March 19, 2026
A new report shows that Minnesota Accessible community solar garden program for low and middle income earners (LMI Accessible CSG Program) benefits residents as intended. In effect, the program acts as a kind of “price shield” for energy consumers in a volatile market, said Logan O’Grady, executive director of the Minnesota Solar Energy Industries Association (MnSEIA), which helped design the solar program.
“With a community solar project, you lock in your energy costs, so you’re a little bit immune to the volatile electricity prices, and we’re certainly seeing that now,” he explains. “If you are a subscriber, you record your energy costs, because you know how much you will receive for its production.”
The LMI accessible CSG program gives developers a longer timeline for companies to take advantage of tax breaks that are being phased out by the federal government, O’Grady added.
“In the Community Solar Garden program, there is a longer ramp-up period when the federal tax incentive ends, so we have a number of solar garden developers who are still developing projects that qualify for the 30% ITC,” he says. “Now is really the time to subscribe to a solar garden if you can, because those developers and you as a subscriber are going to see the federal policy that just went away for rooftop solar.”
O’Grady explains that even if the solar garden tax credit disappears, Minnesota will continue to see community solar development, “because people still want to get more predictability and lock in their energy prices.”
Minnesotans original Community Solar Garden program was created by the state legislature in 2013. However, the program was revamped in 2023 to focus on LMI households in Minnesota, which O’Grady said resulted in limiting participating solar installations for the next decade.
“The compromise around that updated language required us to move away from an unlimited community solar garden program here in Minnesota, which was quite unique and resulted in more than 1 GW of solar being deployed in Minnesota over a 10-year period,” he says. “The actual legislation tells us every year how much the utilities can do, so we expect about 800 MW in the next ten years.”
As part of the 2023 legislation that reconfigured the program, the state ordered a cost-benefit analysis of the program, which found that participants benefited $2 for every $1 spent.
The report shows the benefits for LMI households
The Minnesota Department of Commerce has released a new report confirming that the state’s community solar program is having its intended impact in helping LMI residents access renewable energy.
According to the report, the LMI accessible CSG program ensures equitable access to renewable energy while maintaining the state’s leadership in community solar deployment.
The updated program launched on January 2, 2024, with the express goal of expanding solar energy access to households typically left out of renewable energy participation. The research shows that the program demonstrates that community solar can achieve both climate and equity goals.
According to the 2026 Annual Report on the LMI Accessible CSG Program, the majority of capacity is being used for the Minnesotans it was intended for.
Key findings of the report include:
- 90% of program participants are low-income, residential or general interest customers.
- 77% of the program consists of private subscribers, of which 47% LMI.
- 62% of subscribers in the LMI category exceeded the established program target of 55%.
The third largest subscriber group is public interest organizations, such as schools, religious institutions, municipal governments and other non-profit organizations
“For years, MnSEIA staff and members have worked to design and advance the LMI Accessible CSG program with a clear goal: expand access to affordable clean energy. This report confirms that the program delivers measurable savings for low- and moderate-income households while strengthening Minnesota’s leadership in community solar,” said O’Grady. “By integrating equity into policy design from the start, Minnesota is proving that the clean energy transition can lower costs, expand opportunity and deliver real value to the families who need it most.”
The program ensured rapid implementation while reaching critical community organizations. It made 100 MW available in both 2024 and 2025, and as of December 16, 2025, 179 MW of projects had been approved in a total of 133 gardens. This pace of implementation maintains Minnesota’s ranking as one of the top solar states in the United States.
“Minnesota has long been a leader in community solar, and this report highlights how that leadership translates into meaningful access for historically underserved communities,” said Kevin Cray, VP of existing markets and regulatory Coalition for Community Access to Solar Energy (CCSA). “When lawmakers design equity-oriented policies, we get results that have real impacts on people’s lives. Minnesota sets a national example that community solar is both scalable and equitable.”
Although the program is only two years old, these early results show that Minnesota’s policy framework aligns clean energy growth with affordability and access.
“This program proves that, when purposefully designed, the clean energy transition is just,” said Pouya Najmaie, policy and regulatory director at Cooperative energy futurewhich highlighted the broader significance of the report’s findings. “Solar energy is the most democratizing form of energy in the world, so it is essential that it is accessible to working families. With the vast majority of capacity serving residential customers, public interest groups or low-income participants, Minnesota’s LMI Accessible CSG program is showing the rest of the country exactly what the energy transition can achieve.”
As energy prices skyrocket across the country and state clean energy policies fill the void left by the destruction of the Inflation Reduction Act, Minnesota’s equitable clean energy program provides compelling evidence that well-thought-out policies, combined with industry excellence, deliver measurable and meaningful results.
In honor of a solar energy advocate
On March 12, the Minnesota House of Representatives passed a bill 133-0 to rename the LMI Accessible CSG program in honor of Melissa Hortman, former Speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, who was assassinated last June and was the original author of the legislation. The bill now goes to the Senate.
Tags: CCSA, Community Solar, LMI, Minnesota, MnSEIA
