Minnesota

Local officials and nonprofits are exploring solutions to the economic impacts of future coal plant closures

Labor unions, environmentalists, and think tanks support a $6 million initiative to remake the state’s energy economy. It includes funding to help communities hurt by closure of old power plants.

Great River becomes the most recent in the industry to signal it will abandon coal and invest in the new energy economy—specially in wind farms across the Upper Midwest.

Xcel Energy, Otter Tail Energy and Minnesota Power are running coal-fired plants at a loss 30 to 60 percent of the time as cost competition from rival sources intensifies statewide.

Two rural counties east of Minneapolis will see their tax bases sustained and expanded by multimillion-dollar repowering projects that will extend the lives of two wind farms by 30 years.

As traditional forms of electricity generation struggle to compete, resilience is the defining character of rural wind farms, which bring jobs and tax revenues to a growing number of communities.

Minnesota is on a far better footing than Wisconsin, whose “heavy carbon footprint is a liability for our economic future,” one researcher said. “A clean energy economy will bolster prospects.”

The Allen S. King plant in Minneapolis will close in 2028 and Sherco 3 plant near St. Cloud will shutter in 2030 as Xcel aims to go 50 percent renewables-reliant in 10 years.

“I prefer not the torrid musings of a conservative think tank but real-life, market examples,” writes the author in response to a skeptical commentary by an old-school academic. 

Cost and consumer preferences are driving growth of a nontraditional power-generation enterprise in Minnesota, increasing its payroll from four employees to 82. "The customer wants clean energy," the company CEO said.