Clean Grid Alliance Your go-to source for strategic, persistent & influential advocacy on behalf of renewable energy in the Midwest Peder Mewis, Regional Policy Manager – West pmewis@cleangridalliance.org 1 6/12/2019
Who are we? Clean Grid Alliance (CGA) is a nonprofit organization that works to advance renewable energy in the Midwest 2 6/12/2019
What we do Four Main Areas of Work 3 6/12/2019
Wind & Solar help consumers, Farmers & Communities Consumers Farmers Community • • • Cheapest source of new Lease payments from Wind & Solar Energy developer electricity Production Tax • • • Cost of Wind: 69% lower Drought-resistant cash 80% of money to county than 2009; Solar - 88% crop and 20% to city/town • • lower than 2009 Finance personal Schools, roads, lower • Least cost resourcing first investments taxes 4 6/12/2019
Minnesota Statistics Installed Capacity Wind: 3,778 MW Solar: 1,094 MW National Ranking Wind Projects Wind: 7 th 2,446 Turbines 101 Projects On-Line Solar: 13 th MINNESOTA Equivalent Homes In-State Powered by: Electricity from: Wind: 1 million Wind: 18% Solar: 152,000 Solar: 2% Jobs Wind: 2,223 or 27.5% Solar: 4,917 or 60.7% 5 6/12/2019
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2019 Minnesota Legislative Session Recap • Overall General Fund Spending – FY 2018-19 $45.5 billion; FY 2020-21 $48.4 billion; FY 2022-23 $51.3 billion • Energy policy negotiations broke down, very little was passed in 2019 • Noteworthy bills – Gov. Walz/House Clean Energy Package; Passed the House • 100% Clean Energy Standard, Energy Efficiency Upgrades, Enhanced Resource Planning – SF 1456 Clean Energy First (CGA Sponsored); Passed Senate Energy Committee • Updates utility resource planning statutes to ensure clean energy is considered first • Host community transmission planning, regional transmission planning • Local labor/local economic benefit considered in resource plans, acquisitions, and RFP’s • Strong working relationship with the Laborers' International Union of North America (LIUNA) – SF 848 Wind Setbacks; Noise Complaint Process (no hearing scheduled) – Large energy users and MN Chamber of Commerce opposed clean energy initiatives – Energy Storage Planning, Pilot Project Cost Recovery, Cost/Benefit Analysis (Passed) 7 6/12/2019
Utility Scale Solar Development • Xcel Energy to add over 3,000 MW by 2030 • Solar & Agriculture Conversation (Clean Energy Resource Team & Great Plains Institute) – Three work groups: Solar and Agricultural Lands, Solar and Rural Character, and Solar and Natural Systems – Next meeting in June? • Solar Siting in Agricultural Landscapes Stakeholder Workgroup (Commerce & Dept. Ag) – Meeting 1, Exploration of Stakeholder Perspectives – June 12th, 10:30 am – 2:30pm – Meeting 2, Apply Stakeholder Perspectives Through Siting Scenarios – June 26th, 10:30am – 3:00pm – Both meetings will take place at Ramsey County Library - Roseville, 2180 Hamline Ave. N, Roseville, MN 55113 • Prime Farmland Exclusion Administrative Rule 7850.4400 • No large electric power generating plant site may be permitted where the developed portion of the plant site, excluding water storage reservoirs and cooling ponds, includes more than 0.5 acres of prime farmland per megawatt of net generating capacity, or where makeup water storage reservoir or cooling pond facilities include more than 0.5 acres of prime farmland per megawatt of net generating capacity, unless there is no feasible and prudent alternative. Economic considerations alone do not justify the use of more prime farmland. "Prime farmland" means those soils that meet the specifications of Code of Federal Regulations 1980, title 7, section 657.5, paragraph (a). These provisions do not apply to areas located within home rule charter or statutory cities; areas located within two miles of home rule charter or statutory cities of the first, second, and third class; or areas designated for orderly annexation under Minnesota Statutes, section 414.0325. 8 6/12/2019
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