New solar co-op program launches in northcentral MN as bulwark against energy utilities
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Solar United Neighbors has helped launch nearly 30 solar co-ops throughout Minnesota since 2018. Now, the national nonprofit announced it has extended that, to include the first-ever solar co-op program in northcentral Minnesota.
Named the Field and Forests Solar Co-op, it offers homeowners and small businesses located in Cass, Crow Wing, Morrison, Todd and Wadena counties a way to transition into solar energy use.
One of the benefits of entering into a solar co-op is its group dynamic, which in the end, can lower the brunt of installation costs.
“We find that some folks find it easier to go solar as part of a group, because you can learn from each other, and sort of rely on each other,” Anderson said. “By going through this process, you'll have access to a solar proposal that's customized for your situation from a fully vetted solar installer, that will also be at a pretty competitive rate.”
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The program is free to sign up for, and there’s no financial obligation for anyone to buy anything, or to go through with the process. But Solar United Neighbors will help people navigate the process.
"We put out a competitive bidding process that we oversee, and then we review all the installers to make sure it's a reputable company, there’s no problems, that sort of thing,” said John Anderson, Minnesota program associate for Solar United Neighbors. “Then the actual installer is selected by members of the solar co-op itself.
Locally-based clean energy
The Institute for Local Self-Reliance is an organization that works on a broad variety of issues centered around supporting strong local economies. Its Energy Democracy Initiative explores how communities can build their own green energy infrastructure and ways utility monopolies might be challenging, or blocking those efforts.
“I’m absolutely in support of solar co-ops,” said Katie Kienbaum, a senior researcher with the initiative. “They're a great way to both lower the cost for households, and also just make it easier for them to go solar.”
Kienbaum also noted that co-ops can help strengthen local economies, because the savings get circulated back into them.
She said the locally-based clean energy projects are “often under threat from these big, centralized, monopolized energy utilities that see it as a threat to their bottom line and to their profits.”
Kienbaum said traditional energy utility groups have a lot of political power. She suspects the Trump administration’s early termination of the majority of federal clean energy tax credits, which incentivized going green, might be connected to utility groups’ efforts.
Solar United Neighbors will host four informational sessions for the Field and Forests Solar Co-op, more information can be found online. The deadline to sign up is July 31, with installations expected to begin over the summer.
