Solar at Osprey Wilds Environmental Learning Center

This summer, Osprey Wilds, Soltek, and East Central Energy collaborated to install a 716-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system at Osprey Wilds’ campus. The project, the largest of its kind for any nature center in Minnesota, is a win-win-win for all parties. It creates consistent revenue for Soltek, supplies East Central Energy with clean, affordable energy, and provides Osprey Wilds with zero-emission electricity, allowing it to achieve its goals of being carbon neutral from an electrical consumption standpoint, while also providing financial security through affordable energy for the next 30+ years.

But how did the vision for powering Osprey Wilds with solar become a reality? Tune into this recording of Fresh Energy’s October 28 webinar to hear from Osprey Wilds’ Executive Director Bryan Wood, Soltek’s CEO Shawn Markham, and East Central Energy’s CEO Justin Jahnz about how all three parties came together around this project to help each other achieve their organizations’ goals, while also helping the planet.

Check out photos from the project here: https://bit.ly/solar-osprey.

Give to the Max Day is November 21! Schedule your donation to Fresh Energy today.

Fresh Energy’s mission is to shape and drive bold policy solutions to achieve equitable carbon-neutral economies. Together we are working toward a vision of a just, prosperous, and resilient future powered by a shared commitment to a carbon-neutral economy. Learn about Fresh Energy's work and our bold "Vision 2030: Fresh Energy's Strategic Framework" at our website fresh-energy.org.


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Transcript

Jo Olson: [00:00:10] Hello and welcome to Decarbonize the Clean Energy Podcast from Fresh Energy. Fresh energy is a Minnesota nonprofit working to speed our state's transition to a clean energy economy. My name is Jo Olson. I'm the lead director of communications and engagement with Fresh Energy. And today, I'm here to share with you a recording of a conversation we had a few weeks back with our friends at Osprey Wilds Environmental Learning Center. So this summer, Osprey Wilds, Soltek and East Central Energy collaborated to install a 716 kilowatt solar photovoltaic system at Osprey Wilds campus outside of sandstone, Minnesota. But how did they pull this off? Keep listening to find out. Hi everyone, and welcome to Fresh Energy's joint webinar with Osprey Wilds. We're going to give folks a few minutes to log into our zoom room today. We had a lot of registrations for this event. I'm really excited. I think it's a very cool story and one where, you know, a lot of people came together to make a really cool project happen. So thank you for being with us today. I also heard that we might be joined by a fourth grade class, which I think would be really cool. Um, maybe we'll be able to answer some of their questions during the the Q&A session. Hello, fourth grade class from Saint Paul Public Schools. Welcome, you guys.

Jo Olson: [00:01:40] Thanks for joining. Um, gosh. And with that, I think we have plenty of people in the zoom room. So I'm just going to kick us off. Hello and welcome to Fresh Energy's webinar about Osprey Wilds Environmental Learning Center. It's hosted by Fresh Energy. And we're going to talk today about how Osprey Oscar Wilde's teamed up with their electric co-op and a solar developer to make a really amazing clean energy project happen. My name is Jo Olson. My pronouns are she her. I'm the lead director of communications and engagement at Fresh Energy. Thank you so much for joining us. And before we dive into introductions, I want to do just a few housekeeping items. First of all, the chat is open, so if you're feeling talkative, go ahead and put in your name and where you're joining us from. I think we've got a really broad statewide group here, so I'd love to see that representation. And then everyone always asks, Will the recording be recorded? And indeed, yes, it will. The webinar will be recorded and we will share it after after the webinar, probably later this afternoon, you'll get an email with a link to the recording on YouTube. And then some of you submitted questions when you registered for the webinar. Thank you for doing that. We will definitely be taking questions at the end of the webinar.

Jo Olson: [00:02:55] So if you didn't submit them advance, don't worry, we'll get to those towards the end. And that will be hosted by my colleague Isaac Quam. But you can submit a question at any time using the Q&A function at the bottom of your screen. So it's like a little button and it says Q&A. And if you like someone else's question or you see someone else has submitted a question that you were interested in, you can actually upvote it and it will rise to the top of Isaac's screen for when we get to the Q&A. All right, so for those of you who are new to Fresh Energy, welcome. Fresh Energy has been working on clean energy and climate policy issues here in Minnesota and throughout the Midwest for 30 years. We're changing the world through bold policy solutions that move us to a just, carbon free future. And we're helping everyone who lives here and dependence on fossil fuel electrify their lives and build a healthy, clean energy economy where all can thrive. So should we meet our presenters? Now? I can see people saying hi to each other in the chat. Let's do a round robin of our presenters. Let's start with Brian and then we'll go to Justin and then Sean. Brian, kick us off.

Brian Wood: [00:04:03] Hey, everybody. So glad to be here. My name is Brian Wood. I use he him pronouns. I am executive director at Osprey Wilds Environmental Learning Center and I've been there since 2007.

Justin Jahnz: [00:04:16] And Justin everyone Justin Jahnz with East Central Energy in Braham, Minnesota. I am the president and CEO here at East Central Energy, and I've been in that role for four years, been with the cooperative for over 15. And yeah, really excited to be on this webinar to talk about a project that took some time and some some effort and some collaboration. So it's a it's a great story to tell and I'm excited to be a part of it.

Jo Olson: [00:04:41] Hey, Sean.

Sean Markham: [00:04:43] Hey. Good morning, Sean Markham. I run a small boutique consulting firm and development firm called Soul Tech, and we built the project and will operate this project for the next 30 some years.

Jo Olson: [00:04:58] Awesome. And gosh Brian, am I remembering this right? Does Osprey wilds and fresh energies like friendship just go way back? Am I remembering, right that Michael Noble, our former executive director, was on the board of Osprey Wilds a long time ago?

