EGN NEWS DESK
One of the biggest photo voltaic tasks within the nation is shifting nearer to completion, and it’s not in a famously sunny state like California, Texas, and even Florida. It’s in Minnesota, on former potato farms close to the location of a retiring coal plant.
The Sherco photo voltaic and energy-storage facility would be the largest photo voltaic undertaking within the Upper Midwest, and the fifth-largest within the U.S. by the point it’s absolutely accomplished in 2026. The first part of the undertaking ought to start sending emissions-free electrical energy to the grid this fall, heralding the beginning of a new period in a state whose largest photo voltaic undertaking till now has been simply 100 megawatts. This new undertaking could have a capability of 710 megawatts. It’s being constructed by utility Xcel Energy, which can even function the power as soon as it’s on-line.
The undertaking is poised to ship on the numerous guarantees of renewable vitality: It will partially change the close by coal plant set to retire over the approaching years, tackle the variability of solar energy by pairing it with long-duration storage, and supply good-paying union jobs in a neighborhood that’s shedding a key employer within the coal facility.
The mammoth photo voltaic set up, which can cowl about 4,500 acres throughout three websites, will probably be one of many first large-scale tasks to make use of a long-duration iron-air battery from Form Energy.
The photo voltaic undertaking and Form battery will make use of the coal plant’s current grid interconnection. One unit of the retiring coal plant can even home a synchronous condenser to assist present secure and powerful electrical energy from renewable vitality.
The sheer measurement of this undertaking — and its transformation of a coal-burning energy plant right into a clear, emissions-free facility — places the city of Becker and the Sherco web site solidly on the middle of Minnesota’s vitality transition. Xcel, which led the way in which amongst utilities by pledging in 2018 to chop its emissions 80 % by 2030, plans to retire its total coal generator fleet by the tip of the last decade. It additionally plans to triple solar energy capability on its Upper Midwest grid by 2028.
Minnesota Senator Tina Smith (D) credit the Inflation Reduction Act with laying the groundwork for the photo voltaic undertaking. It’s “the right instance of how this historic laws is paving the way in which to a clear vitality future. It’s offering focused funding to repurpose current vitality infrastructure, like Sherco’s previous coal plant, with clear vitality,” she stated final 12 months when Xcel broke floor.
The undertaking comes because the state appears to chop its emissions 50 % by 2030, in comparison with 2005 ranges — and because it seeks to remove power-sector emissions altogether by 2040, consistent with a legislation handed final 12 months.
From coal to clear
The Sherco coal generator advanced has been the biggest energy plant in Minnesota, with a whole capability of 2,238 megawatts. It’s one of many largest employers and sources of tax income in Sherburne County. It’s additionally by far the most important single supply of greenhouse gasoline emissions within the state.
