Dan Juhl

We meet Dan at the site of the county’s very first hybrid wind and solar project, located in the middle of a corn field outside of Pelican Rapids, Minnesota. The Lake Region Community Hybrid consists of a 2.5 megawatt GE wind turbine with 500 kilowatts of solar. The two clean energy sources are combined into a single conversation package inverter on the turbine.

“The object of the exercise here is to be able to provide clean sustainable energy with no fuel, no emissions, no waste, no water, and no transmission costs. That’s the least cost energy for consumers in the long run, and that’s what the hybrid [models] represent. And besides that, we can provide lots of local jobs,” Dan tells us.

Now that the economics of clean energy can rival if not beat that of fossil fuel, Dan tells us it’s, “game over.” It’s quite a change from the beginning of his career when his belief in fighting for the environment kept him going through the hard times.

“I just know that what we do in the renewable energy business is feel-good business, and that always helps with getting through the ups and downs of the daily grind of doing it. And at the end of the day we’re producing clean sustainable energy. That’s good. It makes you feel good,” he tells us.