Brian Wood: [00:05:11] Yeah, you're right Jo. Yeah, we've been connected for two plus decades, going back to when we were Audubon Center of the North Woods, and Michael was on our board and then on our advisory board. And we've, uh, definitely enjoyed the resources and the expertise and just the partnership over the years with fresh energy.

Jo Olson: [00:05:31] Two decades, I love it. It feels like this webinar was maybe like two decades in the making. So. All right. Well, I just wanted to see if my memory was right for that. I think we can stop sharing our screen. And now we're going to talk about the big picture of this project. So, Brian, I'm going to turn it over to you here for the next while to tell us a bit about Osprey Wilds and your vision and the project and all that good stuff.

Brian Wood: [00:05:54] Great. Thank you. So I wanted to give a little bit of an overview about Osprey Wilds, the organization, and then, uh, who we are, what we do, and why this project really made sense for us. Um, so for those of you that aren't familiar with with who we are, Osprey Wilds is a 501 C3 nonprofit public charity. Um, we're an accredited outdoor school. We're a college field, campus conference and retreat center. We authorize charter schools. Some of you might know us from our previous name. We changed our name January 1st, 2020 and actually consulted with Michael and Fresh Energy about going through a name change and all the things to consider for that. Um, and last year we served over 15,000 people in our environmental education programs. So connecting people, educating people about the environment is really what we're about. Our mission is to instill a connection and commitment to the environment and people of all communities through experiential learning. So our campus is located in sandstone, which is about halfway between the Twin Cities and Duluth, off exit 191. If you head west five miles off the interstate, there you will come to one of the most unique lakes in the state, Grindstone Lake. And our campus, which resides on 780 acres there, um, our roots are from, uh, a bequest of property from the Schweitzer family back in 1968. And that's the historic Schweitzer Lodge, which was our home base for our first 15 years until we were able to start expanding our facilities.

Brian Wood: [00:07:39] And that expansion continues today. So that's our large dining hall and dormitory. And you can see some of our energy that we've put in place over the years, and we'll talk about that because it's been a long journey. Our clean energy commitment. Um, so that's our campus, uh, beautiful spot to be able to teach people about the outdoors. So we're an accredited outdoor K-12 school. And the biggest way we connect people to the environment is by having K-12 students with their schools come up and come to the organization, come to the center, and stay for multiple days at a time. So nature centers, you know, typically host, uh, groups for a few hours or for a day program. What we can do with our dormitory and our dining services is that we can host schools for multiple days. So they're really getting immersed in the outdoors, living, breathing that for extended periods of time that can really have a big impact on those students. And we've really worked hard over the last several years to also make that more financially available through scholarships, to make sure the outdoors is accessible for all kids. Besides our K-12 school programs, we also are a college field campus for undergraduate and graduate programs. And there's a wide array of those programs that include community colleges, as well as Hamlin University's Natural Sciences and Environmental Education master's program. Um, there's a j-term class we offer on wolves and wildlife tracking, and we reach lots of students in schools across the country through those programs.

Brian Wood: [00:09:30] We also are Minnesota's largest authorizer by number of schools in the state. So charter schools are public schools that anyone can attend, and they usually have a slightly Um, different focus or specialized focus that might provide a really good opportunity for, for students that might be looking for a different way to learn and, and be supported in their education. And we have those schools all around the state, from Grand Portage to La Crescent to Hutchinson, to Bemidji and everywhere in between. Um, and that's nearly 10,000 students this year in those schools. And what makes it really unique for us is that we're the only authorizer in the entire country that requires environmental education has to happen in those schools. So you might have charter schools that have an environmental focus, but that would be something that they probably had on their own, as opposed to working with their authorizer and knowing that this is a commitment from an authorizer to the school, that that environmental education needs to happen. And so in that way, we can really expand our mission to thousands of students across the state. Um, and that's a really exciting component to what we do with our environmental education. Um, when the school year is done, we also offer youth camps, day use and overnight. And those are wide ranging in their topics as well as the age groups that we work with.

Brian Wood: [00:11:00] And we've been able to offer all of those as pay what you can models. So whatever amount works for a family, um, that that works for us. And then we are grateful to have grant support and donor support to cover that difference. So again, we can make the outdoors accessible to everybody from a financial standpoint. Um, and it's not just kids we educate. It's also adult programs. So we have women's wellness weekends, which are very popular throughout, um, every year in the fall and the spring. And Rhodes Scholar programs, which Rhodes Scholar used to be called Elderhostel, but for many years is now called Rhodes Scholar. And we do off site and on site trips for those programs, as well as community programs that are right there at our site. So dinners at the lake with our really great food service and really engaging, interesting speakers throughout the year, we have skills workshops. We tap about 600 maple trees every spring and collect sap with the help of lots of school kids and and volunteers and and demonstrate that process. Um, we also have volunteer work weekends where people can roll up their sleeves and help us out with our many facilities and miles of trails and, um, so lots of different ways that you can come up for the day and, um, participate in a program or help us out. One of the ways that we also have tried to make a positive climate impact is, is thinking about our food that we serve at our dining hall.

Brian Wood: [00:12:42] So in a given year, we serve about 50,000 meals at our dining hall. That has a huge impact, and there's also a huge potential to have a positive impact for the environment. And so for the last four years, we have been growing our own food, um, at property that was very generously donated by neighbors, friends and donors. Um, that is now on our contiguous northern boundary. Um, and so through the help of Natural Resource Conservation Service and donors, we've been able to build out this farm, which is, um, many certifications and endorsements from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture that, uh, demonstrates how you can grow food regeneratively and raise animals in a way that reduces the carbon footprint, you know, sequesters carbon. Uh, it's a no till farm, and its Minnesota Water Quality certified farm, as well as having endorsements for wildlife, soil health, climate smart and integrated pest management. So not only does the food taste better and fresher, and we're not having that carbon footprint of thousands of miles, but we also now can demonstrate practical ways that you can improve soil health, improve water quality, improve pollinator habitat, reduce carbon footprint for the climate. And so while there aren't any solar panels out there producing food, the way that we're cultivating and caring for this land definitely has an impact for the climate.

