Minnesota has two things working in its favor: clear skies and cool temperatures. This combination puts Minnesota on par with Texas and Florida for the ability to produce solar energy.

Did you know that the sun provides more energy in one hour than the entire planet uses in a year! So needless to say installing a solar power system on your home or business will reduce or eliminate your electric bill. All you need is a direct view of the sun, making it ideal for urban areas where wind power isn’t an option.

How do you know if solar energy is right for you?

1. Have you made your home or business as energy-efficient as possible?
2. Do you own the property where the system will be installed?
3. Is the roof mostly shade free and unobstructed with maximum access to the sun year round?
4. Is the roof in good condition (both shingles and structurally)?

If you answered yes to these questions contact us today!

Written By:  Robin Johnson with  Examiner.com

Minnesota homeowners looking to reduce their heating bills by up to 50 percent and protect themselves from soaring energy prices can find solutions locally. Area installers say it is a myth that we do not get enough sun or that systems are too costly to justify a good return. There is an abundance of competent professionals in Minnesota who can guide you through the steps and recommend whether you will benefit from solar solutions.

Rob Appelhof of Cedar Creek Energy on energy analysis: “We will give you a detailed energy analysis and professional site assessment to determine if your property is acceptable,” says Rob Appelhof, Cedar Creek Energy President.

Read the full article from CBS Minnesota

This solar panel system will produce $6,000 worth of power, each year, for this customer!

This homeowner eliminated her ENTIRE utility bill with the 5kW system we installed!

Post written by: Bill Graff

I enjoyed Cedar Creek Energy’s recent “In the News” post on Innovative Farming.

Yes, we farmers in the United States take great pride in producing very large quantities of the safest and the most affordable food in the world. And yes we do it in many sustainable ways, many which are not “out in the open for everybody to see.”

On our farm we practice some labor, time, energy, and money-saving activities like no-till in our operation. “No-till” or no tillage is where a farmer does not till the soil between harvest and planting of the next season’s crop. There are many forms and variations of this practice, but all save many different things, such as soil from erosion, energy usage, time, etc. Not every soil and crop, and farming operation is able take advantage of this practice, but any like us do. We also have a small cow herd that contributes to sustainability. The cows are able to use some of the crop residues left over after harvest, we use their manure as fertilizer and the grazing pasture ground is in permanent crops.

We also try to “get by” with as much used stuff as we can. We like to recycle whatever we can to mainly save money. It can sometimes look like a pack at lives here, because we try to reuse whatever we can and we do not throw anything away we think we can reuse at a later date. And, by meaning used, we rarely by anything “new” just new to us.

We use GPS to farm by. GPS stands for Global Positioning System. We use auto steer in our planting tractor so every row is precisely spaced apart, which makes our farm as efficient as possible. We also use GPS to precisely record all our harvest yield data so we know exactly what has worked and where and what and where we need to do things different to become more efficient.

We also try to combine trips to town and anything else we can do to save time and money. I like to say that we need to be sustainable enough to have enough money left at the end of the year to farm again next year. That is the real definition of sustainability, whether we can sustain this farm or not.

 

 

Bill Graff grows corn, soybeans, and hay along with a cow herd. He has a podcast (online radio) where he discusses agricultural issues FarmAndRanchCountry.com. Bill can also be followed on twitter @BillGraff

Sharing and Caring Hands, a Minneapolis charity, is an energy-efficient facility due to a lighting retrofit project, which was installed by Cedar Creek Energy.

Sharing and Caring Hands is a group of volunteers who help provide assistance to those in need. It is a donation-based organization that relies solely on the time, money, goods and services donated by the community and its volunteers. In order to give more back to less fortunate citizens, they have asked Cedar Creek Energy to retrofit their building, lowering their energy costs and becoming more energy-efficient.

Sharing and Caring Hands provides needs to the underprivileged that are not being met by the welfare system. They provide necessities like shelter, food, transportation, rent assistance, school expenses, medical assistance and many other types of aid. Each month, over 20,000 people come to their facility for assistance where Sharing and Caring Hands (http://sharingandcaringhands.org) spends more than $400,000 to help these less-fortunate citizens.

