Roadblocks and Solutions to Greening Minnesota’s Utility Companies by 2040

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed Bill HF7 into law on February 7, 2023, creating a renewable portfolio standard for Minnesota’s utilities, requiring utilities to produce 100% of their electricity from carbon-free sources. The bill also includes ‘off-ramps’ that allow utilities to delay their obligation to meet the standard. This paper explores three critical areas that help to avoid the use of the off-ramps: transmission line capacity expansion, ensuring a capable clean energy workforce, and expanded community solar. Transmission line capacity, or the lack thereof, bottlenecks Minnesota’s clean energy transition. Streamlining the regulatory approval process through a ‘first-ready, first-served’ model, along with expanded grid-enhancing technology use, and a switch to performance-based regulation models for utility companies, are three ways Minnesota can improve its grid. Minnesota’s clean energy workforce is underdeveloped. The problem is worsening as many baby-boomers retire and the pipeline of young workers into the trades weakens. The expansion and improvement of apprenticeship models, where one can ‘earn-as-you-learn,’ is an effective way to entice workers to enter relevant trades. Another is through ‘stackable credits,’ where technical college degrees are broken into a chain of stackable credentials, giving students flexibility in customizing their academic experience and equitable access to employers.