Brian Wood: [00:14:19] Another thing that has an impact for the climate, for us is just thinking about the way that we steward our land. And so we were able to to get funding a few years ago to, to purchase some lots that were up for sale through legacy amendment Funds and protect those forever. And then the initial bequest land that the Schweitzer family gave to us in 1968. We worked with the Minnesota Land Trust, and a couple of years ago, we closed on putting over 85% of that initial bequest property into a permanent conservation easement. So that's going to protect that land in perpetuity. And hopefully Osprey Wilds is around 100 years from now, still doing the great things we are. But, um, it's great to know that no matter what happens and how far out it is, that land will always be protected. It won't be subdivided, it won't be having edge habitat chopped up everywhere. That lake shore of 4100ft will remain intact, and that property will be wildlife habitat, as well as sequestering carbon with all the forests and prairies that we have. So that's another way that we've thought about how can we reduce our impact on the climate and the environment? So then getting to how do we really walk the talk and, and make sure that we're demonstrating we're not just teaching about the environment, but how are we demonstrating our values to all of the people that come to our facility? Because if we're just talking about being engaged with the environment, not conscious of our impact on the planet.

Brian Wood: [00:16:02] That's a that's a big miss. So for the last 20 plus years, we've really been intentional about how can we continue to do better. How can we do better with our energy footprint. And so that's been really three big categories of energy conservation energy efficiency and then renewables. And so addressing each of those really in that order, how can we reduce the amount of energy we just use. And then from there can we be more efficient with what we're using and producing that energy with. And then finally, you know, are there opportunities for us to actually produce energy on site? And so over that time, we've been able to make some pretty cool strides. Things really kicked off in 2004 when we got a grant, a federal grant from the Housing and Urban Development Department, and that allowed us to put in a 65 ton ground source geothermal heat pump for our two main buildings. And so we switched from having propane heated buildings to, um, geothermal cooled and heated buildings. And then we've been able to just continue to, um, find inroads in different ways to continue to reduce that footprint. And so you can kind of see that chronology from 2004, uh, on through several years after and different things that we were able to accomplish. Uh, so you can't see the geothermal pumps. But they're right to the southeast of our main dining hall.

Brian Wood: [00:17:37] So there are 36 wells down there that the vertical closed loop system. They each go down 206ft, and then they go into our pump house, which then moves that glycol solution around and heats and cools these buildings. And those pumps have now been running for 20 years and we never need to turn on propane. So that was a great, um, start for us. From there, we've added solar hot water panels. So these sit on our rooftop of Crosby Lodge, and there's actually a couple more on the other side. But what they do is there's a glycol solution in those copper coils that heat up with the sun, and then that heats up the reservoir tank. And so on a good sunny day, that might be all of the hot water needs we have. So it's 100% hot water from the sun. And on the days where it's cloudy or the demand exceeds what it can keep up with, then we have tankless water heaters to supplement that. But those solar hot water panels also heat the water in our kitchen, in the bathrooms, in our dining hall building on our barn, which is over 100 years old. Um, we've added, uh, better insulation. We've added passive solar with these windows here. This is a solar air heat panel, which just warms up, um, air and then pipes that out into whatever room you want that to go to. So that is a very simple but very effective solar technology that reduces our heating needs for that building.

Brian Wood: [00:19:16] These were our first solar panels that were actually installed in 2005. That's an 8.4kW system, dual tracking arrays. Um, so that was our first, uh, rollout of solar photovoltaics. In 2011, we added these six dual trackers, which were about a 24 kilowatt system. And then in 2015, we added this six kilowatt system, which our panels actually from ten K solar, which used to be in Bloomington. So if you add up all of those, it's about 39 kilowatt, um, of solar on Oscar Wilde's property. Up to this fall, uh, the tankless water heaters, like I said, also help cover what the solar hot water panels don't. Uh, for those of you that stop by the center, we have a brochure that goes down every building. And what are the different things besides what I've shown that we've done? So also blown cellulose into the buildings to reduce the, uh, heat loss, energy loss and increase that r value. Low flow aerators, low flow showerheads, LED lighting. So all of those things where we're using energy, how can we reduce that? So it's been a process. And, um, you know, with all of those things and with all of our buildings, we're still using 300,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each year. And, you know, for us as an organization, our goal is really to minimize our impact on the environment. So it's in our strategic plan that, uh, our current strategic plan that we'd like to produce 100% of our electricity on site to get down to a carbon neutral electricity standpoint.

Brian Wood: [00:21:04] We feel that's really important. Just if we're going to teach about the environment, then we should demonstrate best practice. And best practice should be not emitting carbon from our electricity. Um, so we didn't know how we would get there, but that was a goal. And so we actually had gotten pretty close in 2019 when we were looking at doing a loan, but then getting into the details of the size of the system, the production, what the loan payment was, it just didn't really work out from a cash flow standpoint. So that didn't end up happening. Then Covid hit and, you know, we just tried to stay afloat and survive. And once things got a little more stable then we had been in touch with East Central Energy and Justin up to that point back in 2019. Um, and then it was worth reaching out again, I thought, because this was still a goal of ours. We still wanted to get there, didn't know exactly if it was going to be possible, but we wanted to have those discussions and just see what might we be able to work out. Um, and so that brought us up to 2022. And, um, I'll let Justin take it from here on East Central Energy and kind of how the next year plus kind of played out.

Jo Olson: [00:22:23] Yeah, really perfect segue. Um, Justin, I think I think it's over to you now. And you have a presentation to share, too, I think. Right. And I'll let you kick us off.

