If you’re on the hunt for “energy vampires,” it might be helpful for you to start by clarifying a few terms. You may hear or see terms such as baseload consumption, home idle loads, phantom loads or parasitic loads to describe how these devices consume energy, even when not in use, and contribute to your electrical bill.

As energy consumers turn to clean, affordable solar power, St. Paul-based solar installers with six-state reach raise hiring and installation targets for upcoming year

Office with green roof adds solar panels estimated to provide 80 percent of annual kWh energy offset

Sixty-five square miles of Twin Cities-area water resources are monitored and protected by the Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed District (RWMWD). The agency ensures that water making its way to the Mississippi River from wetlands, streams, and lakes in its jurisdiction arrives as clean as possible—and now the RWMWD is trying to help keep the skies pollution-free as well. Its district office building along Gervais Creek in Little Canada is going solar with a system from local, St. Paul-based All Energy Solar that will offset an estimated 80 percent of the building’s annual unit energy costs.

Paying the electric bill is something that most of us have to do and never expect to pay it off. But Elizabeth takes us to Apple Valley to meet a family that’s powering their house with the sun and expects to not only eliminate their electric bill but actually get paid by the electric company instead.