Rochester to homeowners: Let's get sustainable

ROCHESTER - Ivan Idso gutted his home a few years ago to make it more energy efficient.

The Idsos' home, built in 1890, underwent a series of renovations to make it more sustainable: solar arrays on the roof, an air source heat pump that cools the house in the summer and warms it in other months, walls a foot thick with plenty of insulation to trap heat in the winter, an electric boiler that supports in-floor heating, and no natural gas to cut down on carbon emissions.

"You can't have a net-zero energy home and use natural gas," said Idso, a longtime environmental advocate.

The construction cost thousands of dollars, but it's paying off — Idso said he only owes about $100 a month in utilities, including the electricity used to charge his family's electric vehicle.

The Idso home is one of a handful of buildings Rochester officials hold up as examples of what could be done to make the city more sustainable.

The city of Rochester is looking to create more incentives for sustainable building throughout the community. City officials plan to review housing stock and reach out to homeowners to tout ways they can save money over time with building upgrades.

"We're building out that data set to start to map out" potential targets for the city, said Lauren Jensen, Rochester's sustainability coordinator.

Communities across the state are also looking into environmental practices, whether to save money on energy costs or trying to protect areas from increasing flood risk and severe weather events. Over 140 towns and cities have participated in Minnesota's GreenStep Cities program since it started in 2010.

"The data is becoming more evident that energy cost recaptures pay themselves back very quickly," said Craig Johnson, an environmental lobbyist with the League of Minnesota Cities. "You don't have to save a lot of energy to pay off a capital investment pretty quickly."

At the same time, Rochester must contend with the sort of issues homeowners face when it comes to sustainable building: too few examples on the market, and outside issues that can lead plans askew.

Rochester had hoped to use a large-scale geothermal energy project downtown to demonstrate how sustainable building can be done in the community, but a $15.8 million bonding request to the Minnesota Legislature is on hold after the legislative session ended without an infrastructure bill.

The city must replace its current steam-based heating and cooling system in five public buildings, including City Hall, the Rochester Public Library and the Mayo Civic Center. Olmsted County is set to discontinue steam heating for that area in October 2023 as the steam line has aged out of use.

The City Council earlier this month weighed its options on how to proceed with the project. Among them: whether to focus on natural gas boilers for $13 million, install geothermal heating only in City Hall and potentially expand its network in the future for $15.6 million, or move forward on its initial $31.6 million project without state funding.

The council was split on the three solutions and sought more information on energy efficiency from city staff.

City officials had hoped to connect private buildings to the proposed geothermal energy grid as a way to demonstrate energy savings and encourage more sustainable commercial and residential buildings.

"Once you get other buildings connected, then the economies of scale kick in," said Scot Ramsey, Rochester's manager of facilities and property.

Adam Howell, the president of Southeast Minnesota Realtors who operates out of Rochester, said he's hearing from more homeowners interested in sustainable fixes such as installing solar panels but they want to know if the investments would pay off in increased property values. With few homes in the area with those features on the market, Howell thinks it's still too early to tell.

That's why, Idso believes, Rochester is smart to focus on educating people on sustainable building. He noted, "A lot of hand holding is what needs to happen to get this whole thing moving."