MINNEAPOLIS — Xcel Energy celebrated a clean energy milestone Tuesday, marking the completion of the first phase of the utility’s massive Sherco Solar Project near Clearwater. 

Company executives, contractors, union leaders, utility regulators and government officials gathered at the edge of the immense array of solar panels for a ceremony calling attention to the fact that power has started to flow to the regional power grid.

“As the largest clean energy project in the upper Midwest, this project demonstrates we’re not just talking about clean energy, we’re actually building it,” Xcel CEO Bob Frenzel told those who gathered at the site Tuesday. “Our clean energy vision is about sustainability, but it’s also about energy security. It’s about reliability. It’s about economic prosperity for all, for our customers, for our communities.”

Xcel Energy has invested heavily in wind energy in the past, but the Sherco project is the utility’s largest solar venture. It’s strategically located to connect to the grid at the nearby Sherco Energy Center, a coal-fired plant that is being phased out after serving as the main source of electricity in the area for decades.

By the time the Sherco Solar Project is finished in 2026, the complex will feature 1.5 million solar panels spread across 5,000 acres. It will be capable of generating 710 megawatts, which is enough juice to power 150,000 homes.

The utility is also launching a major battery storage project at the same site, and will be testing new technologies for capturing and holding the energy.

Frenzel noted that while Xcel has closed 24 coal-burning units across its system in the past 15 years, it hasn’t resulted in any staff losses in those communities.

Ryan Long, Xcel’s president for the Minnesota and Dakotas region, thanked the utility’s partners for the roles they’ve played in making a transition to clean energy.

“We can do all of this and keep bills low for customers,” Long told the crowd. “The investments we’re making bring back hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants to Minnesotans, and back to our customers through lower bills.”

Long said Xcel will continue to take an “all of the above” approach to renewable energy sources, which includes extending the lives of the state’s existing nuclear power plants.

“We’re going to invest in hundreds of megawatts of new battery storage, but we’re also going to extend the lives of our nuclear facilities, which provide around-the-clock carbon-free energy on our system and really will become the new backbone of our generation system as we move through this energy transition.”

Xcel invited Governor Walz to the solar launch, to thank him for setting high goals for carbon-free sources of energy and supporting legislation that will make it easier to build transmission lines connecting renewable energy projects to where the demand exists.

“We’re proving for the rest of the country this is not an either/or choice. We are producing energy across the spectrum, from nuclear, to natural gas, to the clean energies you see here,” Walz remarked. “When you look at this happening, this is what the future can look like. And the future is bright.”

Instead of the traditional ribbon-cutting photo op, they held a symbolic “plug-in” ceremony, to highlight the fact phase one of Sherco Solar is already generating electricity.

Katie Sieben, who chairs the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, said the project represents a collaboration of many stakeholders. She also noted that Xcel and its contractor Blattner Energy of Avon have complied with mandates to pay prevailing wages, logging 730,000 hours of work by union members on the solar project.

She thanked Xcel for starting the project in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We needed Minnesotans to get back to work. We knew we needed help building our clean energy future. And, thanks to Xcel’s vision, leadership, and perseverance, they brought a really wonderful project to Minnesota.”

Chris Hodrick of Blattner Energy thanked the unions by name, which include Operators Engineers Local 49, LIUNA Local 563, Ironworkers Local 512, IBEW Local 292, and IBEW Local 160.

He also gave a shoutout to the communities around the Sherco Plant for welcoming his crews and subcontractors.

“With the towns of Becker and Clearwater the support here has been tremendous. It’s important for us because we’ve become part of the community.”

MINNEAPOLIS — The healthcare crisis across rural America just keeps growing.

A new report from the Center for Rural Policy and Development out of Minnesota shows that demand for long-term care for the elderly will skyrocket over the next 20 years.

Experts say the biggest hurdle will be to try and staff for that increase. 

The University of Minnesota’s Rural Physician Associate Program is matching about 35 of its medical students a year to more rural areas where they learn a broader skillset and become well-known in the community. 

“If we can get students to experience that in our program, they’re three times more likely to practice in a rural spot,” said U of M Professor Dr. Kirby Clark. “We don’t focus just on physicians because by themselves, without a team, is pretty worthless, so we promote all the other health professions that a community needs.”

The need extends beyond doctors and includes recruiting pharmacy techs and nurses, particularly at nursing homes, and the problems have forced many to shut their doors. 

In Minnesota, eight nursing homes closed in 2023. In the three years before that, there were another 15, including one Jenny Gleason oversees. 

“It was excruciating,” said Gleason, who’s the CEO of Living Services Foundation which has several facilities in southwest Minnesota. “People were just heartbroken because it becomes their community.”

Gleason converted that one closed facility to assisted living in 2021, citing staffing shortages. 

“When we are constantly searching and calling everyone to see if you can work overtime, can you do this, like everyone is stressed,” said Gleason. “And it’s not that people don’t want to do a good job or be there, but they need balance too.”

The new report says demand for nursing beds won’t peak for at least another 20 to 30 years when its data shows more than 37,000 people will need one. 

It also shows patients are sicker, reimbursement rates are low and some wages are higher. 

Some of those wages will go up even more as the state’s newly formed workforce standards board voted to start raising minimum pay and benefits in 2026. 

“Figuring out how to get the cash upfront to fund that is really, really challenging, especially after going through COVID-19 when organizations like mine put every extra penny we had into just making it through,” said Gleason. 

The most severe declines are happening in Red Lake County, which lost all of its beds. Cass Lake County only has 33 beds left, followed by Grant and Swift Counties. 

The report says Chippewa County is the only one to have more beds because the Department of Veterans Affairs built a new facility just this year.

In the meantime, other locations have to keep getting creative with recruitment and some say they’ll push for fewer barriers, including the new, federal minimum staffing requirements.

ORONO, Minn. — Orono is on track to replace four of their current five leaders next year, including their mayor. Challenger Bob Tunheim beat incumbent Denny Walsh with two-thirds of the votes this election. Tunheim has a background as an attorney and previously served as a school board chair during the pandemic. 

His top priorities? Rebuilding trust with residents and mending the relationship with neighboring city Long Lake. 

“I am eager to begin rebuilding trust and am confident that we can find a practical solution that benefits all parties while fully addressing Orono’s public safety needs,” Tunheim said.

Two new city council members were elected in Orono, too. Just last week, one city council member that wasn’t up for re-election resigned. 

“I think people are interested in being sleepy little Orono in the western suburbs again,” councilmember elect Steve Persian jokingly said.

Persian, who was once a fire chief of Long Lake, feels the residents have spoken and it’s time to move forward with more civility in the city. One of his goals is to re-unite the Orono Fire Department with Long Lake. Something the previous administration was against. 

In 2021, Orono Mayor Denny Walsh began taking steps to sever ties with Long Lake and build their own fire department. The two cities have shared a fire department together for 100 years. Walsh said at the time, Orono owned 85% of the service area and owned the majority of the equipment which led to them wanting to have control over their own department. 

The division not only was highly scrutinized by residents but led to a lawsuit filed by Long Lake. 

“We had to get an injunction, the City of Orono was held in contempt, twice. It’s been a lot of stress on our fire fighters most importantly,” Long Lake Mayor Charlie Miner. 

Miner says the current fire contract between the cities expires in 2025. He says the city of Long Lake is delaying their trial date with hopes the cities can reach an amicable agreement.