(WASHINGTON, DC) – A diverse group of Midwestern states and electricity sector stakeholders has submitted comments to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) seeking to shape the Agency’s impending rules aimed at reducing carbon emissions from existing power plants. The group—the Midwestern Power Sector Collaborative—heads to Washington on December 16th to meet with top officials at the White House Council on Environmental Quality and the EPA to discuss their comments. Continue reading »
The third fact sheet in GPI’s series about demand response (DR) in the Midwest is titled Demand Response in a Resource Constrained World. Continue reading »
Community solar has been THE hot energy issue in Minnesota this year. In 2013, the Minnesota Legislature passed legislation that required Xcel Energy, Minnesota’s largest investor owned utility, to administer a community solar gardens (CSG) program, and enabled other utilities to administer them as well. Xcel’s Solar*Rewards Community program officially opened on Friday, December 12th, 2014. Minnesota currently has 14 megawatts of solar, but with the mandate of 1.5% solar by 2020, Minnesota’s solar capacity will increase greatly: by 2020, Minnesota is expected to have 400 megawatts of solar capacity. Continue reading »
The Environmental Sector appreciates the opportunity to provide feedback for MISO’s markets and operational metrics review. Organizations in the Environmental Sector rely on data from MISO’s monthly operations reports to track fuel mix, wind production, and demand response utilization in the MISO region. Continue reading »
The fourth fact sheet in GPI’s series about demand response (DR) in the Midwest is titled Differences in Demand Response Markets. Continue reading »
November’s GreenStep Cities workshop was all about transportation, with a focus on Complete Streets. The GreenStep Transportation best practices (BPs) and actions are designed to help cities build their streets and cities in a way that better matches their citizen’s needs. Continue reading »
When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a final rule in July expanding cellulosic fuel pathways to include renewable compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) derived from various sources of biogas, a surge of cellulosic fuel credits from biogas was widely anticipated. After two months of reporting, the speculation was correct. August and September saw record volumes of cellulosic Renewable Information Numbers (RINs). These high volumes were not generated from liquid fuels like ethanol or renewable gasoline, but from renewable CNG and LNG. 
GPI’s second fact sheet on demand response (DR) in the Midwest is titled, Environmental Benefits of Demand Response. Continue reading »
We are pleased to announce the release of a new fact sheet series focused on demand response. As we’ve written about in previous posts, technologies enabling demand response (DR) are an important component of a clean energy system, and we currently have an underutilized DR asset in the Midwest. DR involves reducing or shifting customer energy usage when the system is stressed. This could be during periods of high energy demand with not enough supply like on a hot summer day, or periods of low demand with too much supply, like during a night when the wind is blowing strongly. Continue reading »
King Arthur and his loyal knights embark on an arduous, difficult quest to find the Holy Grail. Many perish along the way. After a multitude of trials and tribulations, they find the Grail is hidden in the Castle of “Aaargh!” That is at least how the story goes in the popular 1970’s British satire Monty Python and the Holy Grail (see here for the “Aaargh!” scene). Continue reading »
