New Energy Insights Blog

2020 Solar Trends: MN Community Solar Updates

By: Kyle Wehnes

In 2020, Minnesota Community Solar financing is becoming one of the most popular financing mechanisms for commercial solar projects. The community solar program allows residents, businesses, and public entities to participate in solar that's not located on their property.

Each year in September, Xcel Energy proposes a bill credit rate for the following year. This is based on a set of attributes like avoided costs and environmental impacts to develop a state-approved formula called the Value of Solar.

This rate has fallen slightly each year since 2017 to about 11 cents per kilowatt-hour levelized.

Xcel says its value of solar rate is on track to more than double to about 25 cents per kWh for projects coming online in 2020 ' a result that is 'unreasonable, unrepresentative, and clearly falls outside of the public interest,' according to the utility.

A compromise is currently being hashed out at the public utilities commission with a likely rate around $.12 per kilowatt hour levelized.

This will allow for continued development, although capacity on the grid is increasingly hard to come by.