This project seeks to install a 2MW solar microgrid and two 500kW solar
plus storage microgrids at the Bois Forte and Fond du Lac Ojibwe reservations in northern Minnesota. It will also install a 500kW Solar Commons system at the Heliene factory in Mountain Iron, MN. The project will eliminate an estimated 3,450 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year over its lifespan and facilitate a $360,000 reduction in energy costs for rural
Tribal members. The project will include green social infrastructures that will channel solar savings into social wealth trusts that provide funding for the tribes’ food sovereignty programs. One 500kW off-reservation, brownfield site solar array will be built to reduce 370 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions while supporting a Community Benefit Agreement (CBA) to pass
pooled solar savings into a social wealth trust also dedicated to food sovereignty work on the reservations. The project will fund the documentation, assessment, and process tools for other tribes, underserved communities, and Good Corporate Neighbors to use these “Solar Commons”
CBAs for environmental justice credits and community wealth building.
