Friday, August 05, 2016

Partners in Energy’s Electricity Action Plan Approved

Edina, Minn., Aug. 3, 2016 – In October 2015 the City began participating in the Xcel Energy Partners in Energy Program. The program is a two-year partnership designed to support the City in developing and implementing an electricity plan to drive the community-driven energy goals.

“The City has always taken steps to lessen our environmental footprint, but we can do more,” said Sustainability Coordinator Tara Brown. “This plan gives us a goal and concrete steps to focus on projects that make big impacts in our community as we strive to become a sustainable leader. We are excited to partner with Xcel and the community to make economic and environmental improvements.”

The past year served as the planning phase to develop an Electricity Action Plan, which identifies the City’s short- and long-term energy goals. Partners in Energy will support the City’s team during implementation, potentially providing education and outreach support, project management resources, assistance tracking and reporting achievements, in addition to identifying opportunities to engage Xcel Energy’s conservation and renewable energy programs.

“The Electricity Action Plan is part of our effort to meet the goals that we set in 2008. We’ve learned that it’s difficult to achieve a goal without a plan and this plan charts the course to help us reach our goal of reducing our carbon footprint,” said City Council Member Kevin Staunton. “Those of us who live in Edina have a long tradition of making our community better for the next generation; environmental stewardship is a big part of that tradition and this plan helps us put our goals into action.”

As part of the goals outlined in the plan, the City will lower its electricity greenhouse gas emissions by 7.5 percent within the next 18 months. The City also set a long-term goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2025 from a 2012 baseline.

In addition, the City set goals to help residents reduce their energy usage. Residential energy use composes 34 percent of Edina’s overall electricity use. Meeting the goals of helping at least 750 homes take energy savings actions annually, doubling the number of subscribers to Windsource and doubling the average subscription amount within the next 18 months will result in 175 tonnes of reduced carbon emissions by 2025 through conservation and 2,665 tonnes of reduced carbon emissions by 2025 through the utilization of renewable energy.

For more information, contact Brown at 952-826-1621 or tbrown@EdinaMN.gov.
 

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The City of Edina
4801 W. 50th St., Edina, MN 55424
mail@EdinaMN.gov 952-927-8861

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