Read the Winter 2017 issue of Energy Matters – Fresh Energy’s print journal.
Energy Efficiency
Built for the Future: Celebrating 25 years of progress on energy efficient buildings
Fresh Energy’s Built for the Future Power Pairing event brought together two leaders with unique perspectives on high efficiency homes. Find out what they had to say.
How marginal cost pricing impacts rates
Rate design has become a primary focus of utility policy due to its impact on how customers use and pay for the energy they receive. Get the details.
Energy Matters Autumn 2016
Read the Autumn 2016 issue of Energy Matters- Fresh Energy’s print journal.
Avoided cost utilized in solar pricing after decades of impacting conservation
This summer, Minnesota became the first state in the nation to adopt a value of solar (VOS) tariff. This methodology, in contrast with net metering for solar generation, has a 25-year bill credit schedule rather than simply mirroring the retail rate as it fluctuates over time. While factoring in avoided cost may be a new idea for solar, factoring in the value of avoided cost has been used to analyze energy efficiency programs for over 40 years.
Building energy footprints trending down
This week Minnesota Public Radio released a report describing how real estate company Madison Equities is overhauling three of their large downtown St. Paul buildings. The most visible upgrade will be the replacing the neon lighting on the iconic First National Bank Building with LED lighting. This is part of a comprehensive $12.5 million retrofit project resulting in a 40 percent reduction in energy use between the three properties. And while the end result of this project will mean big savings, it actually started with a small decision – to benchmark how much energy the buildings were using in the first place.
