The Harlow Report-GIS
2023 Edition
ISSN 0742-468X
Since 1978
On-line Since 2000
first published week of: 02/27/2023
How Small City Utilities Are Grappling With Minnesota’s New 100% Carbon-Free Standard
by Walker Orenstein
Hibbing has a biomass plant, while Princeton has backup diesel generators. Could they and other city utilities be forced to find alternative power sources?
Hibbing is something of a rarity when it comes to electricity. Since 2021, most of the city’s power has been generated by burning wood chips and mulch — up to 9,000 tons a month — largely from a local pallet manufacturer. The plant allows the small municipal utility to support northeastern Minnesota’s logging industry and also avoid buying electricity from large for-profit companies.
“The independence of the city is something that is very important to our ratepayers and that’s why we have the lowest cost of energy of anybody in the area,” said Luke Peterson, general manager of Hibbing Public Utilities.
And because state law counts biomass as renewable energy, Hibbing has likely already met a newly updated goal for 55% renewable electricity more than a decade before a 2035 deadline.
But the plant, and the city, is now in limbo.
Read full story at MINNPOST…