rogers i apologize for the weather if i hadn't known that the dedication and ribbon cutting for our solar event would bring rain i would have done this a couple months earlier they're all yours you thank you all for taking time out of your day to come today we are very excited in maplewood we are excited about our solar rays we are also excited contrary to what restaurant and says that it's snowing any formal moisture is good at this point and so we also know that even though the weather is inclement that our solar rays are still generating electricity and so  one of the things that we hope to gather data on in the process and i want to make it clear we went into this as a city as a demonstration project in so we it's not like we figured we're going to put up these solar arrays and we're going to be no longer needing to buy any electricity off the grid but we wanted to be able to experience the process and then be able to gather data in so that other people then could learn from what we've done and hopefully in some areas the process can be improved i can tell you that all the way along particularly for the novice it's an extremely complicated process we had some council meetings where our staff was doing their best to tell us how this was all going to work but quite frankly they weren't completely sure either but it all came down eventually as far as the city's approval to the fact that the way it's set up in the long run the city will not have any capital expense and alternately the way it's set up we would presumably end up owning the arrays and being then the into t that w garner the free electricity basically and so i won't attempt to explain how it all works we do have some people here from our partners in the process who will tell us a little bit more because they're experts in the field and can do a much better job of that than i i did want to make sure when we're talking about the council here in maplewood that i recognize that we have a pretty strong represent taishan of arc our consulate here we have a cardinal here somewhere bob's over there and then we have kathy gentleman sitting over here and that is actually currently three quarters of our council because right now for just a couple of weeks we only have four members we had one member who left and we have an election coming up and so will have a new one and so all of the members of the council are have been very supportive of this process and look forward to continuing forward in us being able to help others out our partners along the way just to mention briefly in there were several and many the main entity involved in this process actually is energy alternative solar that's an l l c and they really become currently the owner of the system and they lease it to the city of maplewood and that happens for about six years and then the design and installation contractor is energy alternatives just the normal company they had a electrical sub contractor helping them out which was a the electric and then we also had several different grants and forms of financing for the project the overall project cost six hundred twenty five thousand dollars we had a state grant from their apartment of commerce which was one hundred thousand dollars we had a made in minnesota incentive grant which was around one hundred sixty thousand dollars we had a reward of solar energy grants from xcel which was just under one hundred eighty thousand dollars and then there's a federal income tax credit which is just under one hundred ninety thousand dollars in seoul also the financing of the project was a complicated process trying to get everyone on board figure out where we could get money from how we could use  t one of the things that i mentioned in that process was the mobile initiative the money that we got it made in minnesota incentives in so that's because we had three  m involved in the process and they manufacture their reflective panels that make it so that our solar rays could be stationary and yet it they gather as much sunlight as possible because it's reflected  some additional money to help us move the project along and so now we have very much i think because city of maplewood for this business our investors think you and we're up to i think eighty six employees at this point less than three and a half years into business and we have a significant growth area and it sounds great but it's tough there's a lot of issues along the way these folks were very patient with us we were learning when you're a pioneer your plumbing to ground you could you get a problem on the way so joel can have our c e o was going to be here but he's a busy guy growing this company so i'm going to present his comments that he would have made here today states and i think three foreign countries at this point all the equipment was invented designed and built in minnesota and i think that's quite accomplished we should give ourselves some applause  we are competing on a global stage since the entire world recognizes solar energy as a value here in a bit west we have lower rates and so it's not as valuable as in saw the parts of the world but much of the world  solar is already cheaper than the sources of other electricity and solar costs are going down steadily while all other fuel costs are going up there is an important future for the energy picture joel says i noticed two interesting headlines yesterday one noted that the u s would suppress saudi arabia next year is the world's largest oil producer the grandkids because the us didn't produce a lot of oil and fossil fuels to the hard work and investment of lots of people but if we only chose those resources and spend them for listening while the middle east works to be boiled independent then sooner than later us will face that oil prices like we can even imagine today by developing renewable energy imbalance with other fossil fuels we we've mentioned a couple of different times and it's a name that comes up a lot in maplewood in that is three m corporation they are our biggest employer biggest economic force  an area that we're in a very solid part of the city that we're