The videos below are from the Clean Energy Resource Team‘s “Clean Energy Superheroes” series. They speak to the playful, yet promising spirit of Minnesotans working hard to build renewable energy solutions to replace existing, dirty energy.
At Ely’s Adventure Inn, you can enjoy a shower with hot water heated by the sun and read the Ely Echo by the light of an energy efficient light bulb while your electric car charges outside. Then, stop by A Laundry Room to wash your clothes with more hot water heated by the sun thanks to technology manufactured by Solar Skies in Alexandria, Minnesota. These are a few of the “case studies” collected by the Clean Energy Resource Teams as part of the Rural Minnesota Solar Initiative to help farmers and small business owners learn how solar can work for them, and provide needed assistance to catalyze projects.
Another example is in Goodhue County where a farmer is saving more than an average Minnesota household’s annual electricity use each year with the installation of Solar Skies’ solar thermal water heat for his dairy farm.
Minnesota’s rural communities are supporting the burgeoning clean energy economy nationally as well. In Baxter, Silent Power is innovating on how to store the energy created by renewables, like wind and solar.
Oh, and Minneapolis-based Ecos Energy now has the title of largest solar installation in Slayton, toppling the Ikea rooftop solar array in Bloomington. The Slayton solar project started generating enough electricity to power 250 homes in January 2013. The installation was contstructed by Blattner Energy based in Avon, Minnesota.