Fresh Energy serves on the Xcel Energy Sherco Community Stakeholder Outreach Committee, and in June I was part of an eye-opening, two-hour tour of the Sherco Solar Project in Becker, Minnesota. It was impressive in person, but please view the drone footage below of the parallel rows of solar panels stretching as far as we could see. Marvelous!
Sherco (stands for Sherburne County) Solar 1, 2, and 3 are under construction on a bit less than 5,000 acres on or near the site of the Sherco 1, 2, and 3 Coal Generating Station. The first coal unit was retired on December 31, 2023, and the other two units will retire in 2026 and 2030. By December 31, 2030, Xcel Minnesota will be out of the coal-burning business.
Sherco Solar will be one of the largest solar facilities in the U.S. when it is completed. Its nearly 1.7 million solar panels installed by 2026 will produce 710 megawatts (MW) of electricity to keep Xcel Energy customers’ bills affordable. The Xcel Energy (Xcel) owned and operated project will help meet customers’ energy needs as Xcel transitions away from coal. Sherco Solar 1, which we toured, began delivering carbon-free electricity in late 2024. Commissioning of Sherco Solar 2 is now underway. As of our tour, half of its solar inverters have been installed. We viewed a small part of Sherco Solar 3, with trackers now being installed and panels to be attached to the solar tracking infrastructure soon.
We began the tour when the panels were oriented at “Solar Noon” (parallel to the ground). The panels during the day can tilt 60 degrees to the east and 60 degrees to the west. The tracking is monitored electronically, and as Xcel saw during a 7-inch snowfall early this spring, the panels can receive a signal to “dump snow” that clears the panels efficiently. The panels used at Sherco have a warranty to withstand direct hits from 2 to 2-½ inch hail.
Blattner Company, based in Avon, Minnesota, has 400-500 employees working at the site installing solar trackers and attaching thousands of solar panels to them. A question on the tour was how much damage to solar panels Xcel has witnessed. The response was very low in large part due to the innovation of Blattner. The company has patented a machine that offloads solar panels from semi-trailers without breakage.
A pleasant discovery in the commission of Sherco Solar 1 was first the planting of a land use cover of native plants and pollinator-friendly species. 34-37 prairie grasses and flowers grow in the project area. All the seeds were sourced locally from within 100 miles of the solar field. Second, the vegetation needs regular trimming so that it will not block the sun and keep the solar panels from producing full power.
Xcel has contracted with Otsego, Minnesota-based Minnesota Native Landscapes (MNL) to provide and manage sheep and lambs with full-time employees on the site. Our tour guide pointed out that MNL’s sheep are a “cost competitive landscaping solution. You don’t have to pay a sheep to eat the grass.” The solar fields are already fenced.
In May 800 sheep arrived just before the lambing, so hundreds of new lambs were born in the Sherco Solar Project. Not only are the sheep photogenic, but the dogs provided by MNL are, too: border collies help move the sheep to new grazing areas and corral them when they need to be loaded into a trailer. A big, white fluffy Great Pyrenees (“Ozzy”) stands guard against predators. Because we were on tour at midday, Ozzy slept under a solar panel, but a tracker he wears shows that he often covers 10-15 miles a night to chase predators away.
The Sherco land next year will host hundreds of multi-day storage batteries. Each battery will store 100 hours of solar and wind electricity. Form Energy’s iron-air batteries are being manufactured in Weirton, West Virginia at a plant that now employs hundreds of former steel workers. Xcel will run a 10-year pilot battery project, approved by regulators at the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. Because these innovative new batteries (developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology) rely on abundant, low-cost, safe, reusable iron, they are expected to be 90 percent cheaper than the current industry-standard lithium-iron batteries that store 4 hours of electricity.
If you’re fascinated by the Upper Midwest’s largest solar project and its exciting iron-air batteries, contact J. Drake Hamilton. J. would love to come to your community and bring this and other good energy Minnesota stories to your business, your Rotary Club or League of Women’s Voters group, or your congregation.
