Climate-Smart Municipalities: Modeling Integrated Energy Communities for the 21st Century A cooperation between Minnesota & NRW September 21 – 28, 2019 Münster, Saerbeck, Siegen, Lüdenscheid, Iserlohn, Arnsberg, Düsseldorf MINNESOTA DELEGATION (A—J): delegation leader Commissioner Alice Roberts-Davis, Minnesota Department of Administration Jim Benning director of public works and utilities, City of Duluth Doug Biehn city council member, City of White Bear Lake Erik Birkeland property and facilities manager, City of Duluth Kevin Bright energy and sustainability director, Destination Medical Center EDA Erin Campbell assistant commissioner, Minnesota Department of Administration Zach Carlton planning manager, City of Elk River Kevin Edberg city council member, City of White Bear Lake Anthony Ekren environmental manager, Riverview LLP Jo Emerson mayor, City of White Bear Lake Dr. Sabine Engel director of international partnerships, Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota Greg Fynboh crop farmer, Morris, Minnesota Michelle Gransee director of Minnesota’s State Energy Office, Minnesota Department of Commerce Bryan Herrmann vice chancellor for finance and facilities, University of Minnesota-Morris Blaine Hill city manager, City of Morris Ellen Hiniker city manager, City of White Bear Lake Alex Jackson energy coordinator, City of Duluth Katie Jones community program and policy manager, Center for Energy and Environment Dr. Cathy Jordan associate director, Institute on the Environment, University of Minnesota Welcome! Welcome to another round of exchange and learning in the Climate-Smart Municipalities program—this time once again in NRW! The program is a unique multi-partner collaboration be- tween Minnesota and Germany, and part of the German gov- ernment’s renowned Transatlantikprogramm. “Climate-Smart Municipalities: Modeling Integrated Energy Communities for the 21st Century” brings together stakeholders and leaders in local and state government, politics, business, the nonprofit sector, academia, and the public to learn from each other and to accel- erate the transition to a more sustainable, efficient and climate- friendly future at the local level. Our program tag line reads “Together, we are smarter!” It cap- tures the experience over the past three years of everyone in- volved in this remarkable undertaking. Together, we command solar onto people’s roofs and how to reduce GHG emissions deeper expertise, are able to look at things from a much broader in the transportation sector. As a cohort of cities and business range of perspectives, and create better and more imaginative partners, can we build joint community solar plants? What will it solutions. Having the opportunity to discuss approaches in a take? To help accelerate the renewable energy and sustainability binational group is invaluable. Turning those conversations into transformation in Minnesota, delegation members will visit inclusive projects at multiple levels and witnessing how quickly Siemens in Mühlheim to learn how engineers and researchers and reliably such parallel diversity produces measurable results is are thinking to replace fossil fuels with GHG neutral fuels. inspiring. And it builds additional momentum. Experts at Gelsenwasser and Stadtwerke Osnabrück will share This September’s Minnesota delegation is our biggest and renewable energy and efficiency measures and new business most diverse ever. See the front and back covers for the amaz- models with the Morris team. And on Wednesday, we will have ing 35-member roster. Leadership from five Minnesota state the opportunity to connect in Lüdenscheid with regional leaders agencies, leaders of three state senate committees, city council including members of the Fridays for Future movement to build members, school board members, leaders in energy, agriculture, additional momentum for our NRW-MN climate-smart journey finances, research and leaders from the six cities that decided to to succeed. lead the way in Minnesota. Delegation lead is Minnesota’s Com- The week’s program again is a massive collective effort. I thank missioner for Administration Alice Roberts-Davis. all partners for helping create an inspiring series of activities that 2019 is a year of strategic growth for CSM. We recently welcomed demonstrate how much the public and private sectors can do in Center for Energy & Environment as a co-funding partner. We partnership. reached into schools in NRW and MN through a first annual Finally, a big shout-out to our Minnesota and German funders. video contest. We grew the group of core cities to 12 with Lüden- Your joint support enables the University of Minnesota Institute scheid and White Bear Lake. And we connected through the USA on the Environment to provide this amazing opportunity to NRW