Cooperative Energy Futures

8 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 6 to DenHerder-Thomas, “We had to do a lot of virtual meetings, especially when following up with individuals who expressed interest, to walk them through their eligibility, sign up steps, and helping them understand how it will impact their utility bill.” Although the pandemic slowed down community outreach efforts, CEF is optimistic that this was just a temporary setback, with the sector poised for a massive rebound over the next few years. “In January of 2016, there were 37 megawatts of solar installed in the state, meaning from the beginning of the solar industry in the 1960s through January 2016, only 37 megawatts of solar had been installed,” asserts DenHerder- Thomas. “Since January 2016, we’ve installed about 1,000 megawatts, indicating a massive inflection point that signaled the transition from hobbyist installations to becoming a meaningful and significant part of state energy generation.” While aware of the economic and legislative challenges facing widespread solar adoption, DenHerder-Thomas sees this outcome as inevitable. “We have passed an inflection point where solar and other renewables will soon become the cheapest energy available – wind has already passed this mark, and utility companies are aware of it.” Innovation and market forces are bringing this future closer, but DenHerder-Thomas points to another factor accelerating solar adoption. “Another important transition happening in the state and around the country is a growing awareness of why energy equity is important. For quite some time, the message was we need to build more solar. It did not matter who it was for or who benefited. For example, for a long time in Minnesota, 86% of so-called community solar was serving large commercial and industrial customers, a common trend in the other parts of the country. While this made sense from a business perspective; it’s a lot easier to develop renewable energy for corporations, COOPERAT I VE ENERGY FUTURES