Mayor Dave Kleis of St. Cloud is a renewable-energy ambassador.
St. Cloud has gone from virtually no renewable energy, excluding the city's hydroelectric dam operated by Xcel Energy, to covering nearly 65 percent of the power for its public facilities over the past three years. The goal is 80 percent over the next several years, including more energy-efficient lighting, conserving natural gas with geothermal heating and technology upgrades.
Apex Efficiency Solutions, which worked with the city on its single-biggest energy hog, the wastewater treatment facility, reports St. Cloud is generating nearly 90 percent of the energy to run the facility, thanks to a generator that powers and heats it with gas synthesized from the waste and solar arrays. Pollution has been cut markedly, with the residue used by area farmers as fertilizer.
The project is paid for out of energy cost savings and should generate several million dollars in additional savings over 20 years.
Kleis, a former Republican legislator and small business owner, testified during a legislative hearing this year that if St. Cloud's hydropower plant is included, the city now generates a stunning 256 percent of its electrical needs.
That's a nice start on a green energy future and reducing the carbon dioxide output from coal and other fossil fuels to escape the climate-related disasters that are horribly expensive in human and economic costs. If that doesn't move you, focus on the economic benefits, particularly in a Minnesota where we still import a lot of oil and coal.
Minnesota power-generation pollution has been cut by a third since 2005 as the economy grew.
Wind, the fastest-growing renewable energy, also is the lowest cost, said a study by Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The cost of wind and solar are dropping by double digits every year as they scale up. And wind alone provided 18 percent of Minnesota electricity last year. Power from renewables grew 37 percent between 2013 and 2018.