Municipal utility sounds alarm on green energy mandates

The radical and unrealistic 2040 deadline for utilities to meet Minnesota’s mandate for 100 percent of electricity to be generated from carbon-free sources remains 15 years away. But alarm bells are already going off at Willmar Municipal Utilities and its counterparts around the state. Willmar expects to meet the 25 percent renewable mandate by 2025, but all bets are off after that, notes the West Central Tribune.

Local legislators and Willmar Municipal Utilities energy provider are encouraging local municipal utilities to share their stories about how difficult it will be to meet the renewable energy/carbon-free mandates and their deadlines.

A bill passed by the Minnesota Legislature in 2023 and signed into law by Gov. Tim Walz calls for all electric retail sales for public utilities to be 100% carbon-free in Minnesota by 2040.

Local legislators and Willmar Municipal Utilities staff recently met with representatives of Missouri River Energy Services to map out a strategy to get the attention of Minnesota lawmakers and regulators.

“I think it was a very good meeting,” [interim Willmar Municipal Utilities general manager Janell] Johnson said. “Deb’s message from Missouri River and to the representatives is that we need to share our story. We need to share our story. We need to discuss how some of these mandates coming down are going to be near impossible to meet.”

There’s agreement the current timetable to meet the state’s net zero standard amounts to a mandate for failure and worse. For starters, there’s nowhere near the necessary basic infrastructure in place.

“A big piece that’s missing is … infrastructure, to meet some of these mandates, how do you build that much to afford all these entities to meet these standards?” Johnson said. “ … I think small entities are really going to struggle. I think we are very fortunate to be a part of Missouri River to help us through these transitions, because it could be very impactful for us.”

Then there’s the impracticality of the massive amount of land required to not only generate wind and solar energy but to also theoretically store it some day.

Johnson also mentioned the amount of land needed for solar fields, as well as the battery energy storage systems affiliated with them. She noted that the Marshall solar field is 57 acres in size and will have 90 battery energy storage cabinets, which she compared to oversized refrigerators that will hold only four hours’ worth of energy.

“It’s pretty impactful for discussion,” Johnson said, noting that with the legislative shift in power, maybe utilities can be more successful at lobbying to push some of the mandates down the road.

Those inconvenient truths only scratch the surface of the impediments to reaching the arbitrary green energy goals and deadlines set by the DFL-controlled 2023 state legislature. Kudos to Willmar Municipal Utilities for starting the conversation and putting lawmakers on notice.