Solar gardens are sprouting in Minnesota.
These innovative solar power projects allow electric
customers to invest in a large array off their property and own a share of the
output, which gets credited to their monthly bills.
The first
solar garden, a large ground-mounted system, is nearly finished in
Rockford, next to the headquarters of its sponsor, the Wright Hennepin
Cooperative Electric Association, which says it plans to immediately build a
second one.
In Minneapolis,
start-up company MN Community Solar said Thursday that it expects no shortage
of investors for that city’s first planned solar garden atop a business on E.
Lake Street.
“The majority of residential customers and many businesses
don’t have a roof that works for solar energy,” said the company’s CEO Ken
Bradley, a longtime solar energy advocate who helped push adoption of the state’s
new solar law, passed in May by the Minnesota Legislature. “Community solar
gardens allow anyone to participate.”
Dustin Denison, a company principal, said it hopes to begin
construction next year on the planned 40-kilowatt solar array, which is
expected to cost $180,000. It will be built atop Northern Sun Merchandising, a
seller of T-shirts, buttons and other products with progressive political
messages at 2916 E. Lake St.
Denison, who is also a solar installer, said MN Community
Solar is looking to build even-larger solar arrays, and has begun talking to
cities and businesses about potential sites. Some of those arrays could be
1-megawatt systems, or 25 times larger than the one planned on Lake Street,
Denison said.
Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak,
a green energy supporter who came to Lake Street on Thursday for the company
announcement, said the city likely has properties on which community solar
projects could be built.
Meanwhile, the state’s first solar garden neared completion
this week in Rockford, and should be wired into the electric grid and
generating power by the end of the month, said Rod Nikula, vice president of
power supply for the co-op.
“We are moving ahead with the second array on the heels of
the first,” he said Thursday.
That array, which is about half subscribed, also will be
next to the co-op headquarters. Nikula said the utility is looking for sites
for more projects, including land next to substations and commercial rooftops.
Wright Hennepin’s arrays are the same size as the one planned on Lake Street —
enough power to run about 10 homes.
Both the Minneapolis and Rockford projects are using solar
panels manufactured by Bloomington-based
TenKsolar,
which specializes in units for flat surfaces such as rooftops.
The Rockford solar project also has a battery built by Silent
Power of Baxter, Minn. It will store power generated early in the day, and
release it when power demand peaks, which often happens late in the afternoon
as the sun is fading.
If solar gardens gain popularity, they could help
investor-owned utilities like Xcel Energy
meet the recently enacted state mandate to generate 1.5 percent of their power
from the sun by 2020. Utilities have a direct role in solar gardens because
they must meter the electricity and credit the solar output to subscribers’
bills.
“Community solar gardens can offer an opportunity for
customers to participate in solar regardless of whether they own a home or are
well-sited for solar panels on their property,” company spokeswoman Patti
Nystuen said in an e-mail.
Under the state’s new solar law, Xcel must submit details to
state regulators on how solar gardens will work. Nystuen said the utility will
file the plan on Sept. 30. Xcel already has a popular solar garden program in
its Colorado service area.
Some of the details of the Lake Street
project are not firm yet, but CEO Bradley said he expects that a single unit or
“leaf” — roughly the output of half of a large solar panel — will cost $950 or
less. The investment includes a 25-year operating and maintenance contract that
relives subscribers of any upkeep costs.
Denison said the company is working with nonprofits and
other groups whose members could sign up for solar garden units. He said the
financial structure also will include some outside investors who typically
participate because of the tax benefits, mainly the 30 percent investment tax
credit for solar. Subsidies from the utility under the new state solar law also
could benefit the project.
Scott Cramer, owner of Northern Sun Merchandising, where the
first Minneapolis solar garden will be built, said the technology is vastly
improved from the solar panels he installed on the roof 10 years ago, which now
will be taken down. “For any business owner with a flat roof, this is a good
investment,” Cramer said. “I can talk all day about how we are baking our
planet, which we are, but … this makes business sense.”
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