(Midwest Energy News, November 17, 2011)—One of the Midwest’s largest — and tallest — pole-mounted solar installations is being completed this week at a Minnesota military site. More than 370 solar panels shade, but don’t obstruct, the grounds of the Arden Hills Army Training Site, just north of St. Paul. The 89-kilowatt system will supply [...]
(Midwest Energy News, November 14, 2011)—The national association for utility regulators is holding its annual meeting this week in St. Louis, where members are hearing sessions on everything from fuel hedges and pipeline safety to smart grids and cyber security. Perhaps the most surprising speaker: Kris Bowring, a senior business team leader for Best Buy. [...]
(Midwest Energy News, November 7, 2011)—A mobile app that helps people perform their own home lighting audits is the winner of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “Apps for the Environment” challenge. Light Bulb Finder was created by a Milwaukee, Wisc., app developer called Eco Hatchery. Co-founders Adam Borut and Andrea Nylund learned they won the challenge [...]
(Finance & Commerce, November 7, 2011)—You swipe a credit card at a vending machine-sized kiosk. A clothing rack whirls around inside until your shirt or blouse appears. A robotic arm plucks it from the rack by the hanger and passes it to a glass enclosure in front of you. You pop open a door, grab [...]
(Midwest Energy News, November 7, 2011)—I’m attending the Institute on the Environment’s E3 (Energy, Economy and Environment) conference today at the University of Minnesota (disclosure: as a freelancer I’ve written for the institute’s magazine). This morning we heard from the German Embassy’s energy and environment counselor, Friedo Sielemann, who talked about how his country became one of [...]
(Midwest Energy News, November 3, 2011)—A Minnesota city could soon become the first in the state to allow businesses to pay for solar and other renewable energy projects through a surcharge on their property taxes. Finance & Commerce reports that Edina, a Minneapolis suburb, is scheduled to discuss a Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, financing [...]
(Midwest Energy News, November 2, 2011)—In May, we surveyed a handful of electric utilities to ask how complying with Minnesota’s renewable portfolio standard was affecting their costs and rates. For the most part, what we heard was that these utilities would be adding wind power capacity regardless of Minnesota’s renewable mandate because it’s economical and [...]
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