Construction is underway in St. Paul, Minnesota, on a major affordable housing development that will combine solar, geothermal and all-electric appliances to create one of the region’s largest net-zero communities.

Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity broke ground in June on a four-block, 147-unit project on the site of a former golf course that’s being redeveloped by the city and its port authority, which made the decision to forgo gas hookups. 

Affordable housing and Habitat for Humanity builds in particular have become a front line in the fight over the future of gas. The organization has faced criticism in other communities for accepting fossil fuel industry money and partnering with utilities on “net-zero” homes that include gas appliances. It’s also built several all-electric projects using advanced sustainable construction methods and materials.

The scale of the Twin Cities project is what makes it exciting, according to St. Paul’s chief resilience officer Russ Stark. 

“We’ve had plenty of motivated folks build their own all-electric homes, but they’re one-offs,” he said. “There haven’t been many, if any, at scale.”

Stark added that the project, known as The Heights, was made possible by the federal Inflation Reduction Act. 

“I think it’s fair to say that those pieces couldn’t have all come together without either a much bigger public investment or the Inflation Reduction Act, which ended up being that big public investment,” he said.

A vision emerges

Port Authority President and CEO Todd Hurley said his organization bought the property in 2019 from the Steamfitters Pipefitters Local 455, which maintained it as a golf course until 2017. When no private buyers expressed interest in the property, the Port Authority bought it for $10 million.

Hurley said the Port Authority saw potential for light industrial development and had the experience necessary to deal with mercury pollution from a fungicide the golf course staff sprayed to kill weeds.

“We are a land developer, a brownfield land developer, and one of our missions is to add jobs and tax base around the creation of light industrial jobs,” Hurley said.

The Port Authority worked with the city’s planning department on a master plan that included housing, and it solicited developers to build a mix of market-rate, affordable and low-income units. The housing parcels were eventually sold for $20 million to a private developer, Sherman Associates, which partnered with Habitat and JO Companies, a Black-owned affordable and multi-family housing developer.

“Early on, we identified a very high goal of (becoming) a net zero community,” Hurley said. “Everything we have been working on has been steering towards getting to net zero.”

Twin Cities Habitat President and former St. Paul mayor Chris Coleman said the project met his organization’s strategic plan, which calls for building bigger developments instead of its traditional practice of infilling smaller lots with single-family homes and duplexes. The project will be the largest the organization has ever built in the Twin Cities.

Coleman said the Heights offered an opportunity to fill a need in one of St. Paul’s most diverse and economically challenged neighborhoods and “be part of the biggest investment in the East Side in over 100 years.”

The requirement for all-electric homes merged with Habitat’s goal of constructing more efficient and sustainable homes to drive down utility costs for homeowners, he said. Habitat built solar-ready homes and sees the solar shingles on its homes in The Heights as a potential avenue to producing onsite clean energy.

Zeroing in on net zero

Mike Robertson, a Habitat program manager working on the project, said the organization worked with teams from the Minneapolis-based Center for Energy and Environment on energy modeling.

“The Heights is the first time that we’ve dived into doing an all-electric at scale,” Roberston said. “We have confidence that these houses will perform how they were modeled.”

Habitat plans to build the development to meet the Zero Energy Ready Home Program standards developed by the U.S. Department of Energy. Habitat will use Xcel Energy’s utility rebate and efficiency programs to achieve the highest efficiency and go above and beyond Habitat’s typical home standards.

The improved construction only adds a few thousand dollars to the overall costs and unlocks federal government incentives to help pay for upgrades, he said.

The nonprofit will receive free or reduced-cost products from Andersen Windows & Doors and other manufacturers. GAF Energy LLC, a solar roofing company, will donate solar shingles for over 40 homes and roofing materials. On-site solar will help bring down energy bills for homeowners, he said.

Chad Dipman, Habitat land development director, said the solar shingles should cover between half and 60% of the electricity the homes need. Habitat plans to use Xcel Energy incentive programs to help pay for additional solar shingles needed beyond those donated. 

Habitat will install electric resistance heating technology into air handlers to serve as backup heat for extremely cold days. Dipman said that the air source heat pumps will also provide air conditioning, a feature not available in most Habitat properties in Minnesota.  

