John Moore and wife Laura Subak founded Barley John’s Brew Pub in 2000. John and the team have worked to grow the original vision by adding a vegetable garden for fresh seasonal produce, a fully maxed out facility for brewing production in the current space, and soon will be the only brewery in Minnesota to install a solar array to provide solar energy to the facility.

Their brew house is a steam-heated 3.9bbl facility from Specific Mechanical. It features a mash ton/boil kettle (left) and a lauter ton/whirlpool combo (right). They brew 2-4 times per week, and brew twice to complete a batch and fill their double sized fermenters.

To continue upon the freshness of what they produce they are now constructing a solar array with Cedar Creek’s help. They’ll be the first brewery in Minnesota to brew ‘Green’ Beer! Due to the city’s zoning requirements, the largest  solar array we could fit into the property is 5.5kW, roughly 10% of his total energy use.  Brew making equipment uses a lot of power!

To start the project we had to build a level area on his property because his existing roof had too much equipment on it to be a viable solution. The back corner was suitable for just that.  We dug out the asphalt and then set the retaining wall.  We ended up bringing in nearly 90 yards of dirt and rock!  On the other hand, the weather this winter has obviously been fantastic! We would not have been able to accomplish this much during the same time last year.

Stay tuned as this project continues to unfold!!!

The SolarWorld GT has been on a world tour, and it finally reached the North American leg of its excursion, hitting the sparkling streets of the US just yesterday! The solar car was sent off on its cross-country jaunt at the Half Moon Bay in California with a plan to head east to meet Florida in 49 days. Since leaving Darwin, Australia, last October, the zero-emission, solar-powered beauty has clocked over 3,000 miles!

A solar array that retailer Ikea says will be installed on the roof of its Bloomington store will be the state’s largest generator of electricity from the sun.

The project, to be built this summer, is one of five solar power projects in four states that Ikea announced Thursday. The new projects and others now underway will put solar arrays atop 37 of its 44 U.S. locations, Ikea said.

The Bloomington store’s power output, 1.1 megawatts, will be nearly double that of Minnesota’s largest existing solar-electric generator on the Minneapolis Convention Center…. Read The Full Article

This solar energy system install will cover 75% of homeowners bill!

Article from Fox Business

Find More Information On Wind Turbine Installs Here

Check out the article written about the lighting retrofit we installed in Minneapolis!

Article by: NEAL ST. ANTHONY , Star Tribune: http://www.startribune.com/business/135340743.html

Find More Information Here

How many workers does it take to change a light bulb? Not as many as it used to.

And that is what’s making the difference in getting companies like Wal-Mart Stores Inc., GNC Corp. and Caesars Entertainment Corp. to shell out for advanced new lights.

Bulbs built around light-emitting diodes—semiconductors that produce bright light when zapped with electricity—last 10 times longer than conventional bulbs, meaning fewer ladders blocking frozen-food aisles or unsightly scaffolds towering in hotel lobbies as workers change blown-out bulbs. With energy savings not yet enough in some cases to cover the higher cost of the new bulbs, it’s lower maintenance costs that are getting sales across the finish line.

“If you think about a 20- to 40-foot tall parking lot light pole, you need a bucket truck and electrician to replace those lamps every two years. Now these will last us 10 to 12 years,” said Charles Zimmerman, Wal-Mart’s vice president for international design and construction. “The big payback number is on the maintenance.”

A TransCore worker removes a street light to replace it with a new LED light fixture in August in Las Vegas.

Consumers can get by using compact fluorescent bulbs in their lamps. But for specialized commercial applications like refrigeration, parking lots and lobby lighting, the answer is LED, some businesses say

LED bulbs cost as much as 20 times more than their conventional counterparts. Energy savings are an important part of the economics. Lighting can account for a third of a big store’s energy costs, and LED bulbs can cut lighting bills by three-quarters.

A 2009 case study by the U.S. Department of Energy on a Wal-Mart parking lot in Leavenworth, Kan., however, shows energy savings alone may not justify the cost. Read More.

Article from The Wall Street Journal. Written By KATE LINEBAUGH

Shining a light on China’s illegal solar trade practices

America’s solar manufacturing industry should be one of the economy’s bright spots. The booming U.S. solar business is one of the few growth markets in the current economy, yet America’s solar manufacturers have faced unwarranted plant closures and job reductions in recent years. So what lies at the heart of this disconnect?

The answer is clear: China is cheating on global trade rules. China’s state-sponsored solar industry is receiving massive illegal subsidies and is illegally dumping crystalline silicon solar products into the U.S. market. The result is a decimation of American manufacturing, American jobs and fair competition. China’s violations of international law make it impossible for U.S. solar manufacturers to compete on a level playing field with Chinese solar manufacturers in our own market, let alone globally.

Consider this: Chinese solar manufacturers export nearly all of their production, and their dumping margins — the degree that illegal subsidies help them to lower prices — are well in excess of 100 percent. China’s exports of solar cells and panels into the U.S. increased more than 350 percent from 2008 to 2010. Incredibly, Chinese exports in July alone exceeded those from all of 2010. There is no substantive domestic market for these solar cells and panels in China; Chinese companies produce solely for export.

Read more here: http://goo.gl/P4EUB

Steve and Judy of Stillwater Minnesota are thrilled with their new 7kW Solar Energy Installation.  The system is maximizing all of the southern exposure throughout their home and workshop.  This system is going save them nearly $100 dollars a month on their electric bill not to mention  Xcel Energy’s solarworld rewards rebate program helped fund this program to begin with!  This system uses 250 watt modules from SolarWorld, SMA inverters and also Enphase Micro inverters.  Thanks again to Steve and Judy for another successful solar installation project!

Cedar Creek Energy just finished a solar installation, located at Schmidt Lake in Plymouth MN. It was a great project for our customer, Trygve Svard. We installed a 4kw Solarworld  array,  that utilizes battery backup.

Thanks to everyone involved.