Parliamentarians group and MdL Angela Freimuth with Minnesotans and Germans. more NRW legislators. Ten of them just spent three exciting days Wishing all of us an inspiring and productive week, in Minnesota and came away impressed. In July, Minnesota’s new lieutenant governor visited NRW on her first international trip. It clicked. And you are part of this growing CSM family. Dr. Sabine Engel Ahead of us is a full week of learning and working together. director of international partnerships Two full group workshop days will focus on how to get more Institute on the Environment University of Minnesota “Climate-Smart Municipalities” 325 LES, 1954 Buford Ave. is supported with funding from Saint Paul, MN 55108 Germany’s Federal Ministry of tel: +612-624-6973 Economic Affairs and Energy email: [email protected] (BMWi) through the European www.environment.umn.edu Recovery Program’s (ERP) Transatlantik-Programm der –Leading the way toward a future in which people and the Bundesrepublik Deutschland. environment prosper together– Climate-Smart Municipalities Institute on the Environment @ the University of Minnesota A Cooperation between Minnesota and Germany: LIST of Partners Germany’s Foreign Office Center for Energy & Environment Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy Ever-Green Energy North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry for Environment, Agriculture, Minnesota Credit Union Network Nature and Consumer Protection (MULNV) Affinity Plus Federal Credit Union North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Economic Affairs, Hiway Federal Credit Union Innovation, Digitalization, and Energy (MWIDE) University of Minnesota, Natural Resources Research Institute Energieagentur.NRW Minnesota Environmental Quality Board and 12 municipalities: Minnesota Department of Agriculture Minnesota Pollution Control Agency City of Saerbeck City of Morris Minnesota Department of Commerce City of Siegen City of Duluth Minnesota Department of Administration City of Münster City of Rochester City of Luedenscheid City of White Bear Lake City of Iserlohn City of Elk River City of Arnsberg City of Warren Profiles of NRW technical exchange partner municipalities Arnsberg The city-owned municipal utilities supply a large part of the The city of Arnsberg is located in Hochsauerland County city center with district heating through a waste incinerator and is the seat of government for the administrative region (MHKW). In 2012, the city, together with many local partners, Südwestfalen. The city is on the Ruhr River, covers an area of drew up a climate protection master plan that is currently being about 74 square miles, and has a population of about 73,000. implemented. Its power-to-heat effort won a NRW state power- The city has several neighborhood centers (poly-centered city) to-heat model community award. Iserlohn also was awarded that cluster in a ribbon along the river. Major employers are the European Energy Award in Gold. To expand cogeneration small and medium sized enterprises in the manufacturing sector: is seen as an important aspect to advancing climate protection metal processing, electronics, wood and paper-based businesses, measures. Another focus is electro-mobility. Iserlohn participates printing and polymer processing. An important industry in “Emobility Works,” a Europe-wide project that mobilized specialty is the development and production of lamps. Neheim- a large network of partners and developed an action plan Hüsten was known in former times as “the city of lamps.” The for electro-mobility. An innovative charging infrastructure sector currently is gaining new weight because of new lighting system has created 17 charging points on public land. The city technologies and LED. As in other communities, demographic considers expanding renewable energy generation, in particular changes are becoming more pronounced. The loss of population photovoltaics, key to ensuring that electricity at the charging requires that future urban development will need to focus on stations be CO2-neutral. The city council is providing an online developing existing environments. Arnsberg has a city bus system solar potential cadaster of rooftops to help individuals assess the and three train stations that connect it beyond the region. There feasibility of solar energy on their rooftops. The municipal utility are five interstate exits along three major national traffic axes. A evaluates each city-owned property regarding its solar potential. small airport accommodates one- and two-engine planes. The So far, 11 MW of solar energy have been installed. The next phase city offers cultural and tourism activities. In addition to the Ruhr is to combine all renewable energy generation plants across River, the city is shaped by its relatively