Mario Monesterio, Westwood Renewables, tours the solar modules at St. John’s University in Minnesota. The project is complete and is producing electricity for the campus. Photo by Jason Wachter

There’s a brand new operational solar array in the upper midwest, and it’s performing at expected rates even in the dead of winter. This array is in Minnesota, and the largest in the upper midwest.  If this is successful here, it can be successful anywhere the sun shines.

From the local newspaper:

The (St. John’s) university’s experiment in capturing energy from the sun began operation Dec. 10. The 1,820 black-paneled modules were installed in a 14-acre farm field just northwest of campus.The project is a joint effort of the university, the Order of St. Benedict and Westwood Renewables. The Eden Prairie-based company received a $2 million grant from Xcel Energy to build the largest solar farm in the Upper Midwest.

This is exactly what we need more of in the United States.  Too many people still consider solar power some type of oddity, but it can and will produce a lot of power.  This array is currently producing only 4% of the university’s power needs, but on a series of cloudless, sunny days it can supply up to 20%.   Read more here.

Solar power is getting to be very popular in Minnesota and across the United Sates.  There is also money to be made with real green energy.  From a letter to the editor that appeared in the Star Tribune last week, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Timothy Geithner, one of the most disliked people in the Obama administration, visited Minnesota last week and injected some hope into the local economy.    He visited the Honeywell corporation and announced the Obama administration’s support for an additional $5 billion in funds to be used for “clean energy manufacturing”.  This is welcome news and will create jobs.

Secondly, the letter went on to point out, green energy companies have received stimulus money for advanced energy manufacturing projects.  One of two companies to received some of this money, which amounted to $154 million for this company, was REC Silicon, and the 2nd largest amount ($84.2 million) went to SolarWorld.  SolarWorld is based in Germany, but manufactures solar panels in the United States in Washington, Oregon and California.   The polysilicon used to make solar panels is made by REC Silicon.  Honeywell manufactures materials for solar panels also.  All these companies will make solar power more affordable, more efficient, and will help create more clean energy jobs.   This is the stimulus money doing good things and it deserves our support.

We hear how many jobs coal miners would lose if the coal mines were shut (only 63,000) but what if they were all employed in producing, installing and maintaining solar panels and wind turbines?  Then there would be no need for all of that dirty, toxic coal.