President Chuck Whitaker rang the bell to bring the meeting to order at 12:15 p.m. on a cool, partly cloudy fall day in downtown Saint Paul. Past President and past District Governor Joe Kovarik led the assembled Rotarians in singing America! accompanied by Doug Hartford on the piano. Michael-jon Pease provided today's Inspirational Minute centered on children and the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Past President Carla Hauge facilitated the introduction of visiting Rotarians and guests. Today's greeter was Jason Bradshaw.

President Chuck announced that there would be no Tuesday meetings on Nov. 22 and Nov. 29. Jay Pfaender was asked to preview the next Tuesday luncheon meeting on December 6th when the speaker will be Tom Werner. The topic will be "Sense in Politics in Minnesota" including a synopsis of health reform, MNSure and special commemoration of the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Tuesday's meeting also featured a new member introduction by Mindee Kastelic. Lindsay Weier of the Minnesota Wild was introduced to Club 10. Please make her acquaintance at an upcoming meeting if you have not done so already. Kristin Montpetit promoted the Holiday Party on Thursday, December 8th from 6:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. ($60 per ticket) at the University Club. Donation items for the Silent Auction are needed with the need for quality items stressed. Please RSVP soon.

Past President Dan McKeown promoted "Rotary Club of St. Paul Foundation Month" including a slide presentation! He distinguished the two foundations: (1) Global - the Rotary International Foundation and (2) the Rotary Club of St. Paul Foundation. The Club 10 Foundation exists to support the programs and service activities of the Saint Paul Club. Most of the Club fund-raising occurs between now (November) and the end of the calendar year. Dan asked: "Why do we do this?" Answer: "We are Rotarians: we think about our community and we think about our world." He encouraged all to consider their giving activities and to place the Foundation as a high priority. Carla collected Happy Dollars. November Rotarian birthdays were celebrated with the traditional cupcakes.

Jay returned to the podium to introduce today's speaker, our own Rotarian Anders Rydaker of Ever-Green (District) Energy in downtown Saint Paul. Anders and his family will soon be returning permanently to his native Sweden after living here for thirty-two years. His daughters are now living in Sweden and raising families there so the reunion will be welcome in retirement. Anders presented "A Saint Paul Energy Story District Energy - 33 Years of Alternative Energy Services." The rough timeline of development of progress in district energy management has been - 1983: focus on district heating; 1993: focus on district cooling; 2011: solar thermal integration. District energy is community scale heating and cooling. It consists of an underground network of pipes serving the aggregate heating and cooling needs in downtown. There are fifty-three miles of pipes. It is based in the old Northern States Power plant next to the Science Museum that was built in 1906. The plant has been expanded over the years. It was abandoned by NSP when larger plants were built in rural areas.

Anders spoke of how he first came to Saint Paul. While researching European facilities, Hans Nieman and other leaders in the energy industry from Saint Paul asked Anders to come over to help for one year as a consultant. Eventually that became six years. After the six-year stint here, Anders took what he learned about district cooling to Sweden. He was able to implement a system in Stockholm within six months of returning to Sweden. It utilized cold water from lakes in Sweden for the district cooling system. In 2003, Anders received Sweden's "District Energy Prize."

Anders came back to Minnesota in the 1990's. Due to the second worldwide oil crisis, Saint Paul city leaders again researched alternatives in Europe. They visited Uppsala, Sweden, where 90% of the city was connected to a district energy concept. Uppsala was ahead of many others in energy storage and conservation. Mayor George Latimer was very interested in bringing a similar concept to Saint Paul. A private, non-profit community utility was established to produce district energy. Anders was asked to come back and work with this community utility. This is the point at which he transformed the old coal-fired NSP plant to a renewable energy plant.

In 2010, Ken Smith became the head of District Energy. Anders has remained as an internal consultant since that time. He has continued to spread the word around the United States about district energy. Anders ended his presentation with a recitation of many of the impressive statistics regarding the energy savings achieved through district energy: it now produces thirty-three (33) megawatts of electrical capacity; reduces over 100,000 tons of CO₂ annually; and, processes one million cubic yards of waste wood into biofuel each year. The future is an integrated energy system featuring wind, solar and biogas.

President Chuck thanked Anders for his presentation and presented him with a Club 10 recognition certificate and noted that a donation would be made in his name to the Saint Paul Public Library's "Reading Together" program. He also presented Anders with a Rotary coin inscribed with the Rotary "Four-Way Test." President Chuck then rang the bell to close the meeting at 1:17 p.m.

Chuck Standfuss, Scribe