looking at setting side seventy acres of centrally wilderness five miles from downtown and so they're helping us with that and in many other ways and so very proud to so i'm part of a renewable energy division and three hour mr mayor you said that this is an experiment on the rooftop here and over at city hall you know we're bunch of scientists we do experiments to so a few years ago we had a hypothesis like a bunch of scientists do and our hypothesis is that we provided a laser focus on the renewable energy industry with our capabilities and our technologies we could have a meaningful reduction in the cost per kilowatt hour of energy generated from renewable sources that's a half offices and we went about that we partnered with people like ten k solar was a partner with innovative companies that can apply or technology to do that to reduce the cost of renewable energy and i'm glad to say that we're getting there we're getting there the product that we're talking about here happens to be a multi year optical film similar  windows and what it's doing it's balancing part of the sunlight towards the solar panel to concentrate the light on the panel but it's not balancing the light the panel can't use that only heats up the panel it's lighting that go through or so or thing we do our windows so you want the light to come in that you see but don't want the infrared that heats up your room that's going to cause you to use your air conditioner more so that's the technology so this hypothesis is coming through coming true and it's because of companies like ten k they have a truly innovative design we talked about was the three m technologies three m technology we help but there panel itself is a great panel it is the only panel in the world that can leverage this technology does it well so you purchased a good system i'm glad you did it and the best part about this it's minnesota grown i big big big industries and the people that have innovations and technologies that can grow these industries are going to do very very well and some of that's coming right here from minnesota not only three hundred ten k university in minnesota and others so we should be very proud of what our state is doing in this area so thank you for having me today don't think in our case it's really going to happen very much because the building is drawing more energy than we're generating off the rooftops and off the ground this way but it's all set up that way to course this way almost all installations are in so  they are a critical partner in this type of process and so that tells a little bit more about that we have a and building accounts that are happening in your community jennifer and i are really excited to get the invitation to attend today's event congratulations to the community of maplewood and its leadership team for completing  this project xcel energy supported by the solar project through our solar rewards program and as a result of that and the minnesota bonus program rebates were given to the city of maplewood in the amount of three hundred thirty five thousand dollars at xcel energy where sort of driven by our mission statement which says we will be responsibly by this project is a prime example of how the of the leadership team here and all of the other project partners work together to be responsible thank you thank you but so thank you to all of the city employees who helped out in that they collect off their panels are going to redistribute it back to district energy which is going to how the business district in st paul even more successful and so this is about public in private partnership and the government can't do it alone and part of our our our role as elected officials is creating a catalyst for when we end so we have ten k solar who's been able to you know work in employ more people and make the united states a leader in clean energy three am you know always on the cutting edge of innovation and how do we move forward to make life  rather you know their contribution to this everybody who had a hand in this congratulations and there are so many more that we can talk about so i just want to congratulate xcel energy who's also been a collaboration it's good was a time in which energy companies didn't look for collaboration they had their turf they protected that was it x l has been on so many fronts out there working in ways to make america minnesota more energy independent and deliver value to their customers so we're really fortunate to have excel  as is our energy company and i say this with great sincerity i serve on the interior environment committee and when people were trying to roll back standards for some of our power plants we called excel and said look you know i want to take a look at the slanguage and you're doing great things and you know what do you think and excel said we can live up to a standard of providing clean air for our children to read and so they really are i just want to just take a second and say this investing in buildings full we're using energy we're going to do it in a way that's good for not only the environment but what's good for taxpayers so we've the project that we have today a pioneer project which will lead the way for you to become more innovative but also other municipalities all around is a growing as bob pointed out other municipalities looking at here are going to be a leader you're going to be in a history book that you were willing to step out so you heard a little bit about how the money was put together  and i just want to take a second to talk about the recovery act you know the recovery act you hear maligned a lot and the goal of the recovery act is this project the goal of the recovery act multiple facets to it and one we went to looking at how to put people back to work how to keep families in their homes how to keep businesses employing people and how do we develop world class energy sector that's what the recovery act a portion of it was directed to and it's been very very successful in doing that ten k had people who were three who has seen or had their scientists  amazing a lot of people in