Agenda - Council Work Session - 04/11/2023

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Barr worked with the agency team to develop the following recommendations to address the three key barriers and the GOB restrictions: • Develop a technical guide to solar development on CLP sites • Provide detailed technical and regulatory information for each of the top 10 sites • Initiate a preliminary interconnection study for each of the top 10 sites • Reach out to stakeholders with information about CLP solar development potential • Pursue state-wide policy and incentive programs to encourage solar development on CLP sites • Retire GOB obligations early (prior to their natural expiration) Conclusions Based on the results of this study Barr has developed the following conclusions: • There is significant capacity for solar development on Minnesota's CLP sites. Generating capacity, on a site -by -site basis, is approximate; however, we have estimated 950 MW of solar potential on approximately 4,500 acres of CLP land. • The top ten sites, five bond -restricted and five non bond -restricted sites, do not represent the only favorable CLP sites for solar development. The scope of this study required us to rank the sites in the CLP and identify the top five bond -restricted and top five non bond -restricted sites. In fact, there is no significant difference between the tenth and eleventh sites (and so on) in the ranking. Many sites have favorable characteristics and will be attractive to solar development. • Solar power and energy storage are a valuable combination. The scope of the study required our focus on solar development. More than one stakeholder suggested we consider other distributed energy resources such as energy storage. • There are barriers but they are not insurmountable. The most significant barrier is GOB restrictions; however, this only impacts half of the sites and it is possible solar development could proceed on non -GOB restricted land at sites where there is some GOB restricted land. There is some uncertainty with respect to site suitability and state CLP responsibilities, construction costs associated with some unique features of CLP sites, and capacity of transmission/distribution infrastructure. There are many examples of solar energy successfully installed on landfill sites in Minnesota and in other states. Acting on the recommendations in this study report will help to address these barriers and enable development of solar energy on Minnesota CLP sites. 9