Midway through Wind power requirement proposal goes to state lawmakers, Mankato Free Press staff writer Dan Linehan reports:
. . . Timothy Zinniel, president of Sleepy Eye-based Zinniel Electric, said his company started selling and installing solar panels in 2007 and now makes 50 percent of its annual sales from solar power.
“If (municipal power providers) and power companies could offer electricity from a local standpoint, they’d be creating more jobs locally. Our largest export is our dollars. Let’s keep them here,” he said.
Zinniel estimates he’d hire at least five more people if the solar standard passes.
That doesn’t include the jobs created by Minnesota’s two solar panel manufacturers, tenKsolar and Silicon Energy.
When Zinniel is working with a customer, he offers them both American- and foreign-made panels. The Chinese ones are sometimes cheaper, but Zinniel said many of his customers are willing to pay a bit more to buy American. . . .
Zinniel supports a measure that would require Minnesota's utilities togenerate 4 percent of their electricity from solar power by 2025 and to get 40 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2030.
Although Xcel Energy and other utilities oppose the bill, a representative for Xcel conceded that the development of Minnesota's wind industry hasn't led to higher rates for the out-of-state utility's customers in Minnesota. Linehan reports:
That said, McCarten said Xcel’s wind energy spending hasn’t led to any price increases for customers. In other words, if the company had bought natural gas instead of wind, customers would be paying roughly the same amount.
[J. Drake] Hamilton, the renewable energy advocate, said people who support the higher renewable energy standard should contact their legislators.
Bluestem suspects that as Minnesota's solar industry matures, costs will come down. Could the utilities' own commitments and contracts for fossil-fuel generated power be as much factor for the resistance to the development of solar as concern for the hypothetical costs for consumers?
Manufacturing jobs creating high-quality Minnesota-made products, as well as jobs based in Greater Minnesota small businesses, sounds pretty electifying to Bluestem. Governor Mark Dayton supports the development of Minnesota's renewable energy portfolio.
Photo: Solar panels, via Zinniel Electric.
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