Hopkins, MN Sustainability

05/25/2026

Here is a long but good video about solar power and renewables.

283K likes, 48K comments. "You are being misled about renewable energy technology."

11/24/2025

I created a NextDoor group for Hopkins Sustainability.

Join Nextdoor, an app for neighborhoods where you can get local tips, buy and sell items, and more

06/07/2024

HCSG is becoming Hopkins, MN Sustainability. We want to expand our reach and support more efforts by the city of Hopkins to reduce our carbon footprint.

03/31/2023

An update on efforts to bring a solar garden to Hopkins.

As you may know our small group have been talking to city council members and legislators about building a community solar garden in the city of Hopkins. Residents would be able to subscribe to the garden, save money on electricity, use green electricity, and have more reliability with our electricity supply.

With the State of Minnesota enjoying a 17-billion-dollar surplus this year, most is one time money, we can expect some financial assistance for solar infrastructure, will be enough for a solar garden in Hopkins is yet to be determined.

There has been good progress in the legislature. We passed a 100% renewable energy mandate by 2040, this will require all electric generation in the state to be non-carbon producing generation. This is a big win for renewable energy and guide energy generation for the next 20 years.

There are a variety of bills that will provide matching funds provided by the federal government in the Inflation Reduction Act, (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, (IIJA). These include grants for solar installations for communities, counties, tribes, and cities. I expect all these bills to be enacted one way or another. Will there be enough money to convince the city to provide any additional money that may be required for a solar garden is the question.

The two sites in Hopkins that have been suggested for a solar garden are the parking ramp on 10th Ave S., it is one acre in size, and the old landfill site. The landfill site is about 25 acres and would be the largest space for a solar garden in the city. You may know the site is managed by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, (MPCA). MPCA has a proposal to add solar to the 111 closed landfill sites it manages across the state however the bonding that paid for the capping of these sites and provides pollution remediation specifically prohibits any commercial use of the sites.

There are bills in the works to pay off these bonds, SF2294 Xiong and HF2627 Carroll would provide $10 million to pay off bonds on landfills and another $10 million for design and construction of solar on these sites. All the outstanding bonds of all the landfills are over 10 times this amount, $110 Million, so the proposed allocated money won’t go far. The Hopkins landfill has nearly $5 million in bond debt alone. I don’t understand yet why we cannot just change the rules for or restructure the bonds to allow specific use of the lands without having to pay off the bonds.

Both bills have been heard by the Senate & House Environment & Energy committees and have been forwarded to the respective Capitol Investment committees. Hopefully these bills pass and provide a structure to build solar on closed landfills.

The 111 landfills sites are ideal because they could provide up to a gigawatt of electricity across the state without using valuable farmland. Many of these sites are ideal for solar production. There are closed landfills in nearly every Senate District so you’d think it would have legislative support.

Building a solar garden in Hopkins will be a multi-year process and span several city councils and legislatures. We can only vote for elected officials who support this kind of investment and encourage them to vote for the construction of solar in our community. Our current Mayor Patrick Hanlon has been involved in this effort and testified on behalf of related bills at the legislature.

For your information or if you would like to write to elected officials yourself, below are some links.

Minnesota Senate Capital Investment Committee
https://www.senate.mn/committees/committee_bio.html?cmte_id=1002&ls=93

Minnesota Senate Energy, Utilities, Environment, and Climate Committee
https://www.senate.mn/committees/committee_bio.html?cmte_id=3122&ls=93

Minnesota House Capital Investment
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/comm/committee.asp?comm=93002

Minnesota House Climate and Energy Finance and Policy
http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/comm/committee.asp?comm=93003

And a link to the city council
https://www.hopkinsmn.com/801/City-Council-Members

11/11/2022

Hopkins Community Solar Garden HCSG is a community of citizens of Hopkins, MN who want the city of Hopkins to build community solar within the Hopkins city limits.
There are several 1/2 acre sites in the city that could accommodate solar arrays or gardens. They include the downtown parking ramp, other parking areas and the old city landfill.
Community solar would provide discounted electricity to the residents of Hopkins by providing subscriptions to the solar array or garden. The subscriptions could be as much as 120% of a home owners monthly average electric usage, that determines the number of panels a subscriber uses. Subscribers would pay the garden for the electricity generated by their panels in a month, the electricity is fed into the grid replacing coal and gas generated electricity. The the utility, Xcel Energy, would credit the homeowner for the electricity generated, many times creating a surplus that is balanced annually.
At this time HCSG is asking interested citizens of Hopkins to contact our city council members and express interest in the idea of a community solar garden within the city limits that homeowners, condo owners, and renters could subscribe to and save money and produce less carbon.
Contact information for members of the city council can be found here; https://www.hopkinsmn.com/801/City-Council-Members
Thank You

11/10/2022

I just created a page on NextDoor for the city of Hopkins, MN

Hopkins Community Solar Garden in Hopkins, MN. Hopkins Community Solar Garden HCSG is a community of citizens of Hopkins, MN who want the city of Hopkins to build community solar within the Hopkins city limits. There are several 1/2 acre sites in the city that could accommodate solar arrays or garde...