‘Garden’ to bring sun’s energy to area

by Dennis Dalman

editor@thenewsleaders.com

Xcel Energy electrical customers in Stearns County will have the option to “go solar” sometime next year after a “solar garden” is built. Ground will be broken for the project this fall.

The 3 megawatt solar facility, comprised of many fixed-in-place solar panels, will be built two miles north of Cold Spring by SunShare, a solar company based in Colorado. Three megawatts is enough to supply 600 households with electricity for day-to-day needs. One megawatt is equivalent to 1 million watts of electricity.

A solar garden (or “farm,” as it’s sometimes called) is a way for homeowners and businesses to access solar energy without having to put solar panels on their rooftops.

It’s not a new concept. In fact, solar gardens have been catching on rapidly Coast to Coast in the nation. St. Cloud is planning for some multiple solar gardens.

In June, Cologne on the western edge of the Twin Cities was the first local government in the state to offset entirely its municipal electricity with solar-generated electricity.

“We’re very excited about getting started on this program in Cold Spring,” said Dan Merkle, originally from Collegeville and now a business-development associate in the Twin Cities for SunShare.

Merkle spent a few hours at the Monday Marketplace farmers’ market Aug. 17 in Sartell to explain the solar project to market visitors. Several other informational meetings were held in August in the greater St. Cloud area.

This is how it will work, according to Merkle: SunShare has contracted with Xcel Energy to build the solar garden. The solar panels will convert energy from the sun into electricity in the many solar panels, and that electricity then flows to Xcel substations. Xcel customers can sign an agreement with Xcel to get some of their energy from the solar source and then get a bill credit for doing so, a savings of about 5 percent on their monthly bills, Merkle noted.

SunShare just began projects in Minnesota. Other solar gardens are planned for one mile north of Starbuck and a couple for the Twin Cities area.

SunShare recently gave a presentation to the St. Joseph City Council, and the council agreed to move forward with a non-binding letter of intent to reserve some space at the Cold Spring-area solar garden for the City of St. Joseph.

“We definitely think it’s worth investigating,” said Judy Weyrens, city administrator.

The City of St. Joseph uses about 525 kilowatt hours per year. Contracting to receive some electricity from solar power could save the city an estimated $782,000 to $829,000 over the course of a 25-year contract, according to the SunShare spokesman.

Cold Spring Bakery has signed up for 44 kilowatts of energy, the spokesman also noted.

Any Xcel customer will be able to sign up for solar power, including people in St. Joseph, Sartell, St. Stephen, Sauk Rapids, Rice and elsewhere, just as long as Xcel Energy provides their electricity.

St. John’s University has long had a solar garden that generates a portion of the campus’s electric power.

A similar solar-garden project, by another company called SolarStone, Twin Cities, is in the works for Sartell. That company and the city signed a lease agreement last April for a solar garden to be installed on 40 acres, a former lagoon, in the Heritage Drive area of the city. SolarStone, too, will channel its solar-generated electricity to Xcel Energy. Sartell City Planner/Developer Anita Rasmussen said last week the SolarStone solar garden is definitely a go-ahead project for the near future.

Merkle said many people are surprised to hear Minnesota and other northern states are ideal for solar power. Most think that, because the states are so cold in the winter, they would be poor choices for solar energy. But, in fact, just the reverse is true. Heat can cause the solar-generated electricity to dissipate; cold does not, so on bright-sunshiny winter days, the collection of solar energy within the solar panels is optimal, Merkle noted.

The solar garden’s panels are made of very hard glass made to withstand hail storms and other nasty weather. They will be installed in long rows in a fenced-in, secure area, Merkle said. Silicone reactors inside the panels collect the energy from the sun, turning it into electricity (flow of electrons) and then a wire system sends the electricity to power substations.

To learn more about SunShare, visit its website at www.mysunshare.com.