The past and the future of electricity in America are perhaps most visible in a Minnesota town surrounded by potato farms and cornfields.
Towering over Becker, a community of a little more than 5,000 people northwest of Minneapolis, is one of the nation’s largest coal power plants. It is being replaced — to the dismay of some residents — with thousands of acres of solar panels and a test of long-duration batteries.
Becker is one of the first of a group of seven Minnesota municipal areas, called the Coalition of Utility Cities, making the change from a fossil-fuel-based economy to clean energy.
“We are the guinea pig for the whole group,” said Tracy Bertram, the mayor of Becker, acknowledging the anxiety some have felt about the loss of an economic anchor. “People don’t like change. It’s the unknown: ‘What will my world look like?’”
When the Sherburne County Generating Station, known as Sherco, completes its renewable project on adjacent land, it will stand as the largest solar farm in the Upper Midwest — replacing three coal units in Becker with three solar sites on the town’s outskirts along the Mississippi River.
Becker crystallizes part of the legacy of the administration of Gov. Tim Walz, Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate, and his commitment to Minnesota’s goal of 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2040. And it tests how the energy transition could unfold on a nationwide scale for jobs at decades-old fossil fuel facilities, local tax revenues and agricultural businesses.
President Biden’s climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, aims to cut U.S. emissions at least 52 percent below 2005 levels by the end of this decade, and his administration is counting on solar power to play a significant role in decarbonizing electricity production. One Energy Department report concluded that solar energy could provide up to 40 percent of the nation’s electricity by 2035.
Minnesota is among the states that can benefit from the Inflation Reduction Act by using it as a tool to replace coal plants with sources like solar farms. Through the law, Sherco’s owner, Xcel Energy, received tax credits that reduced the cost of the solar project for the utility’s ratepayers.
Becker is also one of two sites where Xcel is installing demonstration battery systems from Form Energy, a Massachusetts company. The systems — using readily available materials like water, air and iron — can store solar and wind-generated energy as a backup, with a capacity to power 2,000 homes for up to five days.
“This site is an incredibly valuable epicenter of the Upper Midwest,” Bob Frenzel, chairman and chief executive of Xcel Energy, said during a tour of the plant. “When you think about the geography of the grid, it’s incredibly valuable to maintain as an energy center.”
Besides power plants, much of the economy in and around Becker relies on agriculture, like Edling Farms.
For four generations, the Edling family made a living producing bags of potatoes for retail and wholesale customers, most of that time on land it either owned or leased near the coal plant.
Leasing has become too expensive because landowners can make four times as much from solar farm customers as they can from farmers. Farmers, the Edlings said, were paying a little more than $200 an acre on a lease, but solar developers began offering north of $900.
“Solar is a no-brainer,” said Jeff Edling, a co-owner of Edling Farms. “It’s a guaranteed check. You can’t blame them. Money talks.”
But the Edlings have no plans to quit the business their family began more than a century ago. They own the land used for the farm, though about 280 acres were leased and later lost to Xcel Energy’s solar project.
“They paid a lot of money for it,” Mr. Edling said. “So it is what it is. Everybody’s just kind of waiting to see what happens.”
September 12, 2024
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