Solar.
On otherwise unusable level wasteland, soil that cannot hold a building, the periphery of a closed landfill. The terraced main capped landfill is not something to be disturbed. Time works on the fill content, protectively capped, but there is an answer to what might we do to improve the town without damage to the fill?
The site - google map
The terraced landfill mound is south of the park area, with the ball diamonds for scale. That is the capped area - the main fill zone. The solar is located now at the intersection of Sunwood drive and Sunfish Lake Blvd, the lower corner half along Sunwood northward. Capped land and wetlands are left unchanged.
Solar installation in landfill areas are not new, the EPA has published Best Pratices guidelines dating back to 2022, if not earlier.
For the State of Minnesota, this is a pilot project - proof of concept.
A local newspaper has published detail:
Ramsey council OKs solar panels on closed landfill
The Ramsey City Council unanimously approved a site plan review for a Solar Energy System on its closed landfill.
The proposed site plan by Cedar Creek Energy is for a solar panel array on an approximately 24-acre portion of the landfill grounds, said Ramsey Planning Manager Todd Larson at the council’s meeting on April 8. The site is west of Sunfish Lake Boulevard, and north of Sunwood Drive.
“The site is basically all solar panels,” Larson said. “With a small area for some equipment.”
The site is zoned closed landfill, where solar energy systems are permitted; however, it is subject to a formal site plan review.
The site has some natural screening and will be secured by a 7-foot-tall galvanized woven-wire style fence.
[...] Alex Gast, Chief Operating Officer for Cedar Creek Energy in Blaine, spoke to the council about the project.
His office has been working with Conexus [the regional co-op energy supplier] to develop it and build the approximately 8,700 solar arrays, and they anticipate that they will work for more than 30 years.
“It’s frankly a really great use of the land,” Gast said. “With it being a closed landfill, the MCPA has ongoing monitoring requirements as part of this.”
Council Member Kirsten Bucher expressed support.
“I am really excited to see this, I think it’s incredibly important that we’re utilizing something like this to build our energy infrastructure on land that would not typically be able to be used,” Bucher said.
She then asked to hear about the company’s’ “community benefit plan for workforce development training.”
“As part of this project, Cedar Creek Energy intends to use our registered apprenticeship program,” Gast responded. “So we have a commitment for 15% on the job training to advance electricians in the field.”
Gast added the need for electricians in the state is “extremely high. We intend to use this project and others within our portfolio to advance these individuals.”
[...] “So what happens after the 30 years is a really good question, typically what we’re anticipating is repowering these systems,” Gast said.
Repowering entails recycling the module then installing new solar panels.
Council member Chris Riley asked staff what they are missing out on by allowing this.
“The land doesn’t have the soils that’s suitable to support a building, so we really can’t use it or get it turned back for building an industrial use on it,” Larson responded. “… Redeveloping into a parking lot and building just can’t happen.”
Council member Michael Olson asked if the panels would be secure enough given that the land isn’t stable enough for buildings.
“We have performed a substantial amount of geotechnical exploration on this site, …” Gast said. “What you’re going to see from a foundation type on this site is a driven I-beam or a pile system that’s going to go to a depth of around 10 feet.”
The site will have about 1,800 of those piles.
“Under high-wind events the tracking system itself goes into a wind stow mode to alleviate shear on the panels themselves, it goes flat, and essentially allows the wind to pass over it. Thus mitigating uplift and some of these other wind shear event type things that can happen.”
All that information has been confirmed by structural engineers, Gast said.
Mayor Ryan Heinemann asked if city residents will see any benefit from the project.
Brian Brant, CEO Connexus Energy, responded to the query.
“Ramsey’s growing, we have a greater electrical need,” Brant said. “Adding solar here negates the need to add additional substations and transmission lines for the city of Ramsey to meet their growing need. That’s the immediate benefit.”
An undated linkedin entry from roughly 2 months ago adds:
Built on a state-controlled brownfield site through the MPCA Closed Landfill Program, this 4.125 MW AC solar array is the first of its kind in Minnesota. It transforms previously unusable land into a productive source of renewable energy. The impact is real:
• Offsets 7,427 tons of CO2 annually
• Powers the equivalent of 830 homes
• Keeps the equivalent of 7.5 million tons of coal unburned each year
[...] Special recognition to Brian Burandt for his leadership and commitment in helping bring this project across the finish line.
Historical Background
For a general review nationwide try search = national efforts to add solar to landfills
With regard to Minnesota legislative history -
Thanks to legislation passed in 2019, the state commissioned a feasibility study on the subject. It concluded that it was very possible, but there are some barriers. Among the biggest: Of the 110 parcels of land in the Pollution Control Agency’s Closed Landfill Program, half have use restrictions from general obligation bonds used to fund their cleanup.
In other words, the solar arrays can’t go up until the bonds are retired. And some of them have 30-plus years left on their repayment schedule.
Could the process be sped up?
Rep. Todd Lippert (DFL-Northfield) sponsors HF1879 to create a pilot project to see if money from the state’s Renewable Development Account could be used to retire general obligation bonds on a closed landfill. The test case would be the Anoka-Ramsey landfill in Ramsey, and $3 million would be appropriated for the purpose.
With the removal of bonding restrictions, the site could be converted into a planned five-megawatt solar electric generation facility. According to the bill, the project must be owned and operated by an electric cooperative association that has more than 130,000 Minnesota customers.
The appropriation would be strictly to deal with the bonds, not to finance the project, procure land rights or manage the solar array.
[...] To briefly explain the Renewable Development Account: It’s a pot of state money that Xcel Energy pays into annually, set up in 1994 when Xcel was given permission to store nuclear waste at its Prairie Island plant in southeastern Minnesota. Storage at its Monticello plant was added in 2007. For each waste cask used, Xcel gives the state between $350,000 and $500,000 annually. The fund is earmarked for grants for the development of renewable energy sources in Minnesota.
“This pilot would make it possible for us to see if it’s possible for [Minnesota Management and Budget] to do this, and if this kind of model can work in the future,” said David Shaffer, executive director for the Minnesota Solar Energy Industries Association. “It’s outside Xcel service territory, but it would benefit Xcel customers in reducing their rates. It makes too much sense for Minnesota not to do.”
The company that wishes to build the solar facility is Connexus, an electric cooperative that serves the northern part of the Twin Cities metropolitan area. And that doesn’t sit well with Rick Evans, director of regional government affairs for Xcel Energy.
“Having Xcel customers pay for this would be like requiring you to pay off the debt on someone else’s mortgage,” he said.
Lippert responded that the pilot project could benefit Xcel Energy.
“There are 17 closed landfill sites within Xcel territory,” Lippert said. “That seems a good argument for use of the Renewable Development Account.”
Also - earlier this year naming of the program was dedicated to the memory of a Dem MN House Speaker who'd been gunned down in her home by a deranged Christian nationalist gunman.
Related legislative items, here and here. Familiarity with legislation archiving in Minnesota is needed on these links, which might only confuse those not so familiar.
BOTTOM LINE: This is, for Minnesota, a landmark first in what has proven nationwide to be sound repurposing of otherwise faulted land. Ramsey is first in proof of concept and implementation in State. City government and private sector firms making it work deserve recognition, which is the point of this post.
Crabgrass is unclear on this, but it appears the operation was completed and put onto the power grid in the last few days, but possibly that final step remains.
Without a link, Crabgrass has seen online that the local co-op has ceased a contract partial ownership of a North Dakota genco firm, now having customer status, so that the co-op doing community solar meets or assists meeting expanded electricity demand growth as more housing projects and business uses arise as the town grows.
