It could be more than a year before the first new wind towers appear in rural Westbrook, but crucial decisions are underway right now.
When the project is finished, Plum Creek Wind Farm will easily overshadow Odell Wind Farm, in terms of economic impact on the county. Like the Odell project, this one is led by Geronimo Energy, a company owned by Mt. Lake native Noel Rahn.
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If you’ve ever wondered when the next wind turbines will be going up in the region, wonder no more.
Plum Creek Wind Farm, a proposed wind farm that will rise from the ground about 7 miles southeast of Tracy, is currently in the early stages of the planning process. Geronimo Energy estimates the project could be up to 400 MW in size and will deliver power to Cottonwood, Redwood and Murray counties.
Construction on the project is expected to commence sometime in 2021.
Lindsay Smith, director of marketing and communications for Geronimo Energy, said the project is...
LED linear tube lights are an emerging energy-efficient technology. With the popularity of the CERTs Right Light Guide, we decided it was high time to offer some basic guidance on LED tubes.
Fluorescent lighting is everywhere. Fluorescent lighting is universal. Look up, and you’ll likely find these familiar tubes lining the ceilings of many buildings. Linear fluorescent tubes (LFLs) have largely reached their maximum energy-saving potential, and they also require recycling.
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Redwood Falls is one of many communities that boasts green energy infrastructure improvements. West of town stand two wind turbines that harness the natural and plentiful winds in our region, converting them into usable energy. A wind turbine occupies less than one-half acre of land and only requires wind speeds of about seven miles per hour in order to turn the giant propellers.
Each of the 1,650 kW turbines produces enough renewable electricity to power about 700 homes.
The pair was completed between December 2004 and February 2005; the construction took about four months to complete from the...
The future of renewable energy was the at the forefront of Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s visit to the Redwood Electric Cooperative Community Solar Highwater Array near Lamberton.
The unique project allows REC members get either a kWh credit on their monthly bill or pay $.14/kWh rate based on their portion of the total system production. The array is comprised of 448 solar panels. Each panel will produce approximately 500 kWh’s a year.
“What makes this project stand out is that it wasn’t mandated,” said Jim Haler, Member Services Manager with South Central Electric Association. “This is a project we...
Thomas and DeVonna Zeug of Walnut Grove were named the 2016 Redwood County Farm Family and are among 81 Minnesota families being honored by the University of Minnesota Extension Service.
“The farm families receiving this year’s honors exemplify what makes Minnesota agriculture strong. They bring innovation, science and hard work to farming. They care greatly about the land and animals and delivering quality products to consumers worldwide,” said Bev Durgan, dean of the University of Minnesota Extension Service. “The Univ-ersity of Minnesota takes pride in honoring these families.”
“We were stunned to be nominated,” said Tom and DeVonna...
Folks in Redwood County might know Knott’s Corner Bar and Grill in the town of Lucan (pop. 191) for their delicious Buffalo Wings. What they might not know is that the business has become much more energy efficient and is saving energy dollars with the help of the Rural Minnesota Energy Board’s Property Assessed Clean Energy(PACE) program.
Not familiar with PACE? Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) is a new way to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy upgrades to the buildings of commercial property owners. Energy-saving measures pursued by the owners receive project financing and are repaid as a separate...
Started in 1936 by Ed and Garnette Tersteeg,Tersteeg’s Market and Holiday Gas has been a cornerstone family business in the Redwood Falls community for 80 years. In 1967, Jim succeeded his father in ownership of the business. Their current location at 1111 East Bridge Street has been their base of operation since 1983 and employs over 130 people.
This longevity has provided them the ability to make long-term investments in their facility to save energy and reduce overall operating costs. For assistance they turned to Redwood Falls Public Utilities to identify potential equipment upgrades and provide utility rebates...
During the tour, the students were briefed on the various processes of ethanol production at Highwater Ethanol as well as potential career opportunities in the ethanol industry.
“By hosting students at our facility for tours, it is our goal to have them learn about the agriculture industry, ethanol industry and how important these two industries are in everyone’s life.
“The students were also briefed on the skills required to work at an ethanol facility. They were able to watch and learn from our employees. Our goal was to leave the students with a positive impression of the ethanol industry and the use of...
By Joshua Dixon
Staff Writer -- Posted Mar. 16, 2015 at 12:01 AM
“It was kind of a pipe dream of mine years ago, but the industry wasn’t quite ready yet,”?said Dick Weltsch of the two 200+ solar panel arrays now behind his implement dealership in Redwood Falls. “We looked at the costs of electricity — fixed costs — and they get to be very expensive. That number keeps going up, and it can be a weight on a business,” said Dick Weltsch, co-owner of Weltsch Equipment, Inc., this week.
Weltsch was discussing...
By Troy Krause
Editor
Posted Aug. 27, 2014 @ 12:01 am
Since its inception, High-water Ethanol in rural Lamberton has continued to look for new and innovative ways to improve what it offers to the region in terms of economic development and to improve the return for its investors. “That is why we are here today,”?said David Moldan, Highwater Ethanol board chair Wednesday afternoon during a ceremony to celebrate the latest project that has been accomplished at the facility. Through a partnership with Butamax™ Advanced Biofuels, which is a joint venture of DuPont and...
Submitted by Lindsay Wimmer, 5/14/14
The Youth Energy Summit (YES!) Team Westbrook-Walnut Grove Public Schools entered building and utility data into the B3 Energy Benchmarking System for ten buildings in the City of Westbrook to learn about energy use, as well as help the city better track energy use and utility costs in public buildings.
The YES! Team is a group of nine motivated students that are interested in creating community environmental and economic vitality through hands on projects, so B3 Energy Benchmark data entry was the perfect project.The B3 Energy Benchmarking System is...
