With a couple strokes of the pen, Minnesota Power and Camp Ripley agreed to create the nation’s largest military and Minnesota’s largest solar energy power source.
Local and federal politicians witnessed the signing that’ll produce more power than Camp Ripley needs from a renewable resource.
Minnesota Power will build 100 acres of solar panels as part of President Obama’s order to the Department of the Defense to create 1 gigawatts of renewable energy a year by 2030.
The solar energy project is estimated to cost $25 million dollars. However, the Department of Defense expects to see a return on their investment fiscally and environmentally.
With the surplus energy Camp Ripley plans to store part for future use as well as send part to the local energy grid for the surrounding area.
Campy Ripley and Minnesota Power hope to complete the project by the fall of 2016.

By — Lakeland PBS

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