Phil Anderson, new homes manager at the Center for Energy and Environment, has worked with Habitat on the project. He said the key to reducing the cost of heating and cooling electric homes is a well-insulated, tight envelope and high-performance windows. Habitat will build on its experience with constructing tight homes over the past decade, he said.

“Overall, the houses that we’ve been part of over the last almost ten years have been very tight homes,” Anderson said. “There’s just not a lot of air escaping.”

Habitat’s national office selected The Heights as this year’s Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project, named after the former president and his wife, two of Habitat’s most famous supporters. The work project begins September 29^th and will receive as visitors Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood, who now host the Carters’ program.

Robertson said thousands of volunteers from around the country and the world will help put up the homes. The Heights project “raises a lot of awareness for Habitat and specifically for this development and the decarbonization efforts that we’re putting into it,” he said.

The Heights’s two other housing developers continue raising capital for their projects and hope to break ground by next summer. Habitat believes the project will meet its 2030 completion deadline.

A St. Paul, Minnesota Habitat for Humanity project will offer affordable housing without fossil fuels is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

City leaders in Burlington, Vermont, are asking voters next month to allow the city to borrow millions of dollars to help meet its ambitious clean energy goals.

Burlington is aiming to eliminate fossil fuels in the heating and transportation sectors by 2030. While the city has made substantial progress in recent years, including transitioning its electricity supply to all renewables, it will take a bigger push to get more buildings using heat pumps and more people driving electric vehicles.

The proposed $20 million Net Zero Energy Revenue Bond would go a long way toward funding electrification incentives and grid upgrades to begin accommodating increased electricity demand.

Burlington, which has a municipal-run electric department, is among the first municipalities in the country to propose a bond specifically for clean energy goals. Success will depend on whether voters approve the measure, which could be complicated if they don’t realize that, unlike other bonds, this one doesn’t involve a tax increase.

The city earlier this year announced it was on track to meet its net-zero goal, but some of that progress was likely because people have driven less during the pandemic, said Darren Springer, general manager of the Burlington Electric Department. “We know that there is more work that needs to be done to keep up with the ambitious pace,” he said.

The net-zero bond would be used over the next three years in combination with other annual bonds issued by the electric department. Investments would include $5.3 million to continue an enhanced incentive program Burlington implemented during the pandemic, focusing on encouraging uptake by residents of heat pumps and electric vehicles.

Another $12.3 million would be used for grid improvements to improve reliability and accommodate new electric load. The city’s 2020 integrated resource plan studied grid implications for the net-zero goal. It found that if Burlington is successful in reaching those ambitions, peak demand could go from the current 65 megawatts to 140 megawatts. The upgrades made with the bond would be able to accommodate a peak of 102.8 MW, which the integrated resource plan predicted could be reached by 2024.

Other funding from the bond would be used for maintenance of power generation plants, new electric vehicle charging stations, and upgrades to the electric department’s data management systems that would allow for more dynamic electric rate designs, like real-time pricing for electric vehicle charging.

The idea of a revenue bond has been on the table for a few years, Springer said, but he said now was the right time to approach voters, in part because customer uptake of incentives has been increasing. “We’re just seeing the pace picking up in a way that supports this investment being a good idea at this moment,” he said.

Burlington in April hiked its electric rate for the first time in more than a decade. This bond would allow the city to borrow money for its investments rather than raise customer rates. Higher revenues from increased electric sales would help pay back the debt, and those revenues would also help keep rates from rising again in the future.

The bond wouldn’t involve a tax increase for residents, something city leaders hope voters are clear on. Unlike other municipal bonds, a revenue bond like this doesn’t rely on taxpayer funding.

“That’s a huge thing to understand,” said Burlington City Councilor Jack Hanson, who helped draft the city’s net-zero energy roadmap. Burlington’s early voting ballots have already started arriving in mailboxes. Hanson noted the ballot has only two items: this bond and another one that would raise taxes. They could be easy to confuse.

