Great River Energy reached an agreement to sell the Coal Creek Station power plant to Rainbow Energy Center, LLC. The sale of Coal Creek Station will avert the plant’s closure, which was scheduled for the second half of 2022. Rainbow Energy Center will purchase and operate the 1,151-megawatt (MW) power plant using current plant employees […]
The CapX2020 partners announced March 9 they are evolving, moving into the future under a new name: Grid North Partners. Great River Energy was a co-founder of the transmission partnership CapX2020, a group of 10 utilities formed in 2004 to upgrade and expand the transmission system in the Upper Midwest. The CapX2020 partners successfully built […]
As parts of the United States struggled to maintain electric service during a historic cold snap, Minnesota’s cooperatives went to great lengths to ensure their members had the energy they needed. Electricity is responsible for a long list of conveniences of modern life: a charged phone, hot coffee, air conditioning, television. But, when the temperature drops below zero, dependable energy is also a matter of safety. Historic cold weather across the country in mid-February drove […]
As ever more renewable energy is added to the electric grid, utilities continue to preserve one of electricity’s most important qualities: reliability. Large conventional power plants that have shut down in recent years are often replaced with new generators, such as wind turbines and solar panels, that can produce electricity at a lower cost. But […]
$882 million wind development nearly completes cooperative’s plans for renewable transition. With long-term agreements to purchase the output from four large wind energy projects, Great River Energy has secured energy resources to transition to a largely renewable power supply portfolio by 2023. Great River Energy has signed agreements with subsidiaries of NextEra Energy Resources to […]
Agreement will add 200 megawatts of renewable capacity to cooperative’s portfolio Great River Energy has signed a power purchase agreement for 200 megawatts (MW) of wind energy from a project in Deuel County, South Dakota. Through an agreement with Invenergy, a Midwest-based developer and operator of sustainable energy solutions, Great River Energy will supply its […]
Great River Energy was recently presented with a Leadership and Innovation Award by a Cooperative Electric Utility by Clean Grid Alliance (CGA). CGA noted Great River Energy’s “track record of success,” including “clean energy and carbon reduction, adopting renewables, electrification, leading on building new transmission through the CapX2020 initiative, working on long-duration energy storage, service […]
Connexus Energy, one of Great River Energy’s 28 member-owner cooperatives, recently held a groundbreaking ceremony to celebrate the start of construction on its 3-megawatt solar project in Baldwin Township, Minnesota. Those involved with the building and permitting of Sunflower I – Baldwin Renewable Station, attended the ceremony, including representatives from Connexus Energy, Baldwin Township, City […]
With the help of Dakota Electric Association and Great River Energy, a local data center is powered entirely by renewable energy. DataBank, a leading provider of enterprise-class colocation, connectivity and managed services, announced the milestone was achieved at MSP2, a data center located in Eagan, Minnesota. DataBank entered into an agreement with utility provider Dakota […]
Wind farms produce electricity when it’s breezy. Solar panels generate energy during the day. Low-cost, long-duration storage has the potential to serve cooperative members when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. A Great River Energy pilot project has the potential to solve the challenges posed by the variable nature of the most […]