Justin Jahnz: [00:22:33] All right. Well, thanks, Brian. Um, yeah. You know, East Central Energy is a member owned cooperative. And as a member owned cooperative, we focus on the membership as a whole as well as individual members. And so we do serve 67,000 members in east central Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. And we also are in the process of deploying high speed fiber internet to our entire service territory as well. We believe it's a it's a it's a lacking resource in our community. And so EAC fiber is our offering, and we're moving that forward, um, as a new offering of our cooperative. But I want to talk a little bit about I think it's important to understand our business model. And before I dive into why this project made good sense for us, um, we are operating obviously in an industry that is evolving. The idea of electrification is something that, when I started just 15 years ago in this industry, was pretty foreign. In fact, I think at that point electricity was viewed as a secondary resource because of coal, because of all of the, the, the pollutions associated with the generation of electricity. Fast forward 15 years, and I think that narrative has changed. The idea of electrification is now looked at as a really good thing, and electricity is considered the fuel of choice in many operations. But there's an asterisk with all of that, right? We want it to be low carbon. We want it to be environmentally sound. And so as a cooperative, we're here to serve the entirety of our membership and do so in a way that makes a lot of sense.

Justin Jahnz: [00:24:05] Another thing that's really changed in our industry recently is the idea of two way power flow. And so small scale solar kind of introduced us to that, where entities might produce electricity at one point in time while consuming electricity from the grid at another point in time. And so we've had to learn how to operate in that space as a utility and as a cooperative. So our industry is also becoming more political. Uh, all of these projects, things like this, can be viewed by one group of people in one way and by another group of people in another way. And so as a cooperative, one of our biggest challenges and one of our biggest opportunities is to approach these projects and find ways that they can make sense. And that leads us to this project. And the question that I that I have been asked is, why is why is EAC involved in this project? And I'll just I'll just share with you that Osprey Wilds came to us back in 2019. Like Brian said, I was actually in the role of energy services manager at that point, and we had a lot of conversations about Minnesota's laws around retail net metering. So, so today, if you install solar on your home or business and it's under 40 kW, which Brian referenced, the 39 kW mark. Utilities are obligated to buy that electricity back at a retail price once you go over that threshold. The power purchase can be purchased at what's called a voided cost, and that is the generation and transmission companies avoided cost, which is a pretty low, pretty low price.

Justin Jahnz: [00:25:34] And that's why a lot of these larger projects, when they're done in isolation by a single entity, can be difficult to make them work. It can be hard for the the installer or the owner of the of the asset to to make it work out. And so when we went into this project, what I told Brian and I told the board at Osprey Wilds is we're committed to making this happen, but only if it makes sense for the rest of our membership. And so, through a series of iterations of conversations and potential projects, we had to find a way that it was beneficial to Osprey Wilds, but also beneficial to the rest of our membership. And there were a lot of conversations, and there were a lot of times along the way where I thought, you know, there wasn't any gas left in the tank. We weren't going to we weren't going to get to make this go. But but Osprey Wilds persisted and we continued to engage because that's what we do. We we want to work with our members to find solutions to their energy goals. And so the project came together, and I'm going to allow Sean to share some of the details of how that project worked out. But but I really want to share the utility perspective on this. And that is retail net metering is a difficult thing.

Justin Jahnz: [00:26:42] It was a it was a an incentive that was developed by the state of Minnesota to encourage technology, to encourage the idea of solar energy particularly, but wind energy as well, in Minnesota at small scale. The reality is now with 2040 legislation of 0 or 100% carbon free by 2040, we really are moving down that path. And so we believe that the time has come to show projects like this as collaborative success, as the opportunity for a path forward, for Minnesota to be carbon, to be carbon free, to, to move forward with reduced carbon electricity. But education really is the key at this point. We've got to help people on both sides of the proverbial aisle. If you will understand how we move forward with this. I really do view electricity as a societal contract. In other words, we're making huge investments in projects like this, and we need to make sure that everybody's on the same page and understands what the financial implications, as well as the environmental implications of all of these projects are. And so we're really excited for this project. We're going to definitely be using it to showcase what can be done in rural America and rural Minnesota to help achieve our, our, our carbon goals as a state. And we believe it's a path forward that is both environmentally and financially sustainable. And so with that, I'll turn it over to Shawn Marcum to share a little bit of the the detail of how this project kind of came together from a mechanical standpoint.

Sean Markham: [00:28:09] Excellent. Good afternoon guys. Uh, so I'm Shawn Shaun Marcum. I have a small consulting firm and construction firm that has mostly been involved in utility scale solar. Um, but I did about five years ago. First, meet the guys with a couple of small projects that I had built on some property that I had purchased up by Malacca. And then about a year and a half ago, the a friend of mine in the industry forwarded me the RFP for this project. I responded, we had some good conversations with between me and Osprey Wilds at the time, but the the economics just didn't get there. And I understand that very well being in the utility scale market and kind of seeing how solar has come together in the state of Minnesota versus some other states, especially when it comes to like large utility scale plants, like down in Chicago. So then about maybe January or so, February of this year, uh, California passed a bunch of legislation that changed how they were dealing with retail net metering, and that resulted in a big slump in what is what we would refer to as the CNI market, which is kind of a market and IT related residential market, which is, say, the market that's, you know, maybe a megawatt and under and it resulted in the ability for us to procure materials and other equipment for the project at discounted rates, which, uh, we plugged all that number, plugged those numbers back into the model.

