Tag: energy efficiency

Winona County Recognized for Energy Efficiency

This year, at the Community-driven Clean Energy Conference (hosted by CERTs), Winona County got to show off much of the work on energy efficiency happening here. In a breakout session and a conference-wide panel, representatives of each of the 7 Community Achievement Award-winning communities shared their accomplishments and lessons with other interested folks from across the state, with the “Moving Winona Forward: A Rural Energy Collaborative” represented by John Howard from the City of Winona.

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Winona Residents Plan for Energy Conservation

The Winona Energy Action Team launched their residential outreach and engagement effort on Tuesday, January 23, with an afternoon workshop at the Friendship Center on the topic of energy conservation. About 20 residents came to receive free LED light bulbs and learned how they could save energy and money while advancing the city’s goals to reduce energy use 10% by 2025 and become carbon neutral by 2050.

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The Benefits of GreenStep Cities and B3 Benchmarking: La Crescent’s Story

This blog post was written by Chris Meyer of the Southeast Minnesota Clean Energy Resource Team

It’s true: the majority of La Crescent is not in Winona County. But, the community has a story to tell about leadership and taking common-sense action. We’re hopeful communities across the state can learn from their experience and understand the financial value in B3 benchmarking.

It’s been just 2 short years since La Crescent, MN (population 5,200) became a GreenStep City in October 2015, but they have big achievements to share. In June of 2017 they advanced to a Step 2 city and City Administrator Bill Waller indicated that they are on track to achieving Step 3 in 2018. They were also one of three finalists in the top 3 “Best of B3 Benchmarking” competition for the state, being narrowly beaten out by the larger Prior Lake.

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Winona County Energy Conservation Program Powered by Collaboration

Ah, winter in Minnesota. Fresh snowfall, ice fishing, polar plunges, cozy sweaters, hot chocolate and… outsized energy bills? While we expect temperature drops as winter approaches, many households struggle with increased heating and light bills as the season begins. That’s changing in Winona County, thanks to a collaboration between Xcel Energy, Semcac, the City of Winona, Winona County, CERTs, Next Step Partners/Sustain Winona, and the Jefferson Center. In 2017 alone, 197 low-income households served by Xcel Energy in Winona County have received Home Energy Squad visits, which include energy audits, upgrades to LED lightbulbs, water and energy-saving showerheads, programmable thermostats, weather stripping for doors, and more – at no cost to the households.

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