Transitioning Minnesota’s electricity system to be reliable, affordable, and zero-carbon
Fresh Energy has been working every day to equitably speed the transition to a clean energy economy for nearly 35 years. To drive the transformational change that we need to take on the climate crisis, Fresh Energy created “Vision 2030,” our strategic framework that focuses on driving down emissions in crucial sectors. A key aspect of our work is in the electricity sector. It’s through the policy work of our Electricity team that we strive to ensure we build a carbon-free electricity grid through effective, innovative, and data-driven policy solutions.
Fresh Energy’s team of technical experts, attorneys, and advocates is helping Minnesota reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by expanding wind, solar, storage, new clean energy technologies, and demand flexibility while building the grid of the future. Fresh Energy’s clean electricity team works with partner organizations, electric utilities, decision makers, and the public to ensure our homes, businesses, and communities are powered by clean energy that’s more affordable, reliable, and equitable for all Minnesotans.
Electricity generation was once Minnesota’s biggest climate challenge
Historically, electricity has been the largest source of GHG emissions in Minnesota. For generations, our power system relied heavily on coal plants that pumped carbon pollution into our air and communities. The consequences have been clear: climate change, poor air quality, and disproportionate effects on communities of color and under-resourced neighborhoods who often bear the brunt of pollution from fossil fuel infrastructure.
But how we generate electricity in Minnesota is dramatically changing. Coal has fallen from two-thirds of electricity generation in 2003 to less than 20 percent today, and electric utilities have been given policy direction to phase it out completely for their Minnesota customers by 2040. Meanwhile, carbon-free sources like wind, solar, nuclear, and hydro now provide over 53 percent of electricity generated in Minnesota, up from just 30 percent in 2001.
Minnesota achieved this progress through smart policy-making and effective advocacy from clean energy organizations like Fresh Energy. The state’s bipartisan Renewable Energy Standard and Next Generation Energy Act, passed in 2007, provided the foundation for wind and solar industries to scale production. As clean energy technologies improved and costs plummeted, Minnesota passed its landmark 100% clean electricity by 2040 law in 2023. This groundbreaking law provides the roadmap Minnesota needs to complete its clean energy transformation while paving the way for electrifying transportation, buildings, and industry.
Yet challenges remain, and Fresh Energy’s work on the electricity sector continues and is more important than ever. Electricity demand is expected to grow as we electrify everything from cars to heating systems, and new large energy users like data centers are poised to come online quickly. The question isn’t whether Minnesota can build a clean electricity system — it’s how we can best build it affordably, reliably, and equitably for all communities. Fresh Energy’s work is dedicated to finding solutions to this challenge.
Solutions to decarbonize Minnesota’s electric system
Fresh Energy believes that creating a 100 percent clean electricity system requires two interconnected strategies that work in tandem: rapidly expanding clean energy generation and fundamentally reimagining how our electrical grid operates.
First, we need to build clean energy at unprecedented speed. Replacing fossil fuel power plants with clean energy is relatively straightforward. Minnesota has great wind and solar potential, and the economics now strongly favor clean energy as a low-cost form of electricity generation. Wind and solar have become not just the cleanest sources of electricity, but often the cheapest, too. In many cases, it’s actually less expensive to build brand-new wind or solar facilities than to continue operating existing coal plants.
Energy storage technologies are already helping us use more clean energy more often. Modern lithium-ion batteries can store massive amounts of electricity when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining, then release that power when it’s needed — evening out the natural fluctuations in renewable energy production and periods of higher-priced electricity. As battery costs continue to fall and storage capacity increases, we can count on wind and solar to power more and more of our electricity needs. New storage technologies, like thermal energy storage and non-lithium batteries, are rapidly developing and have the potential to provide the type of long-duration storage needed to drive deep decarbonization.
Looking ahead, emerging technologies like enhanced geothermal, which can generate clean “firm” electricity 24 hours a day by tapping into the earth’s heat, will likely help us tackle the final portion of decarbonization that’s most challenging for wind and solar alone. In the meantime, the continued build out of wind, solar, and energy storage will help deliver clean electricity to Minnesota customers for much of the day.
Second, we need to build the grid of the future. This will look fundamentally different than the polluting grid we inherited. Instead of electricity flowing from massive, centralized fossil fuel plants to passive consumers, the grid we’re building today must be a dynamic, interactive network where millions of homes and businesses both consume and generate electricity.
On the local distribution level of the grid, Fresh Energy advocates for demand-side customer programs that help consumers better align their energy use with the grid’s needs, allowing us to use more clean energy and reduce prices. Programs like virtual power plants and time-of-use rates help us modernize the grid to better balance supply and demand and integrate millions of small-scale users and generators of electricity to maximize low-cost clean energy and ensure our grid system operates reliably.