“We have to really be communicating that to the public,” said Hanson, who added that local neighborhood news bulletins and planning meetings will be important opportunities to reach voters. He said he hasn’t heard opposition to the bond, which the City Council voted unanimously in September to allow on the ballot.

The money from the bond has been factored into the electric department’s five-year financial projections. If voters don’t approve it, the city would likely have to defer or cancel investments and programs it has planned, according to Burlington Electric.

Springer said he’s unaware of any other municipality that’s tried to issue a bond to fund its net-zero goals. “We’re hopeful that if this is successful, that it could be something that’s a model for other utilities or communities that are trying to move in this direction,” he said.

Emily Brock, who leads advocacy efforts for the Government Finance Officers Association, compared Burlington’s concept to green bonds: Both are meant to show investors their money will be used to achieve specific climate-related goals.

She added that this isn’t necessarily a new concept. Cities often issue revenue bonds to fund environmentally responsible improvements, such as water or sewer upgrades. That said, Burlington may be the first to call this a net-zero energy bond, she said. “By calling it that, it communicates to the investor base that ‘this is Burlington’s final objective, and can you help us get there,’” Brock said.

“To our knowledge, Burlington Electric is the only public power utility to issue this specific kind of bond,” Patricia Taylor, senior manager of regulatory policy and business programs at the American Public Power Association, wrote in an emailed statement. “As public power utilities nationwide continue to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, we hope these kinds of innovative financing mechanisms will help with electric vehicle deployment and other electrification efforts.”

Burlington in 1990 issued an $11.3 million revenue bond to launch substantial progress on energy efficiency goals. City leaders have compared the new initiative in Burlington to the 1990 one.

“If we’re fortunate enough to have the voters approve it in December, I think it will be seen in the future as being foundational to the effort to move towards electrification to reduce emissions,” Springer said.

Election Day is Dec. 7.

Burlington asks voters to approve a $20 million ‘net-zero energy’ bond is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

Correction: An expert from the World Resource Institute summarized models from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for decarbonizing electricity. An earlier version of this story mischaracterized the presenter’s remarks as a recommendation for how Michigan should aim to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Correction: Nick Assendelft is a spokesperson for the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy. An earlier version of this story misspelled his name.

Michigan environmental groups say a recent presentation meant to help inform the state’s plan for reaching net-zero emissions placed too much emphasis on unproven technology and unfairly characterized a 100% renewable energy target as too expensive and unreliable.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s recently convened Michigan Council on Climate Solutions is aiming to develop a plan by December that will help chart the state’s course to net-zero. The council is an advisory board Whitmer created during a series of late 2020 executive orders and includes 14 governor-appointed members. 

During the council’s late February opening presentation, an expert from nonprofit research group World Resource Institute summarized four Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “pathways” to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 and net-negative emissions beyond that. The pathways describe scenarios in which between 63% and 81% of electricity is generated from renewables, with nuclear, biomass, carbon capture and other technologies close the remaining gap. 

That range is well short of the 100% renewables target that many state environmental groups are calling. They also oppose the inclusion of carbon capture, which they allege doesn’t reduce emissions and allows industry to continue polluting communities around companies’ factories. 

“If we truly care about ending systemic oppression of [environmental justice] communities, we cannot afford to be unambitious,” said Juan Jhong Chung, policy associate with the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition, which represents about 50 environmental groups statewide. 

The presentation highlighted “aggressive” carbon dioxide removal strategies that move beyond forest and soil sequestration programs like that which Michigan recently announced for a small section of state forest. Those include direct air capture and storage, a method that would use technology and machinery that can pull carbon dioxide out of the air and store it in the ground or construction materials.

It also described how an increase in biogas, which involves generating energy by burning wood or organic matter, then capturing and storing carbon emitted during the process, or capturing gas off of landfills and similar waste. 

The presentation cautioned against aiming for a 100% renewable-powered grid, which would be as “technically possible” but “very expensive” and less reliable because wind and sun don’t provide a consistent source of generation and would require significant integration costs.

“Some people think that we can build this electric supply completely from renewables,” said Karl Hausker, a senior fellow with the World Resources Institute’s climate program, “and it may be technically feasible to do that, but most mainstream analysis indicates that would be very expensive and you might encounter more reliability problems if you tried to run a grid almost entirely on wind and solar.” 

