Energy Efficiency, GHG Emissions, Sourcing Renewables  -  December 23, 2021

City of Northfield, Minnesota Sets Goal of RE by 2030

The City of Northfield, Minnesota announced its Climate Action Plan (CAP) goals, including a plan to use 100% renewable electricity by 2030.

The municipality said it upgraded its CAP goals that were established in 2019 to include the use of carbon-free electricity. The City of Northfield will work with Nokomis Energy, a Minneapolis-based clean energy developer, to create a Clean Energy Transition Plan (CETP) that will model the community’s electric system to identify specific clean energy projects that would meet the City’s clean energy goals.

“Our CAP has a big picture goal to have 100% carbon-free electricity by 2030 for the entire community with 10% of that electricity generated within the City,” said Beth Kallestad, sustainability program coordinator for the City of Northfield in a statement. “How we get there is less clear. We know that some of it will come from Xcel Energy decarbonizing their grid, but what do we do about the rest of it? Working with Nokomis Energy is going to give clear guidance on the paths we could choose as well as the economic benefits those paths could deliver.”

The City of Northfield has recently encountered issues of grid congestion and residents and local businesses have learned about the thousands of dollars in fees that would be needed to install solar. There have also been years of delays in processing applications, which hinders clean energy adoption. 

“We’ve been hearing from people that they are getting hit with huge interconnection fees and long delays in processing applications.  It’s been a year or so of trying to understand what is going on,” said Kallestad. “Working with Nokomis Energy on this modeling project makes a lot of sense. They can help us try to navigate it better than we can do on our own.”

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