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The Finnish Minister of Trade and Development and Finnish Ambassador will visit Minnesota in October and are planning to meet with Governor Walz and other businesses and trade representatives.

Hello! My name is Brooke McKelvey and I am the Marketing and Communications Intern for Clean Energy Economy Minnesota.

Until last year, Minnesota had year-over-year clean-energy job growth since it started being tracked in 2015 by the Clean Jobs Midwest Report. Despite a steep job decline when the pandemic first hit, the sector bounced back in the second half of 2020 with a 10% increase in job growth — twice as fast as overall state job growth. In fact, Duluth is home to 1,632 clean-energy jobs.

We spoke with Nina Axelson, Founder of Grid Catalyst, about her history with Minnesota clean energy, how the idea for Grid Catalyst came about and the need to demonstrate emerging technology for northern climates.

Minnesota’s clean energy workforce is more diverse than the broader state economy. And more jobs are coming in fields like energy production, energy efficiency, electric vehicles, and green construction. But workers of color need more access to training and pathways to higher-paying careers.

The pandemic drove employment in Minnesota’s renewable energy and conservation businesses down 10% to 55,329 last year, disrupting several years of double-digit growth.

Back in the 1990’s all of the solar power installed in Minnesota was known as “off-grid solar,” a thing only interesting to people who owned remote cabins. By necessity, these power systems were self-contained, having energy storage that was optimized for the most run-time that the customer could afford.

Walz said, “By supporting the growth of clean energy jobs, we are not only boosting our economy, but also protecting our environment and Minnesota’s future. This report proves that we can have a clean future while creating jobs at the same time. Minnesota workers have the ingenuity and dedication needed to pioneer the green energy economy and bring us into the future.”

Minnesota lost more than 6,400 sustainable energy jobs in 2020 — a decline of about 10%, according to a report released Wednesday.