Sean Markham: [00:29:45] Um, you know, say, for example, we probably were able to pick up solar panels themselves. We found some that had been in storage since 2019. Um, and we're picking them up for probably around 40 to 50% of the average retail cost of materials at the time. Um, so that allowed us to reduce the cost that we would have for an install on the project to get to something that was more competitive in the market with where we would have to compete is with the pricing that the Giants are at, which is what Justin had alluded to before. Um, otherwise, at the end of the day, the co-op is really spending more money to buy the power than what they're getting out of the power when they sell it. So I reached back out to Justin and to Brian separately. Um, probably around March or so. And I said, hey, we have a really good opportunity. I can get some solar panels at a deep discount. I can get some solar edge equipment, which is the inverter and the optimizers, which is my preferred brand. Um, and some other utility folks that I deal with, Aamco solar, which is a they do a lot of fixed tilt racking. Um, they're probably maybe one of the bigger fixed tilt racking vendors in the, in the market in the United States.

Sean Markham: [00:31:01] Um, so we were able to get some good pricing through there, and we put together a new price and provided that over to, uh, to Brian and Justin and through probably another couple months of iteration back and forth and definitely, um, you know, Justin and his team stepping up to the plate and helping us out on finding something that was economic to interconnect the project, which is a which can be difficult, like you on a on a residential project. It's pretty easy because you're basically interconnecting through your meter, through your standard, you know, 200 amp service equipment that everybody has in a house. But like when you expand that, now you're talking something that's more along the lines of a medium voltage interconnect. The utility needs, uh, they need to be able to protect their system in case of issues. And that and that raises costs. And for us as a small developer to do that and hire an outside electrician to do that work for us, it can become expensive. So we came to an agreement on we covered the cost, but, um, Justin and his skilled crew of linemen were able to to do that work for us. And through all that, we got the price down to something that was pretty reasonable. Um, and then to, to make it really. And so we had, we had agreed on this price. And then we took it one step further and we applied for what was a USDA Reap grant.

Sean Markham: [00:32:23] And so the US Department of Agriculture has been pretty influential in, in trying to improve, um, you know, either through solar or grain drying and different processes, reduce energy or reduce fossil fuel energy. Typically, you know, most grain drying was done with propane and that. And so they've they've done a really good job of funding out. I'd be remiss if I told you what the numbers are, but I believe it's somewhere in the state of Minnesota, is somewhere around 10 to $15 million a year that they're giving out in these Reap grants to support rural, rural businesses. It's not limited to agriculture, it's rural businesses. Um, so this project Being in a rural location, it qualified for it. Um, that the general area also fell into um, what's considered an economic and distress zone, which is something that came out in the infrastructure or the Inflation Reduction Act. Um, which was pretty pivotal to renewable energy. And so that those two together, um, allowed us then also to get this Reap grant to help fund the project. Um, which then in turn allows us to sell the project back or sell the energy out of it back to East Central Energy, of which then they're, you know, their relationship with Osprey Wilds and the fact that it's landed on Osprey Wilds property allows Osprey Wilds to have this project, which brings them, uh, you know, we'll power the campus 100% renewable, I think just or, uh, as Brian had said earlier, they consume about 300 kilowatt hours or 300,000 kilowatt hours a year.

Sean Markham: [00:34:04] This this site, on paper, should produce about 1,000,000 kilowatt hours a year. At the end of the day, it probably is going to be closer to the 900 to 950. Um, you have some snowfall in the winter. You have some equipment failures or some equipment resets that need to be done in the time they get up that gets up there. But the nice thing is, is at the end of the day, we're able to help meet that goal and print clean, renewable energy locally on the grid. Um, the excess energy. We're going to operate the plant for the next 30 years. Um, and then we'll discuss it after that. I guess there'll be a discussion with my kids after that on, uh, repowering it and operating it for another 30 years after that. Um, which is good. We we wrap the project in, in a nice egg fence, agricultural fence. And so we're looking forward to possibly bringing some sheep up there or something similar to maintain the ground and limit our carbon footprint from here on out on it. Um, one nice thing is, like, we incorporated a lot of materials that are, you know, pretty easy to deal with and low maintenance, fixed tilt racking.

Sean Markham: [00:35:12] It's not going to move anywhere. The solaredge equipment is pretty, uh, is pretty robust. And then, uh, the modules themselves, they're there's about 1800 modules on site there. Hyundai, which is a good manufacturer, their bifacial modules. And one thing that is nice about a bifacial module is you gain some energy from the backside, especially in the winter when the sun is reflecting off the snow. Uh, you pick up some energy. So one thing that, like a solar panel does over time is it degrades, um, kind of like no different than your your tires on your car. You drive it long enough, the tires start to wear out and you get that same thing with the solar panel and solar equipment. But in this case, with the bifacial, you pick up some energy gain on the backside. So over time, as the front side reduces a little bit, you get some energy production on the back side, which helps keep the modules producing energy for longer. Um, it's definitely it was a challenge. I'm not I'm not going to lie. Uh, we definitely it's been a more of a challenging economic project, but I would say like the stars did align. Uh, we made some forward purchases on materials, and we were able to, uh, to make it work for all three parties involved. So I'm looking forward to it. That's my summary.

Jo Olson: [00:36:36] Great. And and, Brian, thank you for popping up some of those images of the work. I actually didn't realize that solar panels, you could use both sides. So that's new to me. That's awesome. Are all installs like that Brian on on in like solar farms or Sean? Do you know the answer?

Sean Markham: [00:36:53] So most of the new probably four years ago, the utility scale market shifted to these bifacial modules. You still have. You still have a fair amount of what they would call like a Monofacial module on CNI and residential, where you were placing the product like on a roof, because there's just not you're not getting enough reflective light, say, through the module onto the roof to like produce much energy on the back. But the industry itself, as the, you know, the production of the modules is starting to pretty much just go all bifacial. And there's not a negative effect of using the bifacial module. It's just not going to help as much if you're putting it, you know, on the roof of your house that you would get out in, you know, out in a large field or, or on like a single axis tracker.

Jo Olson: [00:37:45] Got it.

