Posted by: Kate Ellis in solar, Renewable Energy Standard on Apr 14, 2010
Last time I saw it, it was nothing but a bare field with a few stubby corn stalks sticking up here and there - remains of the fall crop. But when I drove to the St. John's campus recently, I found that the same barren field on the edge of campus is now covered with thousands of solar panels, gleaming in the sunlight and cranking out 575 megawatt hours of electricity annually (about the equivalent of fully powering 65 homes year round). This farm is the upper Midwest's largest solar photovoltaic farm - by four times!
Minnesota has a great solar resource - almost the same as Miami, Florida. So while the St. John's project is a great step forward, we can do so much more to utilize our solar resource. Let's pass a national Renewable Energy Standard to encourage development of renewable energy sources like solar for the Midwest!
