Club Delivers 6,000 Solar Postcards to Minnesota Governor

On March 5, the Sierra Club's North Star Chapter delivered more than 6,000 postcards to Governor Mark Dayton in support of building more solar power and a clean energy economy in Minnesota.

That's North Star Chapter volunteer Stephanie Spitzer, second from left, above, outside the governor's offices. The solar postcard campaign was the first Sierra Club project on which she took a leading role from the get-go. Sierra Club intern Caroline Elling is at left, and Jessica Tatro of the Club's Beyond Coal campaign and chapter staffer Justin Fay are at right.

"It was a real team effort collecting these cards, with over 150 volunteers helping out since 2010," says Club organizer Michelle Rosier, who helped coordinate the delivery.

The Sierra Club is part of the Solar Works for Minnesota coalition, a group of businesses, consumers, labor groups, the solar industry, and clean energy advocates working to establish a Solar Energy Standard, with 10 percent of the state's electricity coming from solar by 2030. The Club is pushing for state agencies to achieve that goal by 2025.

Photo courtesy of Westwood Land and Energy Development Consultants

Above, the 600-kilowatt solar array atop the Minneapolis Convention Center; below, the 400-kilowatt system installed by St. John's University in Collegeville.

Photo courtesy of St. John's University

On the solar postcard campaign, Spitzer collected cards at the Minnesota State Fair, organized data entry parties, and finally delivered the cards to the governor.

"This was the first project I've worked on with the Sierra Club where it felt like I saw the project through its various steps to the final goal of delivering the postcards to the State Capitol," she says. "Being involved with the whole process was a great way to understand the process of grassroots organizing."

Read Spitzer's article for the North Star Blog about the solar postcard campaign, and this article about Minnesota's solar race.