Jo Olson: [00:37:45] Thank you. Sorry I jumped the gun on questions. I'm going to turn things over to my colleague Isaac. Um, that's an example of the kinds of questions you guys can submit through the Q&A. So, Isaac, take it away. That sounds great. I'll let you go from here.

Isak Kvam: [00:37:58] Sounds good. Thanks, Jo. And yes, as a quick reminder, everyone, you can just add your questions to the Q&A at the very bottom of your screen. But before I get into the questions, I'm going to give a quick plug for our upcoming webinar at Fresh Energy. So this Friday we're going to be hosting another webinar all about Cop 29, the Global Climate Summit, which this year is in Baku, Azerbaijan. Uh, Fresh Energy's JJ Hamilton will be attending the full summit, and she always gives a sneak preview of what she's expecting to happen. Um, so you can register for that webinar this Friday by visiting Fresh Energy. Org slash Cop 29. Or if you visit our website, it's just under the events page. Um, so with that plug I'm going to move on to the questions aspect. And we've already received a few. So I'm going to kick it off with our first one. Um, what energy storage was energy storage included in this project at all. And how did that work out? Um, Brian or Justin, do you want to talk about that at all?

Justin Jahnz: [00:39:00] Yeah, I can start off. Um, so energy storage, lithium ion is kind of the the hallmark of that was not a part of this project. And, you know, it's it's an interesting technology. It's one that's being deployed in a lot of areas. Um, the reality is today capacity in Minnesota, which is really what batteries would produce, they would store the energy to offset, uh, capacity costs at some point, really haven't reached the threshold where battery storage makes a ton of sense. Um, but as we move forward in our progression towards a higher degree of carbon free energy, um, battery storage will become a part of that conversation on a larger scale. I think projects like this can eventually have battery storage added to them, or they can be added within the grid somewhere. I think there's this connotation that they go hand in hand all the time, but really the grid, think of it like a water system that battery storage could be installed anywhere along the grid, and it can still absorb and store energy to be used at a later date. But this project itself did not have battery storage included.

Isak Kvam: [00:40:05] Perfect. Okay. Our next question is what kind of pollinator habitat is planted around the panels, and is anyone monitoring that? Brian, I think this one's a question for you.

Brian Wood: [00:40:18] Yes. Um, that mixture is, uh, it's a pollinator. Standard crop mix. It's from the Albert Lee Seed Company. I'm going to drop it in the chat here. Uh, so the the area that the project was installed in has been a tallgrass prairie since 2004. Before that, it was a hay field. And then we got an Natural Resource Conservation Service grant in 2004 to plant it into tallgrass prairie. And so we burn that. We mow it every few years. And there's a mixture of some forbs. Wildflowers in there. Now there's several goldenrod species. There's wild bergamot, there's milkweed, some asters. And then as the project kind of worked over the three acre area that it did, um, Sean reseeded that with this pollinator mixture, which is 25% native grasses and then 75% forbs or wildflowers that have three different blooming seasons with those flowers. And so that that was all broadcast seed this fall. And that should be coming up. And, uh, we'll be we've been in touch with monarch joint Venture about them coming up to take a look at what's happening there. And, um, depending on how robust that seed takes, then we're definitely interested in continuing to, you know, add more wildflower mix under that to, to really make a robust pollinator habitat.

Isak Kvam: [00:41:51] And Brian, I think we talked about this a little bit when I visited you. But do you have any plans in the works for educational opportunities to kind of talk about pollinators and natural, uh, different natural plants in Minnesota for visitors to Osprey Wilds?

Brian Wood: [00:42:07] Yeah, we definitely talk about pollinators and, you know, native biomes, including prairies for our K-12 students as well as our college programs. And this new solar project gives us another opportunity to share about how energy and, you know, rewilding or, you know, creating native landscapes can go hand in hand. And so we will be adding that into our energy and our, um, you know, pollinator classes with our K-12 schools and our college programs. We have a class on clean energy that we offer through Hamline University. So this that really is a natural spot where we talk about this as well as, our biomes class that highlight the different native ecosystems of Minnesota.

Isak Kvam: [00:42:55] Okay, I think our next question, I think, is for Shawn, and it's a question about the bifacial solar panels, and someone is wondering if it being bifacial means that you can flip the panels every 15 years to increase the efficiency of the solar panels over time. Shawn, do you want to talk about how bifacial panels work?

Sean Markham: [00:43:16] Sure. At the peril of going too deep into technology. Um, when you when you design a project, you would design, you have the AC side and the DC side. And so you could when the sun is shining, there's no clouds in the sky. Everything is good. If you have a 1 to 1 ratio, they would say it. So you have one kilowatt of DC power and one kilowatt of AC power. You would produce one kilowatt of AC power. But typically we know that that doesn't exist. There's cloud coverage. There's Their shade from nearby trees. Seasonality. And then just even dust. Um, you know, we haven't we've had an exceptionally dry fall. And typically in Minnesota, like it would rain every, every week or so. And so the dust and that that settles on the face of the modules will reduce the generation. So when you're designing a plant, you would design something that has a DC ratio that is higher than the AC. So you'd put in say, you know, 20% more DC power. And what I was going at, I guess with the with the bifacial and the benefit of it, it's not that you would be able to flip the panel over, it's that the the panel will produce some energy off the back side, which helps to compensate for the degradation over time of, of the module itself.

Sean Markham: [00:44:33] So I think there, you know, the first year warranty is like 98%. And then it's some warranty around like a half a percent thereafter. So you could say theoretically that you build a project today and then at, say, a 1.3 DC ratio where you have 30% more DC at the end of 30 years. The project theoretically then looks like a 1 to 1 ratio because you've lost about 30% of that energy potential through degradation. So what the bifacial module does is it adds back a little bit of that in potential energy. So you're not using it necessarily when the sun is shining, you don't use the bifacial when the sun is shining, but you gain the benefits of it when the sun isn't shining as much. So in the winter, um, in lower light conditions or so, you get some more reflective sun off the off the snow, off the snowpack underneath the modules. And that's where you can, like, benefit from it. But that helps offset the degradation or the or the modules. Kind of like wearing out over time, if that makes any more sense than the first concept, I don't know. But, um, That's.

