On October 27, more than 45 people gathered at Great River Energy in Maple Grove to learn about financing and investment opportunities for renewable energy at the Minnesota Renewable Energy Roundtable. Since its inception, the Roundtable has connected more than 500 individuals from nearly 200 different organizations committed to strengthening Minnesota’s renewable energy industry.
Morning panels focused on renewable energy finance and investment in Minnesota and the Midwest. Panelists include Xcel Energy, Minnesota Energy Center, Clean Energy Resource Teams, Minnesota Department of Agriculture, Great Plains Institute, Nelson Engineering of South Dakota, Iowa Energy Center.
An additional panel on venture capital opportunities featured panelists from Gopher Angels of Minnesota and The Yield Lab of Missouri. Over lunch, keynote speaker Jerry Steiner, CEO of Arvegenix of St. Louis, Missouri shared the journey of how the company began growing pennycress, a cover crop and how to be successful by having a disruptive idea, bringing together the right people, getting early local capital and the need for policy.
The event concluded with federal finance and investment opportunities including Minnesota Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, the Rural Energy for America Program through the United States Department of Agriculture and U.S. Senator Al Franken’s Agriculture, Energy and Environment Field Representative.
The full agenda and presentations can be found online at auri.org.
