Happy Monday and welcome to the first day of National Clean Energy Week. The governors of Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin are among those recognizing National Clean Energy Week, along with numerous participating Midwest organizations and businesses. Registration is still open for virtual programming that will continue throughout the week with input from Midwest entrepreneurs and thought leaders. Topics include agriculture, climate, renewables, transportation, technology commercialization, and technology applications.

Today’s headlines:

🌞 SOLAR: A University of Colorado Denver researcher who studied nearly 500 public U.S. airports found that 20% of them had added solar panel technologies over the last decade, including Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

🚜 AGRICULTURE:

• Up to one-third of the nitrogen runoff from Midwest farms that makes its way into the Mississippi River basin annually comes from heavy rainfall events that occur only a few days each year, according to a study from Iowa State University that used innovative computer modeling techniques.
• Faribault, Minnesota-based aeroponics farming technology business Living Greens Farm plans to expand nationwide by the end of this year or the beginning of next year, reports AberdeenNews.com. The company says its technology allows indoor growing using 95% less water, 98% less land, and no pesticides.

🗑️ WASTE: GEM-Ash in Rosemount, Minnesota, is using reconfigured existing technology to remove precious metals from a Twin Cities area waste-to-energy facility without the use of polluting chemicals, reports the Star Tribune.

🔋 BATTERIES: Battery technology has had difficulty scaling with electronics’ advances and progress is slower than other technological advancements, reports Semiconductor Engineering. An Argonne National Laboratory scientist discusses the challenges of creating solid-state lithium-ion batteries.

🏭 NET-ZERO: The Prairie Island Indian Community in Minnesota issued a request for proposals for a $46 million project to create an energy system for the tribe that results in net-zero emissions, making it the first net-zero community in the state. The system should reduce energy consumption, incorporate solar and geothermal energy, and develop microgrids for energy distribution and storage.

🏃 ACCELERATOR: Applications are due tomorrow, September 22, for the Mid-West Energy Research Consortium’s WERCBench Labs Accelerator. The program for startups in the energy, power, and controls sectors provides up to $40,000 and lab space and equipment for product testing.