Isak Kvam: [00:45:44] No, I think that makes perfect sense.

Sean Markham: [00:45:45] Yeah.

Isak Kvam: [00:45:47] Thanks, John. Um, our next question is about energy usage at Osprey. So someone is wondering what the total kilowatt hours that Osprey Wilds uses each year, and then how that compares to the kilowatt hours that are generated through alternative means?

Brian Wood: [00:46:03] Yeah. So currently, prior to this project going live, we were averaging about 300,000 kilowatt hours of electricity consumption. And that was after all of those measures that we had walked through of the 39 kW of solar PV. We also have a small wind turbine. Um, the solar hot water. So that's what we were using annually. And we'll continue to to use that much. And now it's really just offset with the production of this system, which Sean alluded to, will probably produce somewhere around 900,000 to 950,000 kilowatt hours. So it's about three times what our current needs are. And when we set out with this and talking with Justin, our goal was just to produce 100% of what we're using, uh, from a, uh, you know, just being a stewardship, uh, organization and trying to, you know, not use more. Power than than we produce. But the economics of it just made more sense to to put as big of a system into the conservation easement exclusion that we had created with the Minnesota Land Trust, which was three acres. And so Shawn's system was as large as it could fit in there. And so we ended up with a system that produces three times what we need, which sets us up really nicely going forward. If we were to expand our campus and our facilities that we have this excess carbon free electricity being generated that will continue to keep us under, you know, using what, less than we produce.

Justin Jahnz: [00:47:42] And if I can, if I can just add to that. You know what was interesting about this project? And I think the part that maybe. We've not quite gotten directly to is there's this balance between the scale of the project and the price. And so you have to get to a certain size in order to have the price work out. I mean, Sean has to have there has to be enough involved for him to make the project work at a price point that works for everybody. And so it really was a unique situation to be able to get that three acres of land essentially at zero cost, which drove the price down a little bit. And then, um, we were able to get a price with the grants and things that Sean worked on to be able to make it, um, palatable for the rest of the membership. In other words, over the life of this project, members outside of Oscar Wilde's are going to save money on the electricity that we're buying from the project relative to what we would pay our wholesale power provider for the electricity on an incremental basis. And so that really was an important piece and why the size and scale was important to us.

Justin Jahnz: [00:48:43] Now, if Oscar Wilde's, you know, down the road when when those bidirectional panels that they have on site, you know, degrade over time and eventually go out of service, then they'll have to make a decision about whether to reinvest or to buy more of the power from the large scale array. And I can tell you which one I think is the right answer. Um, I think they're going to be money ahead to, to to just buy a larger sum from the array that's already on site. And so it is a really good project from that perspective that everybody one uh, too many times when these projects happen, there's winners and there's losers. And I think we were really able to develop a project where everybody was capable of winning. And that's where really electric cooperatives are nimble enough. Um, and but yet they're, they're, they have enough access to capital and the ability to make projects like this go and really take, take advantage of those long term benefits. So it's pretty cool how that all kind of came together.

Sean Markham: [00:49:37] No. That's correct.

Isak Kvam: [00:49:39] Oh go ahead.

Sean Markham: [00:49:39] I was going to add one comment to that. Um, I mentioned a bit about Justin helping us out with the interconnect equipment, but just just as like a very live example or real example of this project of that, the interconnect equipment. So we have, you know, effort to take the power from the road ditch over to our site, which I want to say was around 400ft. Um, this Viper Recloser, which is this pretty complex electrical piece that it'll, it basically it can get data from the power line. Um, and it makes sure that the system will never disrupt or cause like another downstream issue for ECP. And then the power transformer itself, we're producing power at 480. It gets put on the grid at 13 8 or 7 eight up there and then transferred back at every transformer that you would have at your house. And so those, those types of things are fixed costs for us. Like there, no matter how, no matter, no matter how big the project is, we had to spend that. So the fact that Brian was able to let us use all three acres, as he said, and Justin and his team was willing to work with us on producing more energy than just was. Enough to offset basically allows us to take that piece and cut it in in a third. If you think about it, because we're producing about three x, what are three times the power that's needed? So that means that that cost is really costing us about a third of of what it would on a smaller project, and which then lowers our cost of energy and lowers everybody's cost of energy.

Isak Kvam: [00:51:19] Our other question is, uh, Brian, you answered this already, um, in the text version, but I think it'd be helpful to talk about for other folks if there's any other businesses or anything, um, that are looking at grants for different carbon free projects. Um, what was the grant that you used for the geothermal source of heat at Osprey Wilds? And can you talk a little bit more about what that grant progress looked like?

Brian Wood: [00:51:44] Yeah, I can share where that came from. That was actually prior to my time. So our our founding executive director, Mike link, got that grant from the Housing and Urban Development Department in 2004. Um, and that was, I believe, a $205,000 grant to to put that system in. And that that was kind of the infancy of, of geothermal ground source heat pumps. Um, we're a 501 C3 nonprofit. So that opens us up to a lot of grant opportunities at the state, federal private level. Um, the other grants that we got over the years for other programs, you know, came from, uh, National Energy and Technology Laboratory at the federal level. We got, uh, environment Natural Resource Trust Fund grant recommended by Legislative Citizen Commission for Minnesota's Resources, which I would encourage everybody to vote yes Tuesday to support our outdoors with renewing that environment Natural Resource Trust Fund, because it supports a lot of good outdoor projects. Um, so those are some of the places that we've been able to get funding. Um, for those projects. And then as, as Sean mentioned, this one, um, he applied for the Rural Energy America program through the USDA. And so that was also part of the equation that made this possible.