The lighting retrofit project provided by Cedar Creek Energy (http://cedarcreekenergy.com) will save approximately $8,000 annually off their expenses. The money saved from this energy-efficient project will be given back to the poor in order to provide further assistance each month. “Cedar Creek Energy was very friendly, fast, and efficient! I was very happy at how self-efficient and thorough they were” said Jeremy Barthel – the Maintenance Manager at Sharing and Caring Hands.

The adoption of this energy-efficient technology brings Sharing and Caring Hands another step further in providing for the poor citizens of the local communities. To learn how you can help this charity and give back to your community visit: http://www.sharingandcaringhands.org/

In 1960, one farmer fed 26 people. This year, one farmer will feed 155 people. (“Some Food for Thought”, Monsanto) To accomplish this feat, farmers have carefully tended the land, animals, and environment for decades. They have also embraced advances in farming techniques as well as both plant and animal genetics. These advances have helped reduce farm land soil erosion by 43% over the last 20 years, and farmers now produce 70% more corn from one pound of fertilizer. This is all done while saving 50-80% more water! (“One Hungry Planet”, BASF) In addition to all of this, some farmers are beginning to go the extra mile in sustainability by incorporating renewable energy into their operations.
There are many options for farmers wishing to use renewable energy on their farm both to control costs and help the environment. Solar energy can be utilized by installing panels on top of a barn for the purpose of producing heat or electricity. Geothermal technology can be incorporated in a similar way, except by utilizing heat from underground instead of the sun.

Steps away from Downtown Minneapolis, the nonprofit Sharing and Caring Hands serves over 20,000 adults and children monthly in the Twin Cities who are without shelter, food, medical care or support. Thanks to the One-Stop Efficiency Shop, and a grant from CEE, they have also cut their lighting costs by 25%.

Founded by Mary Jo Copeland in 1985, Sharing and Caring Hands has a mission to provide for the needs of the poor. They supply numerous services including (but not limited to) meals, clothing, showers, shelter, transportation help, rent deposits , medical assistance, dental care and school expenses. With a foundation in the Christian faith, Sharing and Caring Hands strives to “reaffirm the self-worth of each individual and [assist] in that person reaching his or her greatest potential.”

Picture Originally From MNCEE

Sharing and Caring Hands is notable not only for their approach to ministering to the poor, but also for their remarkable financial independence. Sharing and Caring Hands is funded entirely through donations, without any government assistance – and 93% of those donations go directly into program services. “We live on donations,” explains Dick Copeland, Mary Jo’s husband, “be it money or goods or services.” When they were approached about participating in the One-Stop Efficiency Shop and heard about CEE’s Nonprofit Energy Grant Program, they saw an opportunity to upgrade their equipment with a quick payback.

Sharing and Caring Hands purchased their first building in the North Loop neighborhood in 1988. Since then, they have doubled their original facility and transformed it into the Mary My Hope Children’s Center, built and expanded their Mary’s Place 92-unit transitional housing and built their 27,000 square foot flagship day center at 525 North 7th Street. While building, they installed “what were at the time really great lights – fifteen years ago,” explained Dick Copeland, Mary Jo’s husband.

Along with a One-Stop Efficiency Shop rebate, Sharing and Caring Hands received a Nonprofit Energy Grant that reduced the cost of their lighting upgrades by 60%.

The rebates and grant made a difference, Dick explained. “Absolutely – we are all for saving money.” When asked if staff, volunteers or residents noticed a difference, Dick exclaimed “the good news is they haven’t! “ The new lights “came out being very much like the ones we had – but better.”

In the end, Dick estimates that Sharing and Caring Hands replaced 99% of their existing lighting with more efficient bulbs. And the benefits go beyond financial:

“It’s one solid better lighting system. The lights are very bright without being too bright and are the exact right color,” said Dick. “’When it was all done it looked better than we expected and we’re happy with it.”

Original Post Located on MNCEE’s Website

Oxygen Service Company (http://www.oxygenservicecompany.com/) has over 50 years of proven quality service to our customers. They produce, package and distribute industrial, medical and specialty gases from the major manufacturers and are American made products!

We collaborated with Oxygen Service Company to install more efficient lighting in their facility! This will save their company over $3,200!