Best Practice: 1.2 Clean Energy: District/School uses clean energy sources such as solar panels. 

About

While Minnesota does not have any of its own fossil fuel sources, it has rich resources for clean energy with ample sunshine, abundant wind, areas for hydroelectric, and a variety of biomass options. There are many reasons to use clean energy, which can include energy efficiency (covered separately in section 1.1) as well as use of renewable energy such as wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, and biomass. Compared to fossil-fuel sourced energy, clean energy reduces greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, and also reduces other air and water pollutants including mercury, sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides, and particulate matter. Renewables such as solar and wind also have economic advantages as the cost of production has come down over time. Schools can participate in the societal energy transition toward clean energy by learning about their energy sources and starting to shift to clean energy through installation of solar panels, subscription to community solar, or enrolling in programs to purchase renewable energy from their utility. 

Vision and Benefits

The vision for clean energy in schools is to move toward an ideal where all the energy uses in a school are from clean energy - non-polluting in their operation, affordable, resilient, and learning opportunities for students. Imagine if a school produced all the clean energy it needed and more, saving on energy bills, and offering electric vehicle charging stations for staff, students, and visitors. Imagine electric bus fleets that reduce local air pollution are less costly to maintain. Schools with energy storage could also increase their resilience in case of power outages both for their own functions and as community shelter hubs. 

There are many benefits for schools from using clean energy sources including cost, resilience, environmental impact, and education. All of these are also addressed by energy efficiency measures and both efficiency and renewables can be integrated into an overall energy assessment for an integrated strategy that meets the schools goals. Energy improvements integrated with education can help prepare students for the growing green economy as well as be more informed citizens and consumers of energy.

Who's Doing It?

Who Else is doing it? 

There are many schools that have been implementing clean energy before the MN GreenStep Schools program began. Many of them have been helped by the Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTS). Visit the CERTS page on solar for schools for an interactive map and stories of school teams that have made solar happen at their school.If you are one of these schools, consider joining MN GreenStep Schools to share your experience with others and develop your green school leadership in this and other categories. 

Preview Prototype  MN GreenStep Schools - Solar on Schools Map

In collaboration with CERTS, Department of Commerce, and others, MN GreenStep Schools is working on a dashboard with a map like the one CERTS has put together linked above, with added details and search features. The dashboard shown below is a prototype, and not all schools with solar in the database are shown yet. If your school is not shown, or if it is shown but you have more information, please check back in the near future to fill out a survey to tell us more about the solar on your school.  In the future, we’ll be adding dashboards for other clean energy options listed in the Best Practices below.

Implement Best Practice Actions in a Project

Select Best Practice Actions (BPAs) to work on and complete

Review the list of actions that can be taken to shift your district or school toward cleaner energy. Start with documenting practices that are already being done at the school. Choose those practices that best suit the opportunities and other considerations at the school. (You may wish to use the datasheet for this best practice to support your planning.)

A. Management Process BPAs

A1. Energy Assessment Including Clean Energy Sourcing

• As part of an overall energy assessment, determine current energy sourcing and consider options and opportunities for meeting energy needs with clean energy.
  
  

B. Clean Electricity Sourcing and Storage BPAs

B1. Onsite Renewables

• Install onsite renewables such as solar panels or wind turbines and decide whether to keep the RECs based on your clean energy goals.

B2. Community Solar

• Subscribe to community solar to gain many of the benefits of solar energy without installing a solar project on your property..

B3. Clean Energy Purchase from Utility

• Enroll in electric utility programs that use more energy from renewable sources based on a portion or all of the schools electricity and decide whether to keep the RECs based on the schools clean energy goals.

B4. Renewable Energy Credits (RECs)

• Purchase renewable energy credits (RECs) certifying that the benefits associated with the generation of renewable energy in a specific location selling it can be claimed by the school.

B5. Energy Storage 

• Install energy storage based on appropriateness to school’s clean energy goals considering factors such as grid impacts, cost, resilience, and education.
  
  

C. Electrification BPAs

Whether a school has shifted its electricity use to clean energy or not, the electric grid in general is becoming cleaner. Increasingly there is a trend to shift many types of energy-using equipment to electricity to reduce impacts and cost over time as the cost of renewables continue to decline. Schools can respond to and prepare for this transition by shifting more equipment to use electricity, sometimes with rebates or incentives, especially at times of equipment replacement cycles.

C1. Electrify heating- shifting from those that use fossil fuels to those that can run on clean electricity

C2. Electrify water heating - shifting from equipment that uses fossil fuels to equipment that can run on clean electricity

C3. Electrify land care equipment - shifting from that which uses fossil fuels to equipment that can run on clean electricity

C4. Electrify vehicle fleets- shifting from fossil fuel using vehicles and buses to EV fleets.

