Dairyland Power has signed an agreement with Minnesota-Three, LLC, to purchase the renewable energy produced by a planned large solar facility, to be located along U.S. Highway 52 north of Rochester, Minn.
The new solar installation will be 517 kilowatts (kW), and could produce enough energy to power nearly 60 homes. The facility will be located in the Oronoco Crossings business park and interconnected to People’s Energy Cooperative power delivery system. Construction of the solar facility is scheduled to begin this spring and planned to be operational by June 1, 2014.
The solar installation will be developed, owned and managed by Minnesota-Three, LLC, owned by three Dairyland member cooperatives: Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services (Albert Lea, Minn.), People’s Energy Cooperative (Oronoco, Minn.) and Tri-County Electric Cooperative (Rushford, Minn.). Dragonfly Solar of Lakeville, Minn., will be responsible for engineering, procurement and construction for the project which will utilize U.S. manufactured solar components.
“The development of this solar project complements Dairyland’s current renewable energy resources, which provide about 12 percent of our members’ energy,” said Bill Berg, President and CEO. “Expanding solar resources is consistent with Dairyland’s strategic intent to diversify our energy resources portfolio.” There are over 300 customer-owned solar photovoltaic facilities in the Dairyland system and that number continues to grow.
The managers of the local electric cooperatives that make up Minnesota-Three shared a joint statement about the opportunity to bring solar energy to their part of the state. “Going it alone on a project like this would not have been possible. Electric co-ops have a rich history of working together, whether it is helping to restore power following a storm or providing additional programs or services to their memberships. We couldn’t be more pleased about working together to bring renewable energy to this area of Minnesota that will benefit our members,” stated Elaine Garry, President/CEO of People’s Energy Cooperative; Brian Krambeer, President/CEO of Tri-County Electric Cooperative; and Jim Krueger, President/CEO of Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services.