Isak Kvam: [00:53:06] Okay. I think we have one more question. So but we do still have time. So if anyone has any other last minute questions feel free to add them to the Q&A now. Um, but our last question is more of a general one. Um, so this kind of took five years to come to completion. Brian, I know you were talking about looking into this in 2019. Do you kind of have any best practices or lessons learned from the project as a whole, that you would have words of advice to other folks that are interested in doing something like this.

Brian Wood: [00:53:36] I would say you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. And you know, we didn't know if this would work. Um, the end result was a lot better, I think, than what we were trying to get at in 2019. Um, that was a system that would have produced just 100% of our needs, and it would have been probably five different systems put up on rooftop and ground mount, which would have been a lot of maintenance for us because we would have owned it. And, um, you know, we you have buildings at various ages that are going to need new roofs. And so there would have been a lot, I think, that we would have bid off to have to try to get there if the finances had worked out. We also would have gone in debt at that point. So I just really appreciate Justin and East Central Energy's willingness to continue to have conversations, even when we didn't know if anything was going to work out, but just that, that constant communication or just reconnecting and being open to seeing how can we get there and, and just an understanding where we were coming from, where we're not trying to, you know, game the system. We're really just trying to demonstrate our values. And so being honest with everybody involved so that nobody's, um, you know, thinking some ulterior motives happening.

Brian Wood: [00:54:56] But just, you know, we want it to work for everybody. And so just giving yourself that opportunity by having the discussions. And there were a lot of unique things that came into play to make this work, as Shawn and Justin said. But we wouldn't have been ready to capitalize on those opportunities had we not put in the work of having conversations for, you know, years up to that point and going through and putting the RFP in place and then, you know, connecting with Shawn. And even though the price didn't work the first time, now he's, you know, aware of this project and why it's special and important for us. And I give him a lot of credit for continuing to seek out how are there ways we could make this work? Um, because it's not the biggest and, uh, project and out there, but I think, um, you know, Justin and Sean both knew why why we were trying to do this and that. We wanted it to be a win for everyone. So I think just opening the dialogue, there's no guarantees that things are going to work out. But if you don't open that dialogue, you know you're not giving yourself that chance for them to work out.

Justin Jahnz: [00:55:59] Yeah. And if I can just tag on to that, I, I think, you know, the one we this is our second large project. We did a three megawatt array with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, um, at Hinckley Grand Casino. And that was a similar project from the perspective of what we started with is we sat down at the table and we said, why is this project important? We can talk about the what? I work with some of the most talented people you can imagine, and some of them are on this call and so we can figure out the what. But what I need to know at the beginning is what's the why. Like why is this important to Osprey Wilds? Why is this something that you want to have happen? And so as we started to listen to that, we took that back and we started to have conversations about what are ways that we can help them achieve their goals and can how can we do it in a way that's that's either net neutral or advantageous to the rest of the membership. And so, I mean, I think in today's world, and I think having this, uh, conversation the week before the election is a perfect time to do it because so many, so many ways, in so many ways in this country right now, we are so divided.

Justin Jahnz: [00:57:00] But but let's come to the table. Let's have a conversation about our goals. Let's have a conversation about where we have commonality, because there's probably a lot more of that than there are differences. And I think this project was really an example of us being able to come together and put a put aside our preconceived expectations and start to have a conversation about how we can come together to get something like this done. And I can tell you, if we hadn't opened ourselves up, we would have never listened to Oscar Wilde and really gotten to the point where we could make this happen. So I'm proud of the entire staff at ABC for being a part of that and making it happen. Um, you know, I try to be the pretty face. I'm not always good at that, even, but I work with some talented people who helped make this happen, so kudos to them as well. As we wrap up here.

Isak Kvam: [00:57:46] John, do you have any last words of advice or best practices you'd like to share with the group at all?

Sean Markham: [00:57:52] I would, I would just say persistence. Uh, it's by far the best, uh, best prescription.

Isak Kvam: [00:57:59] Wise words. Okay. I'm not seeing any other questions from folks. So I think with that, I can start to wrap it up here a few minutes early. Um, so thank you so much to everyone for joining us today. Uh, as I mentioned earlier, we'll be emailing everyone. A link to the recording of this will be uploading it to YouTube later today. Um, so I'd like to take time to thank Brian, Justin and Sean for leading us through how Osprey Wild Solar Project came to be today and have a great rest of your day, everyone. Thanks for joining us.

Sean Markham: [00:58:30] Thank you.

Brian Wood: [00:58:32] Thanks, everybody.

Jo Olson: [00:58:35] Thank you for subscribing to this episode of Decarbonize the Clean Energy Podcast from Fresh Energy. If you want to see some cool photos from the work that happened at Osprey Wilds over the summer, go to bit.ly slash solar Dash Osprey and I'll put that in the podcast notes as well. Fresh Energy's Isaac Quam wrote a long blog about the work, and brought his drone out for some amazing aerial photos of the project. Again, go to bit.ly slash solar Dash Osprey to get a look. Thank you for subscribing to this episode of Decarbonize the Clean Energy Podcast from Fresh Energy. You can stay up to date on Fresh Energy's work at work@fresh-energy.org or follow us on social media. If you live in Minnesota, you probably know give to the max day is right around the corner. It's this Thursday, November 21st. You can support Fresh Energy's work and drive bold policy solutions to achieve equitable, carbon neutral economies in Minnesota and beyond by making a donation to fresh energy on give to the Max day. You can do that at givemn. Org or head to our website. Again, it's fresh-energy.org and thank you to Minnesota based band Palm Psalms for the use of their song TGIF off of their album Otuhaka for our theme music. Thanks for tuning in.