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Flint Hills Resources is contemplating the construction of a large on-site solar farm to generate electricity for its sprawling Pine Bend oil refinery in Rosemount.
Flint Hills said Tuesday it is reviewing bids from developers for a plant that would be built just west of the refinery on 200 to 300 acres of farmland owned by the company. Flint Hills, an arm of Wichita, Kan.-based Koch Industries, will decide on whether to proceed by midyear. There is not really any project like this in Minnesota, said Jake Reint, spokesman for Flint Hills.
Indeed, the Flint Hills solar farm would stand out nationally, and it would be the latest effort by the refinery to significantly cut its power bill with self-generated electricity.
State regulators fine Xcel Energy $1M over dispute with solar developers All Energy Solar filed complaints over delays connecting smaller projects to the electricity grid. January 21, 2021 7:10pm Text size Copy shortlink:
Minnesota utility regulators Thursday slapped Xcel Energy with a rare $1 million fine for a bevy of complaints over delays in connecting solar projects to the electricity grid.
Almost all of the roughly 120 complaints were filed by St. Paul-based All Energy Solar in 2019. A solar trade group said All Energy s grievances reflect longstanding and costly interconnection problems with Xcel for the entire industry.
Minneapolis-based Xcel, the state s largest electric utility, has acknowledged shortcomings. But it argues that the big batch of complaints should be rolled into one.
Minnesota s solar trade tested, but not bowed, by 2020 January 15, 2021 9:53am Text size Copy shortlink:
Michael Allen, co-founder of All Energy Solar of St. Paul, is grateful for a partly sunny 2020. All in all, it was a good year, but not the year we had hoped for, said Allen, 38. We installed more than in 2019. The stress levels, thanks to COVID-19, were at an all-time high.
COVID postponed some projects, and there were workers who had to quarantine at home. Our safety director and our team was prepared, and I think we did an awesome job, Allen said of the 150 All Energy workers who design, build and service commercial and residential systems.
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Star Tribune
Minnesota renewable energy developers are welcoming the latest federal pandemic stimulus package, which will extend critical tax credits.
Signed into law at December s end, the $900 billion stimulus bill meant to stem the economic effects of the coronavirus extends by two years the terms of solar energy investment tax credits available in 2020.
Now, new solar projects also will get a 26% investment tax credit in 2021 and 2022. That credit will decline to 23% and then 10% in the following two years.
The investment tax credit is the most important financial incentive for solar projects, said David Shaffer, executive director of the Minnesota Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group. The extension should be really beneficial.