At the regional level, Fresh Energy engages with the Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s (MISO) stakeholder process to ensure the electricity grid and electricity markets are proactively built to fairly include clean energy. From ensuring our transmission system is expanded to tap into the best renewable energy resources across the U.S. to structuring wholesale power markets to operate reliably and efficiently with low-cost clean electricity, we’re advocating for a better system that’s more reliable.
How Fresh Energy makes change: Working where decisions get made
Creating this clean energy transformation requires more than just technological innovation — it demands strategic advocacy across multiple venues where energy decisions are made. Fresh Energy’s Electricity team operates in legislative chambers, regulatory proceedings, and regional markets to ensure clean energy is being deployed to its maximum level and that electricity rate design is equitable, responsive, and future-focused.
At the Minnesota Legislature, Fresh Energy advocates for the foundational laws that rapidly and equitably make clean energy possible. Think of the Legislature as the architect that designs the blueprint for Minnesota’s energy future. There are lots of possible plans for our energy future, and Fresh Energy advocates for these plans to equitably be carbon-free. Lawmakers design policy like climate targets (like our 100% clean electricity law), create financial incentives for clean energy development, streamline permitting processes so clean energy can be constructed faster, and establish the regulatory frameworks that govern how electric utilities make energy decisions.
At the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC), Fresh Energy advocates for clean energy where Minnesota’s energy policies get implemented. This is the arena where the rubber meets the road in Minnesota’s energy transition. A significant portion of Fresh Energy’s regulatory expertise occurs in two different dockets at the PUC — integrated resource plans and integrated distribution plans.
In Integrated Resource Plans, electric utilities create long-range plans for how much electricity they’ll need over the next 15 years and propose how they’ll generate that power. These plans are where utilities decide what resources they need to build to reliably meet customer demand. Fresh Energy’s technical experts analyze these complex proposals, conduct rigorous analyses and modelling, identify opportunities for more low-cost clean energy, and advocate for utility investments that align with Minnesota’s climate goals through written and oral testimony.
Similarly, Integrated Distribution Plans focus on investments to neighborhood-level electricity infrastructure — the poles, wires, and transformers that deliver electricity to your home. As more people install rooftop solar, charge electric vehicles, and switch to electric heat pumps, the local grid needs upgrades to handle the new electricity demand. By advocating for smart, proactive distribution planning, we ensure utilities build infrastructure that accelerates rather than hinders the clean energy transition.
This regulatory work requires deep technical expertise. Our team combines legal knowledge, engineering analysis, and public advocacy to ensure Minnesota’s utilities make investment decisions that serve customers and our climate.
At the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO), we help ensure our regional electric grid is creating market rules that fairly value clean energy, transmission planning is connecting renewable resources to population centers, and grid operations can handle high penetrations of clean energy. This regional work is crucial, because it allows Minnesota to access clean energy not just within our borders but from across the Midwest while contributing our own clean energy to serve neighboring states.
Our work at MISO requires understanding complex energy market mechanisms, transmission planning processes, and grid reliability standards. It’s technical work that directly impacts which energy resources get built and how they’re compensated in regional electricity markets — which has a massive impact on how cost-effective and rapidly our clean energy transition plays out.
What’s next? Charting our path from 50% to 100% clean electricity
Good news for climate advocates: Minnesota has already halfway decarbonized its electricity system and currently has the low-cost technology to get us most of the way to 100%. Wind, solar, and battery storage technologies are ready to get us most of the way there — and the infrastructure is being built to do it.
Getting to true decarbonization will require additional innovation — like new clean technologies such as enhanced geothermal that can provide clean “firm” electricity generation from the earth’s interior, to expanding demand flexibility programs that better match electricity use to clean generation and deploying new clean technologies.
But the biggest challenges are not just technological, they’re ensuring the transition happens equitably, with the benefits flowing to all communities — not just the select few — especially those that have historically borne the burden of fossil fuel pollution. This means ensuring workforce development is bringing the benefits of clean energy to every corner of the state to using clean energy investments to reduce electricity costs for under-resourced households to ensuring communities have a meaningful voice in energy decisions that affect them.
Every solar panel and wind turbine in Minnesota helps us build a cleaner electricity future not just for ourselves, but for our entire region. Minnesota is leading from the north, demonstrating to other states that we can maintain reliable, affordable electricity service while dramatically reducing carbon emissions.
Fresh Energy’s Electricity team will continue advocating for carbon-free power at the Minnesota Legislature, the Minnesota PUC, and MISO stakeholder processes to ensure Minnesota is building an equitable, reliable, and low-cost clean energy future. The energy transition is ambitious, but with strategic policy-making, technical expertise, and sustained advocacy, we know that Minnesota can prove that a clean energy future isn’t just possible — it’s affordable, reliable, and within our reach.
The choices we make today about Minnesota’s electricity system will determine whether or not future generations inherit a stable climate and thriving economy. Fresh Energy is working every day to ensure our energy decisions made today lead toward a clean, affordable, and equitable energy future for all.
