A renewable energy plant in Minnesota can generate electricity year-round, whether it’s cold and windy, or hot and humid without a bit of breeze.

Clay Norrbom is with Juhl Energy, which owns and operates the new combined solar and wind project.

Norrbom: “Wind is typically highest at times when the sun is not shining and vice versa.”

So by using both wind and solar, the facility can feed a steady supply of renewable energy to the grid. And it has an integrated design that’s more efficient than separate wind and solar farms.

The system started operating at the end of last year. Norrbom says it will generate enough electricity to power about 900 homes.

He says this scale of renewable power is often overlooked. It’s bigger than residential solar, but smaller than a large wind farm.

Norrbom: “The scale had not really been there in the past, where small utilities and their communities could actually go and generate some of their own electricity, in their own communities, and have a meaningful portion of those dollars stay in their community. We’re on the start of a new chapter here that’s exciting.”

Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media.