A Minnesota delegation including Lt. Gov. Yvonne Prettner Solon heads to Germany on Saturday for a week-long study of renewable energy ideas.
She and other Minnesotans from government, the energy industry, renewable energy non-profits and higher education will meet in Berlin with German renewable-energy experts and policymakers to exchange ideas and best practices.
The trip is sponsored by the University of Minnesota’s Center for German & European Studies.
According to the governor’s office, the others in the traveling delegation are:
- Bob Ambrose, Director of Governmental Affairs for Great River Energy
- State Senator Terri Bonoff , MN Senate
- Dr. Sabine Engel, Center for German and European Studies (U of M)
- State Representative Pat Garofalo, MN House
- Lewis E. Gilbert, Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota
- Margaret Hodnik, Minnesota Power
- State Representative Frank Hornstein, MN House
- State Representative Melissa Hortman, MN House
- Steve Kelley
- Commissioner Nancy Lange, Public Utilities Commission
- Frances Lawrenz, Associate Vice President for Research at the University of Minnesota
- State Senator John Marty, MN Senate
- Georg Maue, First Secretary for Climate and Energy at the German Embassy
- Rolf Nordstrom, Executive Director of the Great Plains Institute
- State Senator David Senjem, MN Senate
- Commissioner Tony Sertich, Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board
- Kenneth W. Smith, CEO of District Energy St. Paul
- State Senator LeRoy Stumpf, MN Senate
Prettner Solon has been living out of a suitcase recently; this week she was in Oklahoma City for a national lieutenant governor’s conference.
Gov. Mark Dayton led a different delegation to Germany in mid-June, taking 35 business executives, government officials and higher-education leaders (and his two restaurateur sons) on a nine-day trade trade mission that also included stops in Sweden and Norway.