But Jhong Chung said that the national and international analysis shared in the World Resources Institute presentation focused on the cost of investing in clean energy and ignored the potential economic benefits from the transition.

“If you take into account all the economic gains that could be made from transitioning to a full renewable economy, there’s benefits not only for the environment and EJ communities, but also our pockets,” he said. “It does mean we have to invest more upfront, but that’s a good thing, because our communities need investment now more than ever.” 

Climate Solutions Council member Charlotte Jameson, program director for legislative affairs, energy, and drinking water policy with the Michigan Environmental Council, cautioned that the World Resource Institute’s presentation was only one step in a long process. 

“We do need to be moving very rapidly toward carbon-free generation,” she said. “Over the next 10 years, if we’re not moving aggressively to decarbonize the power sector, then we’re really up a creek with no paddle.” 

Jhong Chung noted that the technology for some carbon dioxide removal strategies highlighted in the World Resource Institute presentation doesn’t yet exist in commercial form, and technologies that remove carbon at point sources like smokestacks haven’t been successful. 

He pointed to the recent failures at the Petra Nova plant, which in 2017 was billed as a test case for point source carbon removal technology. It suffered frequent outages and only captured 7% of the plant’s emissions, and the carbon dioxide it captured was injected into the ground so more fossil fuels could be extracted. 

“In the end, you output more carbon into the air than you remove … so it is absolutely not a solution,” Jhong Chung said. 

Jameson also expressed skepticism about making carbon removal a central part of the state’s plan. She called the science behind the processes “unproven” and said that a plan that includes carbon removal is “more likely to be less effective.”  

“I don’t think there’s been a really successful carbon capture project, it’s expensive, and we’re pretty dubious of that technology,” she said. “To me, the rush to embrace that technology is a little too early, so it would be much more effective to build out wind and solar in the near term.” 

The presentation is just the beginning of the planning process, and will help inform the final plan and recommendations submitted to the governor, said Nick Assendfelt, a spokesperson for the Department of Energy, Great Lakes, and Environment, which oversees the council. 

The presentation is just the beginning of the planning process, and will help inform the final plan and recommendations submitted to the governor, said Nick Assendelft, a spokesperson for the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, which oversees the council.

“The presentation … is part of the council’s thorough, in-depth analysis of the wide-ranging issues that will be taken under consideration during the development of the MI Healthy Climate Plan,” he said in a statement. The council’s next meeting is at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, May 25, and is open to the public.

Michigan groups dispute claim that 100% renewable grid would be too expensive is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

In the shadow of an Xcel Energy nuclear power plant, the Minnesota reservation plans to make a big investment in solar, a microgrid, and energy efficiency.

The Prairie Island Indian Community in Minnesota is expected to name a consultant this month to help propel the tribe toward net-zero emissions.

The tribe announced its intent to offset all of its energy emissions in early 2018, but details have been sparse about how — or how fast — it would proceed. The process is expected to pick up in the coming months thanks in part to $46 million in funding allocated last spring by the Minnesota Legislature.

Shelley Buck, president of the Prairie Island Tribal Council, said the effort has the potential to “change the narrative” of a community that has long been associated with its close proximity to the Xcel Energy nuclear power plant and radioactive waste storage facility that shares its namesake.

“Not only will we be one of the first tribal nations to achieve this critical [net-zero] goal, but we will also serve as a model for communities across the United States that aim to protect the earth by reducing their energy impact on the environment,” Buck said.

Located 30 miles south of St. Paul, the Prairie Island Indian Community reservation is home to about 250 tribal members and the Treasure Island Resort & Casino. Members are descendents of the Mdewakanton Band of Eastern Dakota, who were forced to cede much of their Minnesota lands to the U.S. government in the mid-1800s.

The reservation was created in 1886 when the Secretary of the Interior purchased 120 acres along the Mississippi River and placed it into trust for landless Mdewakanton residing in Minnesota. Subsequent purchases expanded the reservation, but a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lock and dam built in 1938 flooded much of the land, leaving the tribe with about 300 livable acres.

