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Updated: March 7, 2026 @ 9:35 pm
CenterPoint Energy
A planned green hydrogen plant in Mankato, powered by a solar array, would be just the second constructed by CenterPoint Energy in Minnesota, joining this one in Minneapolis, which is powered by the electrical grid.
CenterPoint Energy
A planned green hydrogen plant in Mankato, powered by a solar array, would be just the second constructed by CenterPoint Energy in Minnesota, joining this one in Minneapolis, which is powered by the electrical grid.
MANKATO — In a little over a year, Mankato furnaces, stoves and other appliances will be operating in part on fuel generated from water under plans submitted to the city by CenterPoint Energy.
Known as “green hydrogen,” the proposal will include a 1-megawatt solar array on Mankato’s north side. The power generated by the solar panels will be used in an adjacent electrolyzer that will convert water into its base elements, with the resulting hydrogen blended into natural gas distributed to Mankato homes and businesses.
The $7.4 million project is just beginning the municipal permitting process, but CenterPoint hopes to see hydrogen production by the end of 2027.
“We’re really excited about this project,” said Emma Ingebretsen, manager of decarbonization projects for the Houston-based natural gas and electric utility.
Decarbonization is the basic motivation for the facility, which will be the first of its kind in Minnesota to directly use solar power to produce clean-burning hydrogen gas to partially replace the carbon-dioxide-emitting fossil fuel that is natural gas. The plan is to put a relatively conservative 5% hydrogen in Mankato’s natural gas blend, but it’s a figure that could go higher locally and across the state if the technology proves to be financially viable.
“It’s a first step of bigger things,” Ingebretsen said.
Assuming the project goes forward, Mankato will be helping CenterPoint explore pioneering technology in a broader effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a variety of ways. The Mankato project’s lifetime reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would be equivalent to removing 6,000 vehicles from the roadways for one year, said Joshua Solis, a spokesman for CenterPoint.
“I think that’s what we’re excited about as a company,” Solis said.
The Mankato Hydrogen Energy Plant is to be constructed on 15 acres of land already owned by CenterPoint northwest of the junction of Riverfront Drive and Highway 14. Work on the solar array is to begin this spring, according to a letter from CenterPoint to the Mankato Community Development Department. Construction will shift to the hydrogen production and storage facility in the final months of this year.
The letter also laid out the origins of the project.
“In July, 2024, CenterPoint received approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to implement a diverse set of innovative pilot projects that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and advance decarbonization efforts for our Minnesota customers,” according to the letter from CenterPoint’s Andrew Rockwell. “The projects are part of a five-year innovation plant submitted under a landmark state energy law: The Natural Gas Innovation Act.”
Rockwell was involved in the company’s first foray into green hydrogen — a downtown Minneapolis plant that relies on electricity from Xcel Energy that was certified as coming from renewable sources.
Similar in size to the Minneapolis plant, which began production in June 2022, the Mankato facility will consume all of the electricity produced by the nearby photovoltaic panels, Ingebretsen said. At night and during other periods where the solar panels can’t meet the total energy demand, the electrolyzer will tap into the power grid to ensure the plant doesn’t sit idle.
The Mankato project also will explore hydrogen storage, filling tanks on trailers that could then be transported to industrial users in the area that rely on natural gas for their production processes.
“There’s some potential for the hydrogen to be used offsite directly by one of our customers,” Ingebretsen said.
Much of the hydrogen produced, though, will be going directly into the distribution system that supplies gas to furnaces, water heaters, stoves and clothes dryers, as well as industrial furnaces throughout Mankato.
“There’s always a place to put it if we blend it into our system,” Ingebretsen said.
For residential and business consumers of natural gas, there were traditionally only a couple of ways to curb their contribution to global climate change: reducing consumption of gas and purchasing more energy-efficient appliances. This project will give Mankatoans an additional way.
“So it’s kind of helping our customers reduce their greenhouse gas emissions,” she said, although it will be a mild reduction to start via the 5% hydrogen blend. “We’re being conservative now, just to get everybody comfortable with it.”
Blending hydrogen into the natural gas distribution system is not a new concept, and other producers are going as high as 20% hydrogen.
Hawaii, for instance, has included hydrogen in its gas system since the 1970s, largely because the islands have no natural gas resources and must either rely on supplies shipped in from elsewhere or on synthetic natural gas manufactured locally, Solis said.
Minnesota, connected by pipeline to natural gas produced in western provinces and states, has a ready source of fuel. But the state also has the potential for abundant sources of renewable electricity, mostly wind and solar. So electrolysis allows Minnesota to produce some of its own gas and end its 100% reliance on fossil fuels.
A 5% hydrogen blend doesn’t mean a direct 5% reduction in carbon emissions. Among other reasons, there’s less energy — as measured by volume — in hydrogen than traditional natural gas, which is primarily methane.
Minnesotans are already financing CenterPoint’s natural gas innovation pilot projects like the one in Minneapolis and the new initiative in Mankato through a monthly charge added to their bills — typically $1.50 for residential customers. Federal clean-energy tax credits, expected to total $780,000, will reduce the share of the Mankato project that ratepayers will be financing, Solis said.
As for why Mankato was selected, it’s a combination of a good site already owned by the company, CenterPoint’s long history in the community, and the presence of industrial gas customers that will be potential clients for the transportable hydrogen.
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