News

The board of directors of Center for Energy and Environment (CEE) recently welcomed new member Pepe Wonosikou. CEE’s current strategic plan prioritizes equitable decarbonization and better access to promising efficiency technologies, as well as organizational sustainability and strategic growth, all positioned to benefit from Wonosikou’s strengths in organizational planning and leadership.  

CEE's policy lead Audrey Partridge weighed in recently with Star Tribune about the rapid rise of giant data centers in MN and key considerations for meeting their massive power needs. Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft are among the many companies starting to eye various sites throughout Minnesota for their data centers.

CEE's Sarah Northrup spoke with Mike Miller of the Spark'n Conversations podcast about CEE's career training program and how we support both trainees and contractors in reaching their goals. Sarah and Mike discussed post-training job placement, trainee success stories, and how contractors can get involved in CEE's work as guest speakers, trainers, preferred contractors, and more.

Last week, COPAL and Electrify Everything MN hosted a dynamic, hands-on workshop to help community members take control of their energy future by transitioning to clean electric energy in their homes. Participants explored various ways to replace fossil fuel-based appliances with clean electric alternatives, developing practical, personalized plans for achieving their home energy goals on a realistic timeline.

This article by RMI highlights its Electrify Cohort program that aims to develop and launch programs to help their community members electrify their homes, focusing on heat pumps. CEE's Community Program Manager Matthew Douglas-May explains that joining the the RMI cohort helps them fill out gaps in services around electrification in their communities.

CEE stands out as a bright star, with competitive interest rates and no dealer fees, in this article that underscores the critical need for homeowners to choose solar project lenders wisely.

This article by Contracting Business describes the new partnership of U.S. Department of Energy and heat pump manufacturers to improve the energy efficiency and performance of RTUs in cold weather in a program called the Commercial Building Heat Pump Accelerator Challenge. CEE has been chosen as one of the partner members in the program.

CEE's Ben Schoenbauer & Arbor Otalora-Fadner talked recently with MyVillager (St. Paul biweekly) about heat pump water heaters — from vetted tech advantages to upcoming incentives that help make HP water heaters "a good entry point for people to get into electrification."

ComEd's new Go Electric site provides information to help customers consider the benefits and options of switching to high-efficiency heat pumps. CEE's Ranal Tudawe believes the site will help customers learn how heat pumps can be a cost-effective solution for space heating, with tools to estimate how they can save on energy bills and carbon emissions, and resources to find trained contractors to install the perfect system for their home.

On Sept. 16, 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy announced $90 million in competitive awards to help states, cities, tribal nations, and their partners implement updated energy codes for residential and commercial buildings. CEE has been named as one of the recipients of the awards for our work to advance energy codes by developing a statewide residential stretch code, addressing compliance challenges, and expanding implementation support throughout Minnesota’s tribal nations and rural communities.