CENTER FOR ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT

ENERGY CONSERVATION SERVICES: CEE delivers programs throughout the upper Midwest and other cold-climate U.S. regions. CEE's programs reduce energy use, improve safety, and lower utility costs in Minnesota's homes, businesses, and communities. With competitive funding from government grants, utilities, philanthropy, and program partners, every year CEE supports improvement opportunities in more than 10,000 homes and businesses. We prioritize reducing the costs of energy services and maximizing bill savings for all Minnesotans. In residential programming, CEE delivers the utility-funded Home Energy Squad, pairing energy-saving installations with energy assessments to improve home comfort and savings. In 2025, CEE completed over 7,200 visits and helped save energy amounting to about 3 gigawatt hours and 29,000 decatherms. And 1,498 residents used the free Energy Advisor Service to complete energy efficiency projects and earn 1,767 rebates. Also in residential programming, CEE's utility-supported Multifamily Energy Solutions program has served over 14,000 multifamily units, resulting in annual average savings of $27 per unit on natural gas bills and an additional $11 per unit on electricity. In 2025, over 50 Rochester households attended Neighbor Energy Challenge workshops and CEE staff delivered over 480 energy saving kits to residents in Duluth, Eagan, Rochester, and Worthington. Separately in 2025, CEE's Authorized Insulation Contractor Program completed 26 onsite quality assurance inspections and 8 remote quality assurance inspections, onboarded 7 new contractors, and certified 18 new crew leaders. Another residential program, CEE's New Homes Single-family and Multifamily Rater Services, performed a variety of energy consulting and ratings for 302 homes and 95 builders; for multifamily developers, the program worked on 19 buildings with 9 builders and 11 developers covering over 500 apartment units. Among CEE's services for businesses, One-Stop Efficiency Shop offers a full-service rebate program for small- to mid-size businesses in Xcel Energy's Minnesota services territory, with a focus on lighting, free smart thermostat installations, rooftop unit improvements, and refrigeration. In 2025, One-Stop completed 1,843 projects including 696 smart thermostat installations, leading to the conservation of 13 megawatts and 59.3 gigawatt hours of energy, as well as $11 million in disbursed rebates and $6 million in annual savings for local businesses. Programming for communities relies on local insights and data to tailor planning to each community's unique goals. In 2025, CEE implemented the utility-funded Partners in Energy program for 22 cities, providing services to develop and implement energy action plans. CEE also offers consulting to help communities reach their goals with support for project financing, policy and technical advising, stakeholder engagement, energy benchmarking, resilience planning, and more. In 2025, CEE became the technical assistance provider for Minnesota's federally funded, low-income Weatherization Assistance Program. Our support for underserved communities also includes energy-rating and quality assurance for affordable housing, disadvantaged communities, as well as workforce training. CEE offers utility-supported paid training to join the clean energy sector as energy auditors, insulation installers, line workers, and contractors. In 2025, CEE trained more than 125 people for energy-sector careers. In 2025, we added 10 new contractors as employer hosts for 14-week long internships. Separately, CEE also delivers Minnesota Home Energy Training, a state-funded program that similarly recruits, trains, and supports energy efficiency careers.

MARKET TRANSFORMATION: CEE was previously selected through a rigorous application process to deliver Minnesota's Efficient Technology Accelerator (ETA), a statewide market transformation program to accelerate deployment and reduce the cost of promising new technologies, bringing lower energy bills and environmental benefits to all Minnesotans. Starting at an early stage of development, ETA's work is closely monitored by Minnesota's Department of Commerce, funding utilities, and other key stakeholders. In 2025, CEE's ETA program used multiple approaches to promote heat pumps, a well-vetted technology to decarbonize heating in single-family homes. CEE's efforts have helped ducted heat pumps to jump from just 4% of the HVAC cooling market in 2020 to 17% by 2025. To support the growth, CEE trained 270 HVAC contractors to properly install and effectively sell heat pumps. Our preferred contractor list expanded to 73 contractors to help Minnesotans save money and cut carbon emissions. ETA also helped dramatically advance Minnesota's residential energy code. A state advisory committee adopted all of CEE's 17 sponsored amendments to the recent residential energy building code. The resulting code will reduce energy use by 21 percent and generate 30-year net savings of $37,200 to Minnesota homeowners. In the filing year, ETA reached a major milestone, for the first time reporting statewide energy savings, cost-effectiveness, and emissions reductions related to residential heat pumps, high-performance windows in new construction, and LLLC lighting controls. Early evidence of market shifts and reduced barriers include increased product availability, improved contractor familiarity, and notable upticks in adoption of ETA's promoted technologies.