iCEL St. Paul: Green Union Jobs For The Twin Cities

Due to corporate cutbacks and outsourcing, the City of St. Paul Minnesota lost 2,900 manufacturing jobs in December 2008 alone. This disquieting number adds to the more than 75,000 jobs lost over the past year. Fortunately, according to the Minnesota Green Jobs Report, green jobs are expected to grow in Minnesota to 72,467 by 2020. This makes for a phenomenally promising equation. As lost jobs are restored, the greening of an industrial capital will take place, increasing quality of life for St. Paul citizens on numerous levels. iCeL Systems, Inc. is looking forward to being part of Minnesota’s much-needed green job growth with its latest iCeL Energy Lab.

iCeL St. Paul (iSP) is slated to open its doors this fall and sales are already under way with Fortune 500 businesses. iSP will produce and install iCeL energy storage and management systems throughout the State. This will employ electrical workers, administration and sales staff, and other renewable energy companies. iCeL St. Paul plans to create approximately 500 new local jobs over the next several years.

Headed by solar professionals from Minnesota’s Energy Harvest Group, iCeL St. Paul is led by people who understand the renewable energy business inside and out. Having been to every energy storage technology on the market, it was iCeL’s extreme versatility and functionality that captured the attention of Dan Thees, Pete Treacy, and Al Christensen in the fall of 2008.

According to Christensen, iSP’s Executive VP of Government Affairs, “We caught the iCeL bug last October when Chaz Haba sat down with the Mayor of St. Paul…The metro area cities and counties are very interested in using this new technology in numerous applications, some designed as power back up systems at data centers, some combined with renewable for street lighting in city parks, others as auxiliary power to run lights on Metro Transit buses and lastly for peak shaving or load shifting energy management systems used for day to day operations in municipal buildings or to increase efficiencies in low income government housing.”

iCeL St. Paul is extremely fortunate to have the mayor’s office on their side, as Chris Coleman was recently named one of 15 Green Leaning Mayors by Grist Magazine. “To sustain our city in a new century and preserve a bright future for our children, we must act as responsible stewards of our urban environment,” Mayor Coleman strongly states in his vision for a Sustainable St. Paul. Coleman has stewarded numerous green transport initiatives and is committed to working with energy providers to reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

In addition to the Mayor’s blessings, a green tech company in St. Paul must have the endorsement of the city’s unions. iCeL St. Paul is working very closely with IBEW Local 110 and Local 292 to ensure that hundreds of jobs generated through iCeL energy system installations in St. Paul will go to union workers in the IBEW.

When asked what makes iCeL stand out against other energy storage options for renewable installations, Christensen stated passionately, “The iCeL technology is a quantum leap forward from the current mediocrity that exists today. Currently or historically there isn’t much mention of energy storage other than lead acid batteries…With the iCeL Systems technology being scalable and combined with renewables, it brings distributed energy systems into reality, into tangible systems for sustainable communities to be designed.“

Looks like with the Mayor, the IBEW, and advanced green technology on their side, iCeL St. Paul is soon to become an essential part of Sustainable St. Paul.