Description
100% renewable electricity
In 2018, City Council set a goal that by 2022, all City building operations would use 100% renewable electricity. This means using power from sources like wind and solar instead of fossil fuels. The 2023 Climate Equity Plan reaffirmed this commitment.
Historically, electricity use at City facilities has made up over 60% of the City’s overall greenhouse gas emissions. By switching to 100% renewable electricity, we can significantly lower our emissions. We have a few solar arrays on our buildings, but we don’t have enough roof space to meet all of our renewable electricity needs. To achieve this goal, we will use a mix of:
- Solar panels on or near our buildings
- Solar and wind farms
- Programs that let us subscribe to renewable electricity from utilities (Renewable*Connect)
What we’ve done
In 2024, we subscribed all our buildings to Xcel Energy’s Renewable*Connect program. Xcel Energy’s Renewable*Connect program allows subscribing to renewable electricity. Subscribing means paying for clean energy from solar and wind farms nearby in Minnesota. We subscribed to this program and now all our buildings use 100% renewable electricity.
What we're doing now
- We build all new buildings to be solar-ready. This means roofs are strong enough to hold solar panels and electrical systems are ready for solar power.
- When we re-roof existing buildings, we will ensure they are compatible with solar arrays.
- We’ll continue to participate in Xcel’s Renewable*Connect program and ensure we enroll new facilities.
- We look for opportunities to bring down the cost of solar installations.