In 1973, Xcel began operating a nuclear power plant on the island and it continues to store more than 1,000 tons of radioactive waste on the plant’s property, just 600 yards from tribal homes. The utility pays an annual fee to a Minnesota state fund as a condition of being allowed to store spent nuclear fuel at Prairie Island and one other nuclear plant.

Tribal leaders three years ago began pitching legislators the idea of using money from that fund, known as the Renewable Development Account, to develop a net-zero energy system on the reservation that would produce as much energy as it consumes. The reservation bears much of the risk from the federal government’s failure to establish permanent nuclear waste storage elsewhere, said tribal attorney Jessie Seim.

The Minnesota Legislature and Gov. Tim Walz this year agreed to give a $46.2 million grant for the endeavour. That money is expected to fund a mix of energy efficiency retrofits, solar energy, storage and other investments. The tribe issued a request for proposals in September to provide technical assistance for the clean energy transition and is expected to choose soon from more than 20 applicants. 

“We worked to develop a project that would benefit the community that would fit within the spirit and the law of the renewable development fund,” Seim said.

Under an agreement crafted in 1994, the state’s renewable fund receives $500,000 for every dry cask of spent nuclear fuel at the nuclear plant (currently 47). The program has delivered nearly $352 million since 2001 in grants for energy production projects, research, higher education and other programs.

Prairie Island isn’t the first Minnesota tribe to embark on a major clean energy strategy. Others such as Red Lake and Leech Lake have begun programs involving solar and energy efficiency. Tribes across the region have started to use clean energy to create energy independence, improve health, and develop jobs.

Reservations hold great promise for clean energy. A 2018 study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory calculated that tribal lands have the potential for 6,035 gigawatts of utility-scale solar capacity, the equivalent of more than 5% of the nation’s total solar potential. The Department of Energy’s Office of Indian Energy has pointed out that land owned by tribes in the Midwest and West has some of the country’s best wind and solar locations.

The Prairie Island reservation’s relatively small footprint gives it several options for eliminating or offsetting its emissions. The tribe bought 7 megawatts of electricity from its provider, Dakota Electric, as of 2018. A preliminary plan outlines how the reservation could replace most of that with solar, microgrids, and geothermal heating and cooling.

The draft proposes an estimated $25 million solar parking canopy at the casino producing 5 megawatts, combined with four onsite solar gardens adding another megawatt at a cost of around $2.5 million. Rounding out the generation would be a $6 million microgrid and a $2.5 million geothermal system running on solar energy and solar battery storage.

The tribe wants to complete the $36 million energy production expenditure within three years. The rest of the project’s savings would come from energy efficiency. The budget calls for a $10 million investment in equipment upgrades, electrifying the vehicle fleet, adding energy management and introducing energy audits and modeling. Lighting will be replaced with LEDs and aging heating and cooling systems upgraded. Plus, tribal ordinances will embrace the state’s SB 2030 standard for new construction and add a reduce, reuse and recycle policy.

Prairie Island’s leaders understand that the project faces many challenges, Seim said. How much the entire project will cost, despite early projections, may become an issue because the state grant may not cover all expenditures, she said. The tribe also knows it needs to continue educating tribal members on clean energy options and net-zero systems.    

“The thinking was just to help community members get their minds around energy systems and clean energy,” she said. “When we begin this process of creating a plan with community members, we hope they share our goals and have a common understanding of energy.”

Part of educating tribal members involves introducing them to the potential for jobs in clean energy. Seim believes the presence of solar and other clean energy technologies in the community will spur young people and adults to consider careers in science and clean energy.

The net-zero project offers an “experiential opportunity for our students and adults who might be interested in this sector but don’t really know where to start or maybe don’t even know what the sector is to be interested in,” said Rayanna Lennes, the tribe’s communications manager. “To have this happening so close to home, I think, is incredibly exciting.”

Seim said she does not blame Xcel for the federal government’s failed decades-long attempts to develop a national repository for spent nuclear fuel nor the environmental injustice of having to live close to radioactive waste. The renewable development fund money is welcome, even if it carries the irony of deriving from a fee on storing radioactive waste.

