(Midwest Energy News, December 5, 2012)—Cheap natural gas and flat electricity demand has left the prospects for wood-chip and wood-pellet fuels barely smoldering in recent years. But wood biomass could soon have a new role in energy production: cleaning up coal-fired power plant emissions. A year-old company called Biogenic Reagents recently completed construction of a [...]
Twin Cities entrepreneur George Anderson thinks a bunch of Iranians on boats are going to take down the U.S. electricity grid — if the sun doesn’t destroy us all first. He’s backing up his data on portable hard drives, stockpiling food for his family, and pouring his personal fortunes into a company he thinks can [...]
(Finance & Commerce, March 15, 2012)—A full slate of high-profile, ambitious plans are on the horizon for downtown Minneapolis parks and public spaces, from a Sculpture Garden expansion and Nicollet Mall renovation to the proposed Gateway and Water Works parks that would better connect the city to its riverfront. All of those projects won’t be [...]
(Midwest Energy News, January 25, 2012)—A presidential election year is upon us again, and that means the return of maps splitting the nation into red and blue states. James Lenfestey thinks we should be seeing green and black instead. Lenfestey, a Minneapolis poet and former journalist, spoke at a monthly Environment Minnesota breakfast Tuesday about the politics [...]
(Midwest Energy News, January 9, 2012)—As I sit down to write this, the sun is shining, the sidewalks are sloppy, and it’s a balmy 46 degrees outside. It’s January in Minneapolis, but it feels like late March. It feels fantastic, to take a deep breath outside without the burn of winter we expect here this time of [...]
(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 [...]
(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 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 [...]
