Solar Energy

Energy is a trillion dollar industry. Gaming is a billion dollar industry...Distributed, renewable-energy micro-grids are the future. - Bob Blake

In this episode of Northern Voices Leah Lemm goes to Cass Lake to talk with Brandy Toft, she’s the Environmental Deputy Director for the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe. She works on several solar energy projects that the band has.

She also talks with Lisa Hemachandra about life with a solar furnace that she had installed through the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe’s solar furnace project.

Our series on the rapid growth of solar power in Minnesota continues this morning with a look at solar opportunities for people in the Bemidji area.

Construction of community Solar Gardens in MN has taken off in the last two years.  The number of solar gardens built in MN increased sixfold in 2017, adding enough electricity to power about 32,000 homes.  MN’s largest utility, Xcel Energy, alone plans to have over 125 solar gardens by the end of this year, producing over 450 megawatts.  By comparison, Xcel’s largest coal-fired plant in Becker, MN, 45 miles northwest of the Twin Cities, produces about 680 megawatts.

The solar power industry is growing fast in Minnesota and, in different ways, it has a lot to offer residents and businesses in northern MN.  Today we have the first in a series we call “Solar Systems”.  Solar Systems will consist of reports and interviews about solar energy and the people who use it and build it in northern MN. 

This Thursday evening at 6:30pm at the Blandin Foundation J. Drake Hamilton,  an expert in climate and energy policies at the state and national levels, will be speaking on the benefits of renewable energies.  It is sponsored by Earth Circle and The Itasca Clean Energy Team.  

J. Drake Hamilton joined us on the Monday Morning Show.

Our high energy lifestyles and high-speed, high-tech 21st century economy still rely, in great part, on 19th century fuels - coal, oil and natural gas.  While we still have abundant sources of those fuels, they aren't renewable and require vast infrastructures of pipelines, power lines, ships, rain and trucks to deliver, refine and distribute.  We hear about clean energy, but is it working in our state?