Michael Allen, co-founder of All Energy Solar of St. Paul, is grateful for a partly sunny 2020.
“All in all, it was a good year, but not the year we had hoped for,” said Allen, 38. “We installed more than in 2019. The stress levels, thanks to COVID-19, were at an all-time high.”
COVID postponed some projects, and there were workers who had to quarantine at home.
“Our safety director and our team was prepared, and I think we did an awesome job,” Allen said of the 150 All Energy workers who design, build and service commercial and residential systems.
“More companies are looking for ways to mitigate operating expenses. Solar is a safe way to do that,” says Michael Allen, co-founder of All Energy Solar in St. Paul.
Overall, it was a soft year for solar installations for the state and country.
The national companies that focus on home-solar systems, such as Sunrun and Sunnova, reported hundreds of millions of losses during the first nine months of 2020, according to the New York Times. The year revealed growing pains for the capital-intensive, cost-competitive industry, which also counts on tax credits to spur demand.
Most of the growth in Minnesota is coming from developer contracts with utilities, whether big, commercial-scale projects or community solar gardens owned by groups of people.
David Shaffer, executive director of the Minnesota Solar Energy Industries Association, said firms came up against a difficult comparison because 2019 was strong.
“I do think installations were down,” he said. “There was a giant pandemic … but people continued to install. And some important things happened that set the table for good years to come.”
Shaffer projects construction of 340 megawatts of utility-scale and community solar this year, more than double the amount completed in 2019 or 2020.
And the solar industry, amid closing of old, polluting coal plants, is committed to grow production of Minnesota electricity from less than 2% to at least 10% by 2030. State and local utilities by 2030 aim to cut carbon output in half from 2005 levels and to zero by 2050.
Investors have flooded renewable energy with money since states like Minnesota set growth objectives. This month, Twin Cities-based Excelsior Energy Capital closed on a $504 million renewable-energy fund.
And the $900 billion federal stimulus law passed in December extended solar-energy investment tax credits by two years. That means new projects will continue to get a 26% investment tax credit through 2022. It will decline to 23% in 2023 and 10% in 2024.
Read the rest of the article over at the Star Tribune: https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-s-solar-trade-tested-but-not-bowed-by-2020/600011015/
Want to get more Minnesota solar power updates like this or learn about All Energy Solar solutions and services? Take a look at our Solar Power Case Studies, Customer Testimonials, Residential Solar Project Gallery and Commercial Solar Project Gallery, then follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. 
