The City of Eden Prairie has announced its plans to construct a small solar farm on the roof of the Eden Prairie Community Center in Minnesota. The energy created from the farm will be available for the residents to use at a subscription. Once completed, the project will be about 1 megawatt, where about 1.2 million kWh annually will be produced. It’s being made available to about 150 Eden Prairie residents, with a quarter reserved for renters, low-income individuals, and other marginalized communities. Denherder-Thomas, the Cooperative Energy Futures co-founder and general manager said subscriptions are now being accepted and that construction will begin when about 60% of subscriptions are filled. He said the plan is for construction to begin this fall, with the system being operational by spring of 2022.
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The life expectancy for the solar farm is 25 years, after which several options could be considered. By that time Denherder-Thomas said, the technology could be completely different and a new solar farm program could be considered. He said it would be hard to foresee what the program’s future might look like at the end of 25 years, and said all options would be considered as that 25-year deadline approaches. “This is the first step in a much longer process of creating an energy system that works for us and is a system rooted in community, rooted in building community wealth.”
“People on the waitlist will be contacted to have them sign off on allowing Xcel to release their electric use history so that Cooperative Energy Futures can size their subscription based on use. CEF will then contact them with a proposed subscription which they can either accept or decline. We have no reason to think we won’t be operational next year,” said the city Sustainability Coordinator, Jennifer Hassebroek.
