
School Electrification Spotlight: Minnesota’s Duluth Climate Club
By: Annabelle Hui
Minnesota’s Duluth Climate Club has been working on solar panel installation at their school for over 7 years. Recently, as part of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby National Youth Action Team’s Great School Electrification Challenge, their team of under 18 youth was able to secure an impressive $500, 000 grant for solar panels in their school district by working with members of their school district and lobbying local political leaders. Read their story below.
Minnesota’s Duluth Climate Club, one of the teams participating in NYAT’s Great School Electrification Challenge
CITIZENS’ CLIMATE LOBBY NATIONAL YOUTH ACTION TEAM: I heard that you have been working on school electrification for over 7 years! What evoked your passion for electrification?
KATE YAPEL: When I was in 6th grade we did this unit on renewable energy and how non-renewables are really detrimental to the planet. One of our assignments was to create a stop motion video on an energy alternative. Solar was the topic I selected. It was entered into a video competition through Climate Smart Municipalities and reviewing the material and other student’s projects got me really interested in sustainability. My teacher and one other student, Leila Hoeschen-Enbright, helped me to start a club, which attracted lots of members and this is where we started this solar project proposal.
CCL NYAT: Have you always been passionate about climate change? Was there anyone in particular that inspired you?
KATE YAPEL: In 6th grade I was given Greta Thunberg’s book No One is Too Small to Make a Difference by my friend Tuuli. I remember reading it and just being so shocked by the jarring statistics of the current and predicted state of the climate. Her repeated message that anyone can make a difference really helped me get past the overwhelming nature of dealing/thinking about climate change. Her book really inspired me to make changes in my life, and eventually helped me bring a group of students together to create some environmental change in our school district.
CCL NYAT: How did you form a team to work with you? Is there anyone you would want to shout out that helped you along the way?
KY: This project has been very long term, so people have come and gone quite a bit. This past year I’ve gotten to work with some of the most kind and hard working people I have ever met. Zoe and Mauren Pierson and Amelia Gilbert are the reason this project got done. Last year I was working on this alone and I coincidentally was in the room where they were holding a climate action meeting. I joined them and told them about the opportunity to try one more time for the Solar for Schools Grant and they started working right away. I love them all so much and I’m so lucky that we have gotten to become really good friends through this. I also would like to say thank you to our advisors Ms. Jackson and Ms. Nachbar because they are some of the most supportive mentors ever. They have sacrificed so much of their time to help us, and I am very grateful for that. Finally, Louise Curnow: she inspired me to give the project one more shot. Her insight has been such a huge help in getting the project as far as it has come.
CCL NYAT: Can you give us a brief overview of the process of getting your grant?
KY: This project started back in 2018. Our group first proposed a very small array that could help offset the lighting in our middle school, Ordean East. We met a few times with our district leaders, but the project wasn’t financially feasible for the district. In 2020, we began lobbying the state legislature about passing the Solar for Schools Grant. We spoke at hearings and met one on one with state officials. They chose to back the grant and so far just over 100 schools in MN have taken advantage of the grant and other states have modeled legislation based on the Solar for Schools Grant.
During my ninth grade year, the group presented again to the school board and told them about this new resource. They were still very hesitant, however, because the grant would only cover 50% of the project, and that still wouldn’t be enough financial support. In these past two years, the group’s motivation fizzled out, and the members shrank just down to myself, Kate Schiller, my sister Maddie, and Leila. We primarily focused on congratulating and educating other groups about sustainable practices, but most of our work on the solar project felt hopeless. Just last year, Louise Curnow, a local climate activist, reached out to me and she started to help me with pushing the project again. I got connected with the new school group and Paul Lindstrom from Clean Energy Resource Teams who helped with finding funding opportunities for our district.
We gave our presentation to the Duluth School Board on June 18th, 2024. The room was filled with supporters from other schools, local colleges, the Institute on the Environment, Sierra Club, Minnesota Power, Citizens’ Climate Lobby, teachers from our school, and community members. This strong community around climate action in Duluth I think is what pushed the board and admin to apply for the pre-application stage of the grant.
Then, on October 1st, we were notified that the district had received the grant. I cried, everyone I told cried. I think that this project is a big win for the district because it shows students that their district leaders care about their future, and I know a lot of students feel the same way.
The next step is to get the district to fill out the grant application for the matching funds. I believe that Investing in a project like this is investing in things like equity, education, and sustainability. I really hope the district will follow through, knowing that there is a community of support behind this project.
CCL NYAT: How did you determine how much you wanted for your grant (500k)? Was that always your goal?
KY: The maximum amount for the grant is 500k. When a district applies, they don’t really know how much they will get, so it was amazing when we found out the isd709 had received the maximum amount. The catch with the grant is that the district will have to commit an additional 500k to receive the funding from the state. However, the Biden administration passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which will grant our district tax credits that will cover at least 400k of the project, which is amazing. This means that if the district invests in the project, which will save 52k a year, the district will have the project paid off in less than 2 years.
CCL NYAT: What were some major setbacks you faced when trying to get your grant?
KY: Most of the setbacks were just financial feasibility and whether or not the optics of a project like this would look good in a district facing major budget cuts.
CCL NYAT: Do you have any tips or advice for someone who would be interested in doing something similar (lobbying and working with school district leaders)? Anything you wish you knew before starting?
KY: I think finding friends to do it with is my number one tip. Having a support group and people you can lean on is really important if you are invested in a climate related topic. I know that I experience a lot of anxiety in regard to climate change, so having good friends to work with always helps to bring levity when doing activist work.
Also, Email, email, email! I can’t stress this one enough. Email anyone you think might be able to help you. It is important to build a community. When contacting leaders, if they don’t answer, keep on emailing, just remember to be respectful. It can also be helpful to meet repeatedly with stakeholders. Show people you know what you’re talking about. Do your research. In the beginning, when I didn’t know as much, it was really easy for district leaders to just pass this project up as a cute little presentation. Show people that you are serious.
Minnesota’s Duluth Climate Club leads a peaceful protest to vote for climate policies.
CCL NYAT: What was the most valuable thing you learned during this process?
KY: The most valuable thing that I have learned from working on this project is resilience. Not giving up has been really hard, but putting in all this work has been so beneficial because I’ve gotten to be part of such an amazing community. This project has brought me hope that there are people out there who really care about the planet and want to do their part in helping make it a better place for everyone on it.
Annabelle Hui is a member of the Communications Team on Citizens’ Climate Lobby’s National Youth Action Team (NYAT). As a student based in New York City, her passion for climate change was evoked by a debate she argued for as a sixth grader in a local debate league — should larger nations send climate reparations to their smaller, growing counterparts? As she learned more about climate change and its impact on the environment and people, she became eager to make a change. At CCL NYAT, she found an opportunity to combine her skills of design, research, and writing to spread awareness about this essential issue.