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Home sweet home, with solar power.

For the past several years Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light (MNIPL) has been partnering with Solar United Neighbors (SUN) to promote what is called a “Solar Co-op” for the Duluth and Northeastern Minnesota region.

Despite the name, it’s different from the cooperative that you get your groceries from or a cooperative utility that might provide your electricity. 

SUN’s “Solar Co-ops” are a way for local residents to come together and gain information about, as well as access to, solar energy.  In addition, this can be done at lower costs by pooling buying power as a group for individually designed and owned solar systems across the counties in our region.  

This year’s Northeast Minnesota Solar Co-op will serve residents of Cook, Lake, St. Louis, Carlton and Itasca counties.  Go to the link below to attend one of the upcoming online and in-person public information sessions.

Residents who join the co-op before the June 30 deadline will have full access to the co-op’s benefits, including group pricing through bulk purchasing power, support through the installation process and unbiased information to help make informed decisions – all for free and without any obligation to purchase anything.      

MNIPL assists in this effort not because of the climate science - which shows that human-caused climate change is occurring, that it’s making life increasingly difficult for all of us, and that there are actions we can take to combat this change, such as investing in solar electricity.  

No, we assist because our beliefs and values, such as the sacredness of life and the responsibility of lending a helping hand to those in need, compel us to act on that knowledge.  

We understand that solar is one such helpful climate action, and that it is also one of the many great ways to help individuals and communities in the Northland.  

Another benefit of solar energy is that it increases local vibrancy and sustainability here in Northeastern Minnesota by supporting good-paying local jobs rather than relying on energy sourced from outside of the state or country. 

Additionally, solar energy is a proven way of saving residents and businesses money on their energy bills, which increases the money back in their own pockets, and that is in turn circulated in our local economy as well.

Finally, local solar projects are a good way to show that, despite all the chaos in our national politics, real measurable progress in building a better tomorrow is still very much possible on the ground at a local level. People coming together in their own communities, to help each other go solar, is one way to build closer bonds based on shared interests.  

And that is just as valuable as the clean energy it produces.

How does solar look in practice for a homeowner?  

My family installed solar at our Duluth home in the Fall of 2022, having waited until after we re-shingled our aging roof.  The install cost? About the cost of a fairly recent model used Subaru (gotta use Duluth metrics!), and then we received 30% of the cost back as a federal tax credit the next year.  

It was installed in just 2 days, but after 6 months of previous planning with an solar installer. It then passed inspection by the city, and was connected to the grid by Minnesota Power a few weeks later.  
Since that time, we’ve been producing home-grown power. We haven’t noticed any difference in our day to day lives in terms of how we use electricity. The lights turn on no matter what – if the sun is shining, that electricity comes from our roof; if it’s night, we pull from, and pay for, grid electricity.  

We produce lots of electricity in the summer, much less in the winter – but in a year we produce about twice as much electricity as we consume.  

And when we do produce more than electricity than we use, we build a credit on our electric bill, which then gets used in those winter months when we consume more power than we produce.  

What we do notice is that our electric bill is low, really low - $6 total last year!  We also notice that with home electricity now in abundance, we are looking for more opportunities to efficiently use it – electric cars, bikes, air and water heating and cooling, cooking – to decrease other household energy costs, such as gasoline and natural gas.  

And finally we notice that we want to show others that this could be an option that could help them too.  
For more general information, visit solarunitedneighbors.org/NEMN  or contact John Anderson at janderson@solarunitedneighbors.org for more information.

Bret Pence lives and works in Duluth, and when he’s not trying to pinch another kWh or 2, is the northern Minnesota staffer for Minnesota Interfaith Power and Light.