Prairie Island and rooftop solar receive boosts from Renewable Development Account

Plans for the Prairie Island Indian Community’ to become a “net zero energy community” will receive a boost thanks to a new law.

Effective July 1, 2020, the law provides $25.8 million in allocations for fiscal year 2021 from the Renewable Development Account.

Sponsored by Rep. Jean Wagenius (DFL-Mpls) and Sen. David Osmek (R-Mound), the law also extends through 2022 an existing Solar Rewards incentive program, administered by Xcel Energy, for owners of small solar systems, funding it at $10 million per year. Other allocations include $2.75 million for a new turbine to expand Granite Falls’ hydroelectric generating facility, and $2 million in grants for communities that will lose an electric generating facility.

The Renewable Development Account was set up in 1994 when investor-owned utility Xcel Energy was given permission to store nuclear waste at its Prairie Island facility, which is adjacent to land owned by the Prairie Island Indian Community. Xcel payments of $500,000 and $350,000 for each storage cask at, respectively, Prairie Island and Monticello nuclear facilities, the fund is earmarked for grants for the development of renewable energy sources in Minnesota.

Plans for Prairie Island to become a “net zero energy community” involve allocations of $46.2 million from the Renewable Development Account (sometimes called the Renewable Development Fund) through fiscal year 2023. The community would become one in which the total amount of energy consumed is not greater than the amount of renewable energy created.

The funding allows the Prairie Island Indian Community to execute a plan under which it would reduce energy consumption, generate energy through a combination of solar and geothermal sources, develop micro grids for storage and distribution of energy, and adopt sustainable building standards.

The $25.8 million in appropriations would leave $55.2 million in the account at the end of fiscal year 2021, assuming no new investment income.

The law also temporarily exempts Xcel Energy from the deadline requiring certain documents pertaining to corporate bond sales to be filed in each county in which the company owns property.

HF1842*/SF2084/CH118

HF1842* / SF2084 / CH118