Pages

Saturday, March 10, 2018

Power to the people. (In a clean cost-efficient manner.)

Using the '60's phrase as an intro to a Conservation Minnesota item; with the home page

https://www.conservationminnesota.org/

and with the item title: Minnesota is in the midst of a massive and historic energy transformation; this excerpt, links omitted:

According to the 2017 Clean Jobs Midwest report, Greater Minnesota is home to more than 17,000 clean energy jobs, representing 30 percent of the state’s total clean energy workforce. Energy efficiency improvements, along with investments into wind and solar, are spurring rural economic development, reducing energy costs, and providing important tax revenue to communities across the state.

In the last year alone, Minnesota added 467 megawatts (MW) of solar capacity — enough to power 53,000 homes and nearly tripling the capacity added in 2016. This growth was also accompanied by an exceptional 48 percent increase in solar industry jobs as found in The Solar Foundation’s latest Solar Jobs Census. Looking ahead, there are several exciting projects under way that will further accelerate the delivery of clean energy and the creation of more jobs.

What is responsible for Minnesota’s explosive growth? Policy leadership has played a strong role in our success. Consistent and forward-looking policies that value clean energy deployment have fostered significant business investment in this sector.

As a result, the share of energy generated by renewables has risen sharply over the past five years; renewable energy now provides 25 percent of the state’s electricity generation. This has put Minnesota on track to meet, or exceed, its 2025 Renewable Energy Standard and has also provided the “go” signal that companies and investors need when deciding to invest in new business opportunities.

While these sweeping changes are occurring, Minnesota is rapidly adding jobs in the energy efficiency and clean energy sector at a rate nearly four times faster than all other job types in the state – as well as enjoying retail electricity bills that are lower than the national average.

Minnesota can also count among its successes a consistent ranking in the top 10 of all 50 states for our overall energy efficiency programs.
Long-term smart jobs, not short-term dumb jobs polluting that which is pristine. What is there not to like about that?

UPDATE NOTE: The item is a republishing of an original MinnPost report, same title, this link. So the main hat tip goes to MinnPost.