From the column: State and federal delegations (are already) enthusiastic about . dirty-energy projects.
Written By:
Eric Enberg | ×
Rural Minnesota has what the clean-energy revolution needs to capture wind and solar energy: land. Unfortunately, many in rural areas assume that serious jobs are only created around fossil-energy projects. However, using the Jobs and Economic Development Impact models developed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, we can begin to see the large and sustained impact clean energy can have on rural areas.
Let’s assume the Boswell Energy Center in Cohasset, Minnesota a coal-fired power plant owned by Minnesota Power is replaced by a clean-energy portfolio of wind, solar, storage, energy efficiency, and demand response. Using the Sierra Club’s recent “Clay Boswell retirement report,” I inserted numbers for the wind needed into the Jobs and Economic Development Impact program and compared them with the economic impacts of the En