CERTs (Clean Energy Resource Teams) just announced its 2024 selection of projects to receive seed grant funds for kickstarting community-based clean energy projects across the state of Minnesota. The seed grants are offered every other year through a request for proposals process.
CERTs is a Minnesota-based partnership of four different organizations (including Great Plains Institute) with the shared mission to help communities identify, plan, and implement community-based clean energy projects. Minnesota is divided into seven CERTs regions, and Great Plains Institute directs the 11-county Metro CERT region.
With funding provided by the Minnesota Department of Commerce’s Division of Energy Resources and the Morgan Family Foundation, each region had $43,000 for projects. This is the most money each region has ever had to distribute to date—wow!
We were thrilled to receive 38 applications requesting a total of $338,000 to support community-based clean energy projects in the 11-county Metro region of CERTs. There were so many great project proposals!
Selecting projects for seed grant funding in the Metro CERT region
To decide which projects to fund, we assemble a review committee made up of Metro CERT steering committee members and other experts and community members. We cultivate the review committee to include diverse perspectives, technological and community expertise, and geographic representation.
The committee members review each application, score them, and then meet to decide which projects they recommend for funding. Then, the Metro CERT steering committee discusses the recommended slate of projects from the review committee, adjusts if necessary, and votes to ratify the final list of projects.
Outreach, education, and engagement focus in selected projects
In the end, the review committee recommended seven projects for funding. The funded projects focus on outreach, education, and engagement to help people, especially underserved communities, understand the clean energy opportunities from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). We also have a project that will install and gather data about a solar plus battery project on a rental property in North Minneapolis. We have projects in several parts of the Metro region, including Hastings and Hugo!
The projects funded in the 2024 round of funding can be found on the CERTs website (projects organized by region).
Additionally, with limited funding to support a very competitive process, we have to say no to many projects (31 this year!). We provide feedback to every non-funded applicant on the strengths and weaknesses of their application, and we refer them to other resources and funding opportunities for support to take their project further.
We are so grateful to all the review committee members who volunteered their time, and we are so excited to work with and provide additional staff support to all these projects to help ensure success as they move forward. We look forward to how these projects continue moving the clean energy transition forward.
As projects wrap up in 2024, keep an eye out for case studies posted on the CERTs website at www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/stories.
Download the CERTs press release announcing the funded projects statewide and the CERTs press release on the Metro region projects.
