CLEAR LAKE, Minn. — State and local officials, including Gov. Tim Walz, gathered in front of 500,000 solar panels on a cloudy Tuesday morning, Nov. 19, in Sherburne County to celebrate a major step in Minnesota's transition to clean energy by 2040.
The Sherco Solar Project is in Clear Lake, near the Sherco Coal Plant, the state’s largest power plant. Xcel Energy previously retired one coal unit at the plant and plans to retire two more by 2030.
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With the first phase complete, Xcel Energy is now providing carbon-free electricity to thousands of Minnesota homes.
It’s part of a statewide movement to transition fully to clean energy by 2040.
“It’s this diversity of where we’re getting our energy from, making sure it’s the reliability, it’s the cost, and it’s the sustainability piece of this,” Walz told reporters after the presentation. ”We’ve got a great mix, and what we’re doing right here is: this is proving we can keep energy prices low, we can build renewable projects, we can keep the jobs in the community.”
The more than $1.1 billion Sherco Solar Project is expected to create 400 union construction jobs and 12 ongoing operations and maintenance jobs.
“Broadening our clean energy portfolio doesn’t mean the loss of jobs; it means increasing those jobs in many cases, and it means that those communities can continue to thrive,” Walz said.
Xcel Energy said anyone working at a retired coal plant who wants a job with the company will have one.
According to Xcel Energy officials, the project is expected to be completed in 2026 and will power 150,000 Minnesota homes.
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Xcel Energy President Bob Frenzel told attendees that the solar plant will provide the lowest-cost solar energy in the Upper Midwest. The company is taking advantage of federal tax credits and reusing electric grid connections. The company said it will qualify for $480 million in federal tax credits.
“It’s about economic prosperity for all — for our customers, for our communities — and leading the clean energy transition, we’re enhancing our customers’ experience and keeping their bills affordable,” he said.
Sherco Solar Plant is anticipated to provide $350 million in local benefits, including landowner payments and property and production taxes over its 35-year life.
The company said solar energy has no field costs and contributes to a diversified energy mix, including wind, to protect rising fuel prices.
The project also uses long battery storage so the company can reliably serve customers on a day like Tuesday when there is no sun, according to Ryan Long, president of Xcel Energy Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Long said the company will use a combination of resources on the system, including lithium-ion batteries, which have a four-hour duration, and a long-duration battery storage program. He said that’s a 100-hour, 10-megawatt battery. The company recently broke ground on a long-duration pilot program and has two additional battery projects planned.
“We’re confident that this is going to solve much bigger problems on the grid in the 100-hour duration,” Long told St. Cloud LIVE. “If that is successful after we pilot it in this demonstration project, we’ll look to scale that up on our system as well.”
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Battery storage is critical to solar energy, Long added.
The large-scale operation is in a field in remote Sherburne County near the Sherco Coal Plant. Construction on the project started in 2023.
“It’s amazing in 12 months from an open field to see this happening, to understand that by the end of 2026, this project out here will be powering 150,000 homes in Minnesota, reducing our carbon footprint and showing the rest of the country exactly how this can be done,” Walz said.
Walz told reporters that he hopes the Trump administration will leave federal tax credits in place.
“I’m cautiously optimistic that they will leave these things in place, and I think it’s demonstrating that’s why this was so important for Minnesota to set our 2040 goal and then demonstrate that we could get there and make it happen,” said Walz, a former vice presidential candidate.
Representatives from Blattner Company and the International Brothers of Electrical Workers were also present and spoke at the event.
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