Renewing Our

Power

J. Drake HamiltonScience Policy Director

Fresh Energy

March 17, 2018

Who is Fresh Energy?

• Independent

• Minnesota nonprofit

• Climate and energy policy experts

• 25 years of successes

How Fresh Energy approaches our work

• Science-based, data-driven

• Affordable, reliable energy

• Clean water and clean air, cutting carbon

• Growing markets in efficiency, wind and solar energy

Minnesota Policy Leadership

▪ Nation-leading growth in renewable energy

▪ Corporate policy

▪ Nation-leading decarbonization

Bipartisan Next Generation Energy Act of 2007

• Renewable Energy Standard (RES) 25% renewable energy by 2025

• Statewide goal to cut greenhouse gases by at least:30% below 2005 levels by 2025 80% below 2005 levels by 2050

across the economy

• 1.5% energy savings standard for electric utilities

2007 Bipartisan

Next Generation Energy Act

Trends in MN Economic Growth, Electricity Use, and Emissions

Average Monthly Residential Electric Bill, 2016

Heartland leadershipcutting carbon, growing jobs

• 57,000 clean energy jobs that exceed state average wage by 42%

• 30% of these in

Greater Minnesota

• Cutting carbon via smart, bipartisan policies and business leadership

Clean energy:Growing the Minnesota economy

• 2,800 jobs

• Family-owned,

110-year-old company

• 34% of revenues from renewable energy projects

• 1,600 permanent union jobs

Minnesota construction companies dominate North American clean energy developments

Construction Forecasting Engineering Design Operations Finance Accounting Manufacturing Sales Transportation Legal Marketing

Some clean energy job categories

Minnesota Electricity in TransitionCurrent Plans: 2016 - 2030

2016

* Based on MN IOU IRPs & announcements

2030*

Nuclear 23%

Coal 45%

Natural Gas 9%

Renewables 23%

Nuclear 21%

Coal 22%

Natural Gas 12%

Renewables 45%

13

Solar Energy Jobs Act of 2013

Standard: 1.5% of public utilities’ electricity from solar by 2020

•Goal: 10% of the entire state’s electricity from solar by 2030

• Community Solar Gardens

Solar Energy Jobs Act of 2013

SolarSolar Capacityas of October 2017

15

Solar Energy Jobs Act of 2013

Solar costs dropped 30 percent in one year

Minnesota added enough solar to power 53,000 homes

Just in 2017…

• Located near North Branch in Chisago County

• 100 MW (enough to power 20,000 homes)

• 440,000 solar panels covering 1,000 acres

• Largest solar farm in the Midwest

North Star Solar Project

• Powers 1,000 homes

• 15,000 solar panels over 35 acres

• Pollinator-friendly plantings between the rows of panels

Farmington Community Solar Garden

Minnesota Policy Leadership

▪ Nation-leading growth in renewable energy

▪ Corporate policy

▪ Nation-leading decarbonization of electricity

“We think that human-caused greenhouse gas causes climate change…and that it’s going to stress the agricultural supply chain.

Obviously we depend on that for our business, and we all depend on that for the food we eat.”

General MillsAugust 31, 2015

“General Mills is committed to doing our part to tackle climate change”

Required every supplier to achieve 27% carbon reductions by 2025

Committed $100 million investment in

efficiency and renewables

General Mills

‘Opportunity to turn the billions of dollars in existing low-carbon investments into the trillions of dollars the world needs to bring clean energy prosperity to all.’

RE100:The World’s Most Influential Companies

Committed to 100% Renewable Power

Apple Bank of America

BMW Coca Cola

Facebook GM

GoldmanSachs Google

Ikea Hewlett Packard

Johnson & Johnson Microsoft

Nestle Nike

Procter & Gamble Unilever

Walmart Wells Fargo

Stephanie Zawistowski| Senior Policy AdvisorOffice of Governor Mark Dayton and Lt. Governor Tina Smith

Melissa Hortman| Minority LeaderMinnesota House of Representatives

Greg Downing| Sustainability ManagerTarget

Patrick Hamilton| Director of Global Change Initiatives Science Museum of Minnesota

J. Drake Hamilton Science Policy DirectorFresh Energy

U.S. Heartland Climate Action

Problem Solved?

SUNK COST

Minnesota’s Remaining

Coal-Fired Power Plants

Taconite Harbor Energy CenterMinnesota Power, SchroederAnnual carbon emissions: 1,300,000 tons

Boswell Energy CenterMinnesota Power, CohassetAnnual carbon emissions: 8,500,000 tons

Hoot LakeOtter Tail Power, Fergus FallsAnnual carbon emissions: 1,000,000 tons

Sherburne County (Sherco)Xcel Energy, BeckerAnnual carbon emissions: 14,800,000 tons

Allen S. KingXcel Energy, Oak Park HeightsAnnual carbon emissions: 3,300,000 tons

Ben FowkeCEO, Xcel EnergyJanuary 2014

“Coal is going away… it’s just

a matter of time”

Xcel Energy Shareholder’s Meeting

April 2016

“We’re going to be able to retire coal plants earlier than we expected…coal is going away; it's just a matter of time.”

-Ben Fowke, CEO of Xcel Energy

Minnesota’s largest greenhouse gas emitter

Ben FowkeCEO, Xcel Energy

“Xcel has brought wind online

with prices better than

natural gas… wind has been

pragmatic, cost-effective”

Christopher ClarkPresident, Xcel Energy

‘The wind Xcel Energy is

bringing online is lower in

cost than our lowest cost

coal plant.’

Equivalent to

taking

2.4 Million cars

& their pollution

off Minnesota’s

roads

12 Coal Plant Retirements Secured

Xcel’s Business Decision:

60% CO2 reduction by 2030

Xcel’s Business Decision:

60% CO2 reduction by 2030

Will be achieved 8 years early!

Xcel’s Business Decision:

60% CO2 reduction by 2030

Will be achieved 8 years early!

By 2030, 60% renewables

By 2030, 85% carbon-free

Farther, Faster Together

Double our Renewable Energy Standard

Code Blue for Patient Earth: Responding to the urgent threat of climate change to One Health

Friday, April 20, 2018Science Museum of Minnesota

Sponsored by

Abbott Northwestern Hospital Foundation

Register at: www.fresh-energy.org/codeblue

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

‘Nobody on this planet is going to be

untouched by the impacts of climate change.’

Thank you!

www.fresh-energy.org

J. Drake Hamilton

Hamilton@fresh-energy.org

@jdrakehamilton

facebook.com/j.drake.hamilton