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There is some great news for solar power in the Bemidji area.
Otter Tail Power Company is installing a 50-megawatt solar farm near Solway, aptly named Solway Solar. It will have an impressive 100,000 solar panels and should produce enough power for 900 homes.
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The really cool thing about the chosen location is that it is near the existing Solway Combustion Turbine, which uses natural gas to produce power for peak needs. Therefore, existing transmission interconnections will be used, and no new electrical transmission lines are needed to deliver the new solar power to where it needs to go.
This reduces the overall cost of the project. Site construction began in fall 2025, with solar panel and connection work scheduled for the warm-weather building season in 2026. They expect the power to be live by late 2026.
Otter Tail says that 70 jobs are expected to be created during construction. They estimate $4.2 million in production tax will be generated over the 35-year expected life of the facility. Of that tax revenue, 80% will go to Beltrami County and 20% to Lammers Township.
The city of Bemidji will install rooftop solar on several buildings this year. The first to be built is at the city’s water treatment plant and may be completed and begin providing solar electric power by the end of May.
Solar arrays will also be installed on city-owned facilities, including Fire Station 2, the Sanford Center, Neilson Reise Arena, and the City Park Warming House in 2026.
A Solar on Public Buildings Grant covers 70% of the solar array cost, and the remaining 30% is anticipated to come from the IRS Federal Tax Credit. Each project will reduce electricity bills by supplying energy to the building. The Water Treatment facility’s solar project is expected to provide 30%.
The benefits of these solar projects include reducing the cost of purchased electricity and providing a buffer against future energy rate inflation. The Tourist Information Center solar project was completed in December 2023.
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In the January issue of Northern Lights newsletter, Beltrami Electric Cooperative shared a good article titled, “The Cloud is on the Ground.” It took most of us a few years to figure out what “the cloud” even was (in short, the digital storage of everything we see on the internet).
Electric utilities want us to bring that fluffy cloud image down to the ground and instead visualize a data center filled with rows of computer servers humming 24/7/365 running on electricity. The cloud represents a real-world demand for electricity, and one that is increasing quickly!
Our electricity needs are powered by renewables such as wind, solar, geothermal, and hydroelectric, as well as coal, natural gas, and nuclear, often in remote areas of the country.
All generated power is connected by transmission lines. As demand for electrical power grows due to population growth, data centers, increased electrification of homes and businesses, and the adoption of electric vehicles, so does the need to get power from the source to where it is used.
Much of the power generation in our area comes from coal and gas plants and from wind and solar farms in Minnesota and North Dakota. When I visited with an Otter Tail Power representative last fall, they stated that their company gets 40% of its energy from wind and solar, 40% from natural gas and 30% from coal.
Solutions that utilize existing transmission lines, as the Solway Solar project does, are exceptional but seldom available.
Citizens’ Climate Lobby supports national-level climate initiatives using people power. Citizen lobbyists are trained in a given topic based on a foundation of respect and gratitude.
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I recently contacted U.S. Sen. Tina Smith and received an excellent, detailed reply. Sen. Smith emphasized that while we do need a robust permitting process to bring new energy projects to market, we need to do so without creating undue environmental risks and with community input.
Specifically, she noted that the SPEED and PERMIT Acts have passed out of the House of Representatives and have been referred to Senate committees.
Reforms are needed to shorten the approval process from a decade to a few years or less. Project developers across the energy spectrum need stable and predictable rules of the road. These include clear, enforceable timelines for federal reviews and a way to establish that agencies may not suspend project permits or operations except in extreme circumstances.
If you want to join us at CCL and learn more about permitting reform or how to lobby your representatives, this link is a good way to start: citizensclimatelobby.org/get-loud-take-action/permitting-reform.
This link provides information about permitting reform, offers a tool to connect with your Representative and Senators on this topic, and helps you start your learning journey about how Citizens’ Climate Lobby can help you add your voice to ours.
Kudos to Bemidji for your goal of becoming more sustainable through new solar installations on municipal buildings, and to Otter Tail Power Company for installing the Solway Solar project.
Let’s all be solar collectors and get out and enjoy the sunshine!
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Polly Merhar is a member of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby organization. For more information, visit CitizensClimateLobby.org.
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