By Colin Weber, Green Iowa Member On June 23rd, Dr. Dennis Todey, director of the USDA Midwest Climate Hub, gave a presentation entitled “The Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture in Iowa” for the Winneshiek Energy District’s monthly Online Lunch Webinar. Dr. Todey discussed how climate change, specifically changing rainfall amounts and temperatures, have impacted soil quality, growing season length, and crop production in Iowa. According to research gathered by
By Andy Johnson, Executive Director There is growing interest in what’s happening at the FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) around net metering for customer-owned solar. We introduced the topic last issue, and provided a resource page on our web site. Here we’ll dive a little deeper. In April, a shadow group called the New England Ratepayer’s Association (NERA) submitted a petition to the FERC for a “declaratory order”. The NERA
by Jessica Hegdahl, Audit Coordinator There’s a lot of uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 and when it will be safe for the Winneshiek Energy District to resume in-home energy assessments. So we got creative! We are excited to share that Decorah’s Green Iowa AmeriCorps team is pioneering a no-contact home energy reduction program called Bright Box. Our full home energy assessment includes a combination of combustion appliance safety testing, insulation analysis, a
By Joel Zook, Energy Planner, and Joleen Jansen, Program Coordinator Clayton County Energy District The City of West Union was recently awarded an Iowa Economic Development Authority/Iowa Energy Center grant to study the current public geothermal loop system and hopefully advance this community geothermal system from a pilot project to a source of clean energy prosperity for West Union. Winneshiek Energy District is leading this project and is excited to