C5. Provide EV charging infrastructure - for district and school vehicles as well as to encourage staff, student, and visitor use of electric vehicles

D. Comprehensive Clean Energy Management BPAs

Actively monitoring energy sourcing is recommended for all, but required to achieve higher recognition levels (step level 4 and above). The following BPAs set the foundation for advanced performance. 

D1. Establish a Performance Monitoring Practice with Baseline

• Looking at all forms of energy used at the school, establish a baseline reference year and a regular practice (at least yearly) to monitor energy sourcing and energy sourcing impacts, integrating this with energy and climate impact tracking when applicable. 

D2. Performance Improvement

• Using the baseline and performance monitoring practices established, track performance improvements over time compared to baseline use. Where possible identify the relationship between energy actions and overall energy sourcing and impact improvements. 

D3. Performance Planning

• Conduct an analysis of current energy sourcing and its pollution impacts and set a strategic plan for how to transition the school to clean energy to reduce energy impacts on pollution and climate as well as achieve desired cost, resilience, and education benefits.

D4. Vision Backcasting

• Gather the green team, and representatives of staff, students, community and resource organizations to imagine what it would be like to reach the vision of 100% clean energy for the school. Make this scenario engaging with sketches or models. Engage youth. Use D.4 Performance Planning to work backwards from this vision prioritizing steps along the way.

Submit Annual Review

The annual review for this best practice includes

• Confirming that Best Practice Actions are still active. (Eg. is equipment still installed and working? Are event or time based actions repeated each year?)

• Amending the documentation with any changes

• Adding any lessons learned from the prior year to share with others.

To submit the annual review, send in the BP 1.2 Datasheet with updated calendar year in the update column to reflect which BPAs are still active.

GreenStep Resource Organizations

• Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTS) is a MN GreenStep Resource Organization with many resources to help schools with assessment and procurement of energy efficiency and clean energy resources.

• Explore other GreenStep Resource Organizations for this best practice based on types of assistance they offer. As more resource organizations join, there will be more offerings and an ability to sort by type and topic of support.

Online Resources:

• Minnesota B3 Benchmarking is a free, online tool for tracking energy and water usage to manage and reduce costs. Use of B3 Benchmarking is recommended by MN GreenStep Schools for both energy and water, and is a prerequisite to achieve GreenStep Schools Step Level 4. Note that use of B3Benchmarking in Schools is also required by Minnesota law. 

Education Planning and Actions

Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERTS) is a MN GreenStep Resource Organization with many resources to help schools with assessment and procurement of energy efficiency and clean energy resources. They have experience supporting schools in Minnesota with energy efficiency and solar planning and can help schools connect to a network of professionals for further development. See the Certs guidance in categories of:

• Energy Assessment

• Selecting Renewable Energy Options

• Procurement

• Financing

• Bids and Contracts

• Community Engagement

• Educational Integration

• Electric School Buses 

• Research and Case Studies

Additional Resources

Best Practice Renewable Energy | GreenstepCities. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2021, from https://greenstep.pca.state.mn.us/bp-detail/81736

ENERGY STAR. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2021, from https://www.energystar.gov/buildings

Minnesota Renewable Energy Society. (n.d.). Minnesota Renewable Energy Society. Retrieved March 17, 2021, from https://www.mnrenewables.org

Minnesota—State Energy Profile Overview—U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). (n.d.). Retrieved March 17, 2021, from https://www.eia.gov/state/?sid=MN

MN Department of Commerce. (n.d.). Solar Pathways. Minnesota.Gov. Retrieved March 16, 2021, from https://mn.gov/commerce/industries/energy/solar/solar-pathways.jsp

Powering K-12 education with solar energy. (n.d.). Clean Energy Resource Teams. Retrieved March 16, 2021, from https://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/solarschools

US EPA, O. (2016, January 27). Switch to Green Power [Overviews and Factsheets]. US EPA. https://www.epa.gov/greenpower/switch-green-power

US EPA, O. (2018, March 7). Offsets and RECs: What’s the Difference? [Overviews and Factsheets]. US EPA. https://www.epa.gov/greenpower/offsets-and-recs-whats-difference

Welcome to B3 Benchmarking. (n.d.). Retrieved March 16, 2021, from https://mn.b3benchmarking.com/

Additional Resources on integrating energy efficiency and clean energy into curriculum or extracurricular activities

· Clean Energy Bright Futures, Resources for Teachers  

· USA, National Wildlife Federation, Energy and Climate Change Pathways to Sustainability, 2015

· Grid Alternatives, Solar Futures Toolkit

· Let’s Go Solar, Solar kits, camps, projects, and resources for kids, teens, parents, and teachers

· National Energy Education Development Project (NEED), Energy curricula, resources, events, and trainings for educators

· REcharge Labs, Solar Activity Ideas

· RREAL: Knowledge is Power

· U.S. Department of Energy, Online K-12 Learning Resources

· KidWind, WindWise

· NYSERDA, Resources for P-12 Schools

References

• See Resources Above