive Director looks back on 2019 and reviews some of the year's biggest highlights for clean energy!
Utility Planning Updates
Many clean energy technologies connect to Minnesota’s grids, and planning for a future grid is an important process. Minnesota’s regulated utilities are beginning a new phase of system planning through the Public Utilities Commission - integrated distribution planning (IDP). The Commission is using IDP to facilitate comprehensive, coordinated, transparent plans. Plans include information related to future system objectives and forecasted spending, which are opened for stakeholder comments. CEEM plans to file stakeholder comments in IDPs in January. Case information can be found here:
As mentioned in our November newsletter, two Minnesota utilities filed for changes to rates that could result in significant rate increases. Initial decisions we be discussed for Minnesota Power’s petition on December 5 (see PUC Staff Briefing Papers), and Xcel Energy’s petition on December 12.
Clean Energy Legislative Champion Award winners
This week CEEM delivered its annual Clean Energy Legislative Champion Award to two very deserving legislators. Rep. Jamie Long (DFL-Minneapolis) and Senator Eric Pratt (R-Prior Lake) were the House and Senate authors of C-PACE (Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy), one of just two clean energy bills that passed out of the 2019 legislative session.
Their leadership has helped enable a quarter billion dollars worth of projects statewide and $20 million in PACE financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy -- just since the law went into effect in August of this year.
Left photo | L to R: Rafi Golberstein, Gregg Mast, Rep. Jamie Long, Amelia Cerling Hennes, Lily Osborne, Benjamin Stafford and Pete Klein. Right photo | L to R: CEEM team with Senator Pratt (center).
Top 3 reasons why you should pay attention to Minnesota's IDP process
In this blog, we’ll attempt to look at what planning means, what we’re planning for, what planning processes matter, and how our clean energy businesses can help. Fair warning – there will be acronyms!
Clarion Call! Success has brought us to the limits of the current transmission system
Without additional transmission capacity, the western states in the MISO footprint – the Dakotas, Minnesota and Iowa - with some of the best wind resources, will be “closed for business” to new wind and solar projects. The situation is already taking a toll.
Meet Dan Juhl, who helped create Minnesota's wind industry when he formed Juhl Energy in 1978. Read more about his journey here.
Coldspring Granite Goes Solar
A new 1.2 megawatt solar installation is helping large employer Coldspring Granite help reduce their energy costs by around 10 percent. CEEM visited this project earlier this summer while interviewing CEEM-member Werner Electric employee, Energy Specialist John Mertes in our Names Behind the Numbers series.
According to Mertes, Werner worked with Winkelman Construction to develop the project. Werner helped specify materials for the project and provided the modules along with the electrical balance of systems (wire, conduit, fittings, etc.).
“It’s definitely great to see a big, hometown company that hires people from the local community like this, get involved in solar,” Mertes says.
Governor Announces New Climate Subcabinet
To combat the "devastating effects of climate change," Governor Tim Walz on Monday, Dec. 2 signed an executive order establishing the Climate Change Subcabinet. The new Subcabinet will be comprised of 15 state agency chairs, directors or commissioners, which will develop state climate policy and engage with the public on the issue. The Governor's Advisory Council on Climate Change, also established in the executive order, will be comprised of up to 15 advisers appointed by the governor, who will advise the subcabinet.
The year is winding down and thanks to a continuing resolution Congress will have until December 20, 2019 to work on proposed legislation that could impact the clean energy sector. In mid-November the U.S. House Ways and Means Democrats introduced the GREEN Act, an expansive draft energy tax package that would extend and modify a number of clean energy, energy efficiency and renewable incentives.
In addition, after the Thanksgiving holiday advocates will be working with Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate to push for specific tax extenders, including the Energy-Efficient Commercial Buildings Tax Deduction also known as Section 179D. While meta-politics will impact legislators’ interest in completing year-end work in a bipartisan fashion, CEEM and its members have voiced support for extending Section 179D and will continue to educate on the economic benefits of the deduction.
Hefty rate hikes that Minnesota’s largest utilities are seeking could push the state’s electricity prices above the national average for the first time in years.
Congress will have until December 20, 2019 to work on proposed legislation that could impact the clean energy sector. In mid-November the