minnesota were working because of this and a lot of technology and a lot of things going on in the universities and collaboration's is going to give us a leading edge so let me just reiterate that these panels accumulatively and the knowledge in the pioneer in that neighborhood is doing is helping our country become more energy independent and yes we have oil and fossil fuels and they're going to be part of the mix but generations from now they will look at us and they will say you did not squander those resources they were part of the mix you did not squander them you invested in us and you invested in our future and so i'm very proud that the recovery act when governor plenty took a look at it he didn't say no to innovation he didn't say no to jobs he didn't say no to energy independence and i think it's important to realize that when we work together we can accomplish great things so the public sector and the private sector in the end when the political part of this gets taken out and you take the politics out and you say we're part of team america we're part of the team able what we can do amazing things so i'm here because these dollars are well used to well spent and i think future generations will look at the leadership in one and i'll speak nor simples winter and just for a second and look at the east matter and say you know what we have companies and we have political leaders that put america and its citizens first second rationalisations so i was looking on the audience i want to make sure that i pointed out and there's been several people have talked about the public private partnership involved in this process which is really important as we kind of came into the recession and everybody talked about you know the new normal you know how important it is for governments to reach out and find partners in the private sector and so just to kind of emphasize that today we have matt kramer in the delegation of people from the st paul chamber who are here because i know from the literature i read from them whatnot that this type of activity is important to them and that that's something that they like to see happen and so to shoulder their commitment to that  they've they've come here in force today to be present to make sure that we're aware that they're watching it they're paying attention and so thank you for your commitment to the process and make the government better  you so i have mentioned that i've become very fond of my congresswoman but unfortunately she does not get the label i've already given all the labor all of my favorite elected officials in that goes to victoria around and so she is our ramsey county commissioner that represents us and she is a tireless worker for her constituents and so the reason that i given her that label is that she's always there when we need or in she makes herself available so that she can help us in different projects in so you know there's no to where she is it's almost like i see her every day sometimes  because there's a lot of things going on i'm a board and she's there supporting us so victoria  thank you while i am really pleased to be here today and to be part of the celebration many of you know that i worked in the environmental field for many years so i'm going to these different events for solar and apollo mentioned the law enforcement center where forty percent of the heat of the water the heated water at that law enforcement center is going to be heated by solar energy there and there have been this is the third as i know same paul has done a number of things and probably the first one that i went to is actually in the xcel center and that was in conjunction with district energy as well but this fire as a suburban city really trying to hit the ground running the maplewood has always been a pioneer and so i'm really pleased to be here today i can also tell you that this morning another hour of funded project i was at the roosevelt library because the first ramsey county installed electric car charging station was installed this morning or it was i'm sol this morning it was grand opening this morning and we will have four additional charging stations in ramsey county one at the maple library to the union depot and i try to remember where the last one is but those will all be in operation within a year and that was partially our funds as well i did point out that and i think it's about investing in the future for our children and for future generations but it's not just a cliche that's what mabel which is doing here that's what this means is for future generations and that mix of what we need to do i also want to congratulate would again we've heard a lot about their pioneering in the environmental field all the way from going way back and i don't even know how many years ago it was but quite a few years ago at least fifteen if not more they decided to experiment with rainwater gardens for for helping with storm water and i was just a few weeks ago at maplewood mall and because of that leadership in maplewood actually people came from across the country to see what made it was dealing with storm water and dealing with that in the environment field made with law and install of this bass a system for rainwater and really what it's going to has always been right up front and said we're going to do this and we're going to figure out a way to do it and also have that commitment to minnesota grow and try to make sure that we work with our partners private sector public sector nonprofit  businesses and trying to grow businesses as well and of course always always appreciated three and xcel energy in the work that you do in really being the base for allowing this to happen so a lot of looks like we've gotten down to the most important part of the afternoon and that would be to cut a big riven with some drawing scissors so i don't know if you know it at the st paul chamber is like the the perch persons who have giant brilliance in the research and so i would like to get all of the people up here that i think i'd say the more people up here the better that we can get the scene with the ribbon cutting