Funding Awarded: $95,000

INDUSTRY PARTNERS:

Otter Tail and Wadena County Residential Building Contractors

Key Partners:

Otter Tail – Wadena Community Action Council, MN Department of Commerce, Rural Renewable Energy Alliance, Rural MN CEP

Project Summary:

In Otter Tail and Wadena counties, contractors and weatherization program auditors are being trained to do solar heating analyses for homes, and to complete solar air heating installations. Otter Tail-Wadena Community Action Council provides home weatherization services to improve energy conservation for low income residents.

Project Outcomes:

• 16 homes equipped with solar air heat systems

• 13 auditors and contractors trained to install solar heat panels

• 3 educators prepared for instruction, projected to train 25 students annually

Project Description:

Bringing Green Jobs into small communities was the emphasis of this project.

"We brought in local teams of contractors and their laborers along with energy auditors from our weatherization department to be trained by solar manufacturer Rural Renewable Energy Alliance," said Steve Connell, Otter Tail-Wadena Community Action Council, Weatherization Director. These workers can now do site analysis, selection, and design, plus they know how to hang and install solar equipment for homes.

Community Action Councils primarily work with low-income home owners to improve the energy efficiency of their houses and to reduce energy costs through an energy audit & weatherization techniques. Adding solar panels to a home can significantly lower winter energy bills - sometimes as much as 15-20% or more.

Rural Renewable Energy Alliance (RREAL) Director, Jason Edens, describes this project as addressing the "renewable divide" by giving lower income people access to solar technology that upper income families have more easily afford.

The training began with an on-site visit to RREAL manufacturing facility to introduce the contractors and energy auditors to the solar panel technology and to do a mock-up installation for demonstration.

"Now that our contractors know how to install these solar panels, they can go out with a new skill to earn money from," said Davis Leino-Mills, Otter Tail-Wadena Community Action Council Executive Director. "And, our auditors can add more energy efficient technologies to the homes that they work with by using this new skill."

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The collaborative project at Ottertail Wadena Community Action Council/Rural Renewable Energy Alliance was to train installers of Solar Heating Systems while installing the systems.  Below are pictures of the 16 systems that were installed.