Welcome!

C-BED is an organization of farmers and landowners, mainstreet businesses and bankers, wind developers and component fabricators, educators, renewable energy advocates, and other members of our local communities. We share a desire to develop renewable energy resources in a way that optimizes local economic development in the communities in which we live and work.

The mission of C-BED is to foster, promote, and secure, through all appropriate means, the local economic development and environmental benefits attached to renewable energy production facilities that are owned by ordinary members of local communities.

Dollars that are flowing into our local communities through community-based energy development projects:
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Recent News

November 21, 2008

Meting Minnesota's Renewable Energy Standard Using the Existing Transmission System. This report by John Bailey, George Crocker, John Farrell, Michael Michaud and David Morris addresses the recent request by 11 utilities that own transmission lines in Minnesota and the surrounding region (CapX 2020) to build 650 miles of new high voltage transmission lines (mostly in Minnesota) in what is probably the largest, most costly transmission proposal ever in the state.

June 30, 2008

57.27 MW of C-BED projects are completed. As of June 30 2008, Minnesota Utilities reported to the Minnesota Department of Commerce that 57.27 MW of C-BED projects were completed, an additional 57 MW were under contract, and 721 MW were in negotiation.

Nov 16, 2007

Untangling FERC & State Jurisdiction Interconnection Issues and Opportunities for Dispersed Generation (304 KB) - White paper created by Matrix Energy Solutions under contract by C-BED and the North American Water Office that addresses interconnection issues and describes recommendations to allow additional dispersed generation.

Oct 15, 2007

237.2 MW of C-BED projects are under contract. As of October 15, 2007, 237.2 MW of C-BED projects are under contract. This is a 40% increase from January 15, 2007, when 166.85 MW were under contract.

May 25, 2007

Ammendments to Minnesota's C-BED legislation passed. On May 20 2007, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty signed legislation that resulted in broad enhancements to Minnesota's C-BED program.

March 15, 2007

Northern States Power has released a C-BED RFP. The RFP provides information about how to submit proposals. Proposals must be submitted by April 20, 2007.

January 18, 2007

The C-BED Transmission Study Report, undertaken by Minnesota utilities, has been released. The report provides information about how C-BED projects can be interconnected to the transmission system in Minnesota.

June 15, 2006

See a C-BED paper titled Front-Loaded Pricing, which describes how front-loaded pricing leverages net present value to lower the capital requirements for community-based energy development projects.

March 21, 2006

The Province of Ontario announced the implementation of a Standard Offer Contract initiative that allows homeowners, landowners, farmers, co-operatives, schools, First Nations, municipalities and others to install renewable energy projects up to 10 MW in size and sell the power to the grid for a fixed price for 20 years. The Ontario Sustainable Energy Association has created the following documents describing this program: press release, and Q & A.

December 5, 2005

C-BED.org launches an Investor Matching Service that assists investors in directly participating in C-BED projects.

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