“It’s a different opportunity because it’s an exercise of our sovereignty, and it’s a part of us self-determining our future,” she said. “Prairie Island can do this embracing its culture, its values, its connection to nature. I think it is something that we’re all excited about — community members and the tribal council — because we can do it in a way honoring who we are as a tribe and as native people.”

Prairie Island tribe prepares to chart course toward zero emissions is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

A letter signed by representatives of 40 organizations says the state needs an accelerated timeline for phasing out carbon emissions.

Though environmental groups applauded Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s order this week as a first step in putting the state on a path to carbon neutrality by 2050, a coalition of Michigan environmental justice advocates say it doesn’t move the state fast enough to address the climate crisis.

The Detroit-based Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition published in an open memo to the governor the day of her order saying that the state needs to aim for “100% pollution-free, renewable energy by 2030.”

The letter, signed by representatives of 40 organizations, raises concerns about the order’s three-decade-long timeline as well as its apparent openness to emission offsets, carbon capture and storage, and nuclear power.

“The climate crisis is upon us in Michigan and there is no time to wait,” the letter says, urging the state to aggressively pursue clean energy and “reject the false solutions presented by the oil and gas industry.”

Whitmer’s executive order makes Michigan the ninth state to commit to achieving carbon neutrality. Beyond emission reductions, the order directs state agencies to help communities and workers transition to a clean energy economy. It also requires a focus on solutions for “communities disproportionately being affected by the climate crisis” and development of a climate plan that’s fair for “underserved communities.” 

“These bold actions will provide critical protections for our environment, economy, and public health, now and for years to come,” Whitmer said in a statement. “It will also position Michigan to attract a new generation of clean energy and energy efficiency jobs.” 

Jamesa Johnson-Greer, Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition’s climate justice director, called the timeline “conservative” and noted that industry — like DTE Energy and Consumers Energy, the state’s two largest utilities — have already committed to carbon neutrality by 2050 and 2040, respectively. 

“We’re at a point in the crisis where we know we have the next 10 years to act to stave off the greatest impacts of the climate crisis … so we need to act now,” said Johnson-Greer, who also raised concerns about how much the state might rely on offsets to achieve the goal. The state this week also announced a carbon credit program in which it will use more than 100,000 acres of state forest to absorb carbon emissions. Carbon emitters could buy carbon credits from the state, which would use the revenue to plant more trees. Whitmer said the program would offset industry’s impact on the environment. 

“We don’t want to see market mechanisms and market solutions in Michigan,” Johnson-Greer said. “It will be detrimental to the state and serve to increase emissions, as we learned from other [environmental justice] communities living under these mechanisms.” 

The order comes as the state is beginning to experience significant impacts from climate change. A recent University of Michigan study found the Great Lakes basin’s temperature is rising faster than elsewhere around the nation. Meanwhile, an unprecedented swing and rise in the Great Lakes’ water levels and extremely high levels of precipitation are also linked to climate change. 

Justin Onwenu, an environmental justice organizer for the Sierra Club who sits on Whitmer’s Michigan Advisory Council on Environmental Justice, applauded the state for highlighting climate-related issues often ignored by state leaders, like environmental justice, public health and transitioning workers. 

Whitmer ordered the Michigan Department of the Treasury to assist and develop programs for communities and workers who lose jobs and revenue as the economy is decarbonized, though details on how that will work aren’t immediately available.  

“It’s important that this plan is not just about emission reductions,” Onwenu said. “We have to do more to make sure people’s health and workers are protected. In my view, this is the only way to build a coalition and public support to get these orders and legislation passed.” 

He also noted that the order directs the Michigan Public Services Commission to consider environmental justice issues as it regulates utilities. 

The orders’ aim to “achieve economy-wide carbon neutrality,” is commendable, said Natural Resources Defense Council Midwest Director Samantha Williams, but she added that she would like to see “a bit more oomph and clarity on the near-term targets.” 

“The 2020s are the critical decade for action on climate change, and if we are not on course with really ambitious levels of building out renewables and electrifying the economy,” she said, “then it’s going to be hard to meet those long-term goals.”

Michigan can’t wait until 2050 to reach zero emissions, environmentalists say is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.