Incentive amounts set for Made in Minnesota Solar Incentive Program
Payments will defray system costs, boost solar energy generation
SAINT PAUL, MN – The Minnesota Department of Commerce announced on Nov. 22 the 2014 incentive amounts for its 10-year, $15-million-a-year Made in Minnesota Solar Incentive Program that will officially launch January 1, 2014. The announcement of the incentive amounts means that for the Minnesota residents and businesses who apply and receive the incentive, the cost to install a solar electric system will be much more affordable, boosting Minnesota’s solar energy generation.
“Made in Minnesota solar incentives are...
by Joshua Dixon
Staff Writer
Posted Oct. 23, 2013 @ 12:01 am
The city of Redwood Falls has been generating electricity from the Redwood River for the past 111 years.
For much of that, the exact same equipment was used to do it, too.
The turbine was originally installed by the Redwood Falls Light and Power Company, formed in 1897 by August Burmeister as part of the Redwood Falls Roller Mill.
Originally, the company only provided electricity to the streetlights and downtown businesses. When the original Redwood Lake dam was built in 1902, the power...
By Butamax Advanced Biofuels LLC | October 02, 2013 - Biomass Magazine
Butamax Advanced Biofuels LLC, a biobutanol technology company, and Highwater Ethanol LLC, a producer of first-generation ethanol, have begun to retrofit Highwater's ethanol plant in Lamberton, Minn., for the production of biobutanol. Butamax's cutting edge technology package will include the installation of novel corn oil separation technology. Butamax and Highwater have entered into definitive agreements for license of Butamax's patented corn oil separation technology, which is an integral part of a full retrofit to biobutanol production and can also be installed independently as a first phase...
Article by: DAVID SHAFFER , Star Tribune
Updated: October 2, 2013 - 9:00 AM
Highwater Ethanol in Lamberton says it will install Butamax corn oil separation technology in what could be the first stage of a broader retrofit.
A Lamberton, Minn., ethanol plant is installing technology that could be the first step toward shifting production from ethanol to another biofuel called isobutanol.
Highwater Ethanol, which owns the plant, and Butamax Advanced Biofuels, a Wilmington, Del.-based company that developed the technology, announced the deal Wednesday and said they were negotiating a second-stage agreement to...
Monday, September 9 at 6:30pm Wright-Hennepin Cooperative Electric Association will be welcoming community members and interested Minnesotans to the dedication of their first Solar Community project. It will be at WH’s headquarter facilities at 6800 Electric Drive, Rockford, MN. You can click here for more about the event. We followed up with Wright-Hennepin to learn a little more about the project. Read the interview below!
Joel Haskard: Why did Wright-Hennepin pursue a community solar project?
Wright-Hennepin: WH was interested in starting a community solar project to bring renewable energy options to members. WH took a unique approach...
Published 4:00pm Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Albert Lea Evening Tribune By Tim Engstrom
Alliant Energy announced Tuesday it is selling its electric distribution business in Minnesota to a dozen local electric cooperatives and its natural gas operations to Rosemount-based Minnesota Energy Resources.
There will be no changes immediately. After the $128 million transaction gets regulatory approval, Albert Lea residents will pay their electricity bill to Albert Lea-based Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services and their gas to Minnesota Energy Resources.
“We are really pleased that this deal fell together, and it is good for our customers,” said Tom...
Submitted by Kristi Loobeek on Tue, 07/23/2013 - 12:41pm
Region: Southwest West Central
It was a beautiful day to tour the state’s largest solar photovoltaic (PV) installation on July 19th, 2013 in Slayton, Minnesota. With the sun high and bright in the sky and only puffy white clouds to speak of, 35 members of SW/WC CERT toured the 7.5 football fields worth of solar panels working at maximum capacity. Keep reading to learn more and see lots of photos.
The day started with a informal lunch at the town’s Pizza...
Congress yesterday passed the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 (the Act), which averted the so-called "fiscal cliff." The President is expected to sign the Act shortly.
The Act includes a number of energy-related tax provisions, including a one-year extension and modification of the production tax credit under Section 45 of the Internal Revenue Code (the PTC) for certain renewable energy facilities. The energy-related provisions in the Act include:
PTC Extensions and Modifications – The PTC is extended and modified for certain types of facilities. These extensions and modifications include:
In the case of wind, geothermal,...
With temperatures outside dipping last week, thermostats inside homes were undoubtedly turned up. Unlike last winter, this winter’s heating costs are expected to rise. The Minnesota Energy Department and several other agencies and organizations have predicted that heating costs this year will not only reach normal levels, but may even exceed them. The estimated rise, of course, depends on lower temperatures this winter, but also on the heating fuel source and its associated cost. The Energy Department’s figures indicate that homeowners who use oil as their heat fuel source could see a 20 percent increase, a 15 percent increase...
In August 2009 Highwater Ethanol, LLC. along TH14 just west of Lamberton began production, and for the past two-and-a-half years the plant has continued to produce ethanol and look to the future.
According to Brian Kletscher, Highwater CEO and general manager, the facility continues to demonstrate greater efficiencies, even better than those involved initially anticipated, and those efficiencies have meant lower costs and greater benefit for its membership.
“Some of our production efficiencies are among the best in the nation,” said Kletscher.
To read the full article click here »
Nonprofits and small municipalities often rely on grant funding to accomplish their missions and keep up with important infrastructure and public works projects. Since 1990, the Redwood Area Development Corporation (RADC) has offered grant writing services to area towns and nonprofits. Services are tailored to each client and their specific needs.
"Our approach is that the entity is the expert in the subject matter, and we’re providing expertise to help them be successful with the grant application process."