Cedar Creek completes 5-MW solar project near closed Minnesota landfill

A new solar project has gone up next to a closed landfill in Ramsey, Minnesota. Cedar Creek Energy finished building the 5-megawatt array, called Ramsey II Renewable Station, on about 25 acres of buffer land near the Anoka-Ramsey Closed Landfill. The system has roughly 8,700 bifacial solar panels (panels that collect sunlight on both sides) mounted on trackers that tilt to follow the sun and adjust to the site's uneven ground. Construction took about six months. The local utility, Connexus Energy, will buy the power from the project under a 30-year purchase agreement, and the site itself is leased from the state of Minnesota.

This isn't a project homeowners can sign up for or install on their own property. It's a utility-scale solar farm built on reused industrial land, not a rooftop or community solar program open to individual customers. Getting the project built took more than a decade of coordination between the utility, the state, and the city of Ramsey, including a 2021 change in state law that removed financial rules blocking solar development on this kind of site.

The news is mainly a sign of how utilities are finding new places to add solar power, including land that can't be used for much else, like old landfills. If you live in Connexus Energy's service area, this project adds more renewable power to the local grid, but it doesn't come with any new rebate, incentive, or program for homeowners to take advantage of directly.