Our Stories
Making Minnesota Ready for Renewable Energy
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| The Rural Energy Development Initiative (REDI) is administered by the Southwest Initiative Foundation and is sponsored by the State of Minnesota and the Center for Rural Policy and Development. |
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For over 20 years, the Southwest Initiative Foundation (SWIF) has built relationships with visionary and dedicated people both within and outside its service area to make positive changes. Through the Foundation’s Renewable Energy Initiative, infrastructure is in place with a focus on increasing the wealth, prosperity and vitality of southwest Minnesota by facilitating the development of renewable energy. Now, the opportunity has come for this work to benefit the renewable energy industry across the entire state of Minnesota.
Through 2007 Minnesota state legislation, $1 million was appropriated to the Center for Rural Policy and Development to make a grant to a nonprofit organization with experience in energy and community wind issues. SWIF was chosen to administer a program to provide assistance to rural entities seeking to develop wind energy electric generation projects. The Foundation designed the Rural Energy Development Initiative (REDI) to maximize rural economic development and stabilize rural economies by not only helping wind projects, but also by building renewable energy capacity, expertise and leadership.
The Foundation plans to provide organizing and technical assistance to rural entities seeking to develop wind energy projects for the purpose of selling the energy to an electric utility, and raise awareness of the local economic, community and environmental benefits of renewable energy development, energy conservation and efficiency.
“Energy development projects supported through REDI hold great potential to boost local economies and promote clean energy in rural Minnesota by producing jobs, tax revenues, community wealth and the environmental benefits associated with renewable energy,” said Scott Marquardt, SWIF senior program officer. “Additional local benefits to community-based energy development can range from increased opportunities for construction firms to bid for new projects, to involvement of local lenders.”
As part of the program, SWIF is committed to helping at least 12 wind energy projects across Minnesota. These projects will be selected through an assessment of criteria, including community interest, land right availability, wind resource information and access to transmission. Depending upon their specific needs and requirements, projects may be assisted with details like site selection, wind resource assessment, land right availability, organization of local investor groups, legal structure options, project-specific feasibility studies, business plans, and the preparation of an interconnection agreement and transmission study. Each project will have access to revolving loan funds for its feasibility study. SWIF’s intent is to lower the market risk faced by potential wind investors by supporting projects through these phases of development.
In addition, SWIF proposes to provide a replicable model and will build the capacity and expertise of wind energy development statewide by equipping each region with the knowledge and resources to help project development into the future. With additional funding, REDI has the potential to increase the knowledge of community energy opportunities and issues through workshops targeted to local and statewide constituents. This offers the potential to expand awareness beyond wind energy to other renewable energy and energy efficiency topics.
Over the past few weeks, five meetings hosted by SWIF and the Minnesota Department of Commerce were held across the state. Mike Bull, assistant director for the Minnesota Office of Energy Security, provided updates of clean energy activities in Minnesota, and Marquardt and Cheryl Glaeser, SWIF program specialist, provided an overview of REDI.
“By creating partnerships that combine resources and experience,” Glaeser said, “goals of preserving and improving the health of the environment while strengthening the economy of Minnesota communities can be met as the state strives to provide more clean electricity.”
View more information about REDI on our Renewable Energy page, or contact the Foundation at (800) 594-9480, or redi@swifoundation.org.
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The McKnight Foundation Awards $3 million in Funding for Early Childhood Initiative
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| The Early Childhood Initiative will be expanding into 12 new communities statewide thanks to the generous support of The McKnight Foundation. |
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The six Minnesota Initiative Foundations, including the Southwest Initiative Foundation (SWIF), are excited to announce the expansion of the Minnesota Early Childhood Initiative (ECI), a statewide network of coalitions focused on quality care and educational opportunities for children ages birth to five, thanks to another phase of funding from The McKnight Foundation. McKnight announced their decision to award $3 million to ECI in February. New funding will expand the initiative from 66 to 78 coalitions statewide in the coming year.
In a nutshell, the initiative offers a unique opportunity for communities to build teams of people from different perspectives that have an interest in making a positive impact on behalf of their youngest citizens. The community organizing process allows these teams to carefully look at the assets, opportunities and partnerships currently available to youngest children and their families and craft strategic action plans that are reflective of the unique nature of their community.
“The organizing process is equally important to SWIF and McKnight as are the actual projects implemented by coalition teams,” said Sara Carlson, SWIF program officer for ECI. “We look forward to working with new communities that embrace the opportunity to build local leaders who focus on the critical early years for the next generation of southwest Minnesota, and seeing the creative ways they address the opportunities to make a real impact.”
Potential expansion sites may be a single community, a consortium of neighboring communities or an entire county within the 18-county region and may not include an already established coalition area. A competitive application process will be used, and interested communities must show substantial evidence of successful community efforts, embrace the community organizing process and demonstrate local capacity for leadership and engagement across a wide variety of community members in addition to local early care and education professionals and parents. Successful applicant communities will enter into a three-year partnership with SWIF for the process, technical assistance and implementation grant funds of $40,000 over the entire effort. A local cash match will also be required of these new expansion communities.
“Over our nearly six years of seeding ECI coalition teams across the region, we’ve learned that communities can position themselves to sustain their efforts beyond our grant funding,” Carlson said. “Our most successful teams have embraced this opportunity and SWIF has come alongside them to further assist in leveraging local investments that impact our future leaders and neighbors.”
Communities interested in beginning the formal application process for ECI expansion should begin by completing a simple online Pre-Application Questionnaire. The application process will take place this spring, and the selected expansion coalitions will be named this summer and begin the grassroots community organizing process in September 2008.
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