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11-17-2004 ECC MINAction Committee for Energy Page 1 November 17, 2004 ----------------------------- MEETING OF THE ACTION COMMITTEE FOR ENERGY HELD AT THE ENVIRONMENTAL LEARNING CENTER WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2004 (I tems are numbered as they were presented) Members Present: Mark Kennedy, Bill Poppert (via cell phone), E. B. Stoutenburg, Bryan Adams, Arne Hendrickson, Gary Connett, Ron Bratlie, Bill St. Germaine, Susie Overholser, and Vance Zehringer Staff Present: Heidi Steinmetz, Stephen Rohlf and Rebecca Haug 1. Consider November 17, 2004 ACE Agenda The November 17, 2004 ACE Agenda was approved with the addition of an announcement by Ron Bratlie. 2. Consider September 15, 2004 ACE Minutes Minutes were approved as submitted with the change in number 4 on the spelling for the Weidt Group. The minutes show the spelling as White rather than Weidt. 3. Discuss Solicitation of Funding CenterPoint Energy donated $1,500 to Energy City. 4. Report on Energy Alley Bill Poppert (via cell phone) updated the Committee about the upcoming Research Group event to be held on November 18 at the University of Minnesota. Heidi informed the Committee that the Economic Development Department asked their Incubator consultant to attend. Bill also informed the Committee that there were approximately 200 people at the CIP workshop. He also informed the Committee that the Weidt Group is not going to be as involved with Energy House III as they thought. Also, Energy House III is on the Energy Alley Board meeting agenda in January. 7. Discuss Energy House III The Energy House III group is considering 2 lots in the Nordic Hills development off of County Road 1 to be passive solar. The builder of the house will be Northwoods Builders. Northwoods Builders are developing some building designs for the group to choose from. The next meeting will be December 1 at 1:00 p.m. at the Environmental Learning Center. The opportunity to get technology into the house is now and if anyone has ideas they should contact Sharon Kampa. CenterPoint Energy helped with the other Energy Houses. Arne will talk with the techy people at Center Point. It is proposed that the house will be open for three years. ECONAR will be donating a ground source heat pump. The City will look at what they can do to help. The house should utilize green products and energy efficiency. Some CIP money may be available for this project. 9. Discuss CIP Conference Vance attended the CIP Conference and gave two presentations. One presentation was on Energy City and the other was on the benefits municipal utilities garnered from CIP money. The CIP workgroup is looking into having another conference in 2005. The group is working on a report on the state of CIP. It is being written by Utilities, advocacy groups, and the Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber wants people to be able to opt out of CIP if they are at a certain megawatt. It was decided that Vance should stay on the CIP Workgroup. Action Committee for Energy Page 2 November 17, 2004 ----------------------------- 5. Discuss Recycling Association of Minnesota (RAM) Membership in Energy City Rebecca informed the Committee that RAM would like to be a member of Energy City and since she is on the Board of Directors, she is the one who will report back. It was suggested that she speak with Paul Gardner, Executive Director of RAM about Energy House III for green products. 9b. Habitat for Humanity Home in Elk River Vance informed the group that Habitat for Humanity will be building a home in Elk River. He asked if Energy City would like to get involved. It was discussed that someone should talk to the homeowners once they’ve moved in about energy conservation. Both GRE and Connexus have asked about volunteering. 6. Marketing Report Heidi informed the Committee that she has found a new person to do content updates to the Energy City website for $25/hr but that she is still looking for a new designer. Ron, Gary, and Susie mentioned that they would provide Heidi with the names of their website designers. Heidi mentioned that from a marketing perspective and due to a limited marketing budget, website maintenance is more important than updating the brochures. Susie informed the Committee that ECONAR will be developing two new pages on their website and asked Del if ECONAR could offer to host a page for Energy City and Del agreed. Heidi mentioned that Connections in Big Lake currently hosts the Energy City site. Heidi asked Susie about the September 15, 2004 ACE Minutes that indicate Susie’s wishes that the brochures be redone. Susie stated that she agreed with Heidi’s earlier comment that the website should be a higher priority than the brochures. 8. Discuss Potential Fuel Cell at Haubenschild Farm by Rich Huelskamp Rich was not able to attend the meeting, however, Vance spoke with him. The fuel cell is on-site. According to Gary, the sterling engine is not going to be on-site until sometime in December. Once everything is up and running the Committee should go tour the facility. 9a. Ron’s Announcement Ron informed the Committee that Westwood Elementary School was given the LEED Certification. This is the first building in Minnesota to achieve this. There are only 4 in the world. Ron has been busy traveling to Chicago, Portland and to a MN group about this. Bill asked for information so he can bring it up to the Energy Alley Board. An article was in rd the November 3 Elk River Star News highlighting this. Ron will be presenting at CenterPoint and there was a 5 minute program on Channel 29 about Westwood Elementary School. Ron is currently working on acquiring land east of Elk River for another elementary school. The goal for this school will be to go for the gold. This would be the first in the nation. st Ron will be accepting an award in Washington D.C. on December 1 for Region V Indoor Air Quality Excellence. This is the only school in the region to receive this award. The ACE Committee applauded Ron for all his work. Action Committee for Energy Page 3 November 17, 2004 ----------------------------- 9c. GRE Peaking Plant The Peaking Plant will not be coming to Elk River because of issues the County has had with Sherco in Becker and other power plants. The plan is to build another one in 2009. GRE is working with the County to bring the peaking plant here at that time. 10. Schedule next ACE meeting and Identify Agenda Items It was decided that the next ACE meeting would be held at the Environmental Learning Center on Wednesday, January 19, 2005 at 1:00 p.m. Items to be discussed include the Energy Alley Report, Quotes from potential website designers, Energy House III, Fuel cell and Sterling engine at Haubenschild Farm, CIP, Habitat for Humanity, and Westwood Elementary School. Respectfully submitted, Rebecca Haug Environmental Technician