A city-owned maintenance facility on Minneapolis's East Side is now home to a 704-kilowatt community solar garden built specifically for low- and moderate-income residents, with 100 subscribers already signed up and 25 spots still open. The project promises qualifying households real savings on their monthly electric bills without the cost or hassle of installing their own rooftop panels.
A City-Backed Push for Equity in Solar
The garden sits atop the city's Eastside Maintenance and Storage Facility, according to Solar Power World, which reported the unveiling this week. The outlet notes the array was built to funnel power specifically to low- and moderate-income subscribers, a population that has often been left out of rooftop solar ownership because of upfront costs or renting rather than owning a home.
The City of Minneapolis helped make the project possible with a $150,000 grant, the same report notes. Megan Hoye, the city's director of climate equity action, said the funding from the city's Green Cost Share program helped bring the project to life, telling Solar Power World that the grant helped the project “come to life and bring near-term impact for our residents.” That Green Cost Share program more broadly offers funding to help pay for solar installations on buildings across Minneapolis.
Who Built It and Who Qualifies
The garden was developed jointly by the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society and Greenway Solar, the same report states. MRES describes itself on its own site as having built the project with its partner Greenway Solar, and the nonprofit maintains an information page for subscribers interested in signing up.
Eligibility is tied to geography and income. Per Greenway Solar, the offering is open to Xcel Energy customers in Hennepin, Ramsey, Anoka, Wright, Dakota, Scott and Carver counties whose household income falls below 150% of the area median income. Greenway Solar also says subscribers face no upfront costs, no credit checks and no cancellation fees, and that the program delivers clean energy without requiring anyone to put panels on their own roof.
Savings Add Up for Subscribers
Subscribers are estimated to save around $25 a month on their energy bills, according to the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society's community solar garden page. That figure comes from MRES itself, which markets the savings as a straightforward incentive for income-qualified households to sign on.
The mechanics of that savings are standardized statewide. Once a Minnesota Xcel Energy customer signs up with a solar garden operator and is assigned to a state-approved garden with available capacity, they receive a monthly solar credit on their Xcel Energy bill based on the garden's production from the previous month, according to the Minnesota Department of Commerce.
Part of a Fast-Growing Statewide Program
The Minneapolis garden adds to a program that has expanded rapidly in recent years. Minnesota's LMI Accessible Community Solar Garden Program had approved 179 megawatts of projects across 133 individual gardens as of December 16, 2025, according to pv magazine USA. The outlet reports that the LMI category now makes up 62% of total subscribers statewide, surpassing the program's original 55% goal, and that 90% of participants fall into low-income, residential or public-interest categories. Residential subscribers account for 77% of the program overall, with 47% of those classified as low-to-moderate income, per the same report. The initiative launched at the start of 2024, making 100 megawatts available in each of 2024 and 2025.
Minneapolis has leaned on similar projects before. A partnership installed a 182.8-kilowatt community solar garden on the roof of EMERGE Second Chance Recycling, serving the facility itself along with 42 residential subscribers, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. A separate garden at North Community High School was designed to provide roughly 365 kilowatts, with any output beyond the school's own needs credited to 50 residential subscribers. EESI reports that both of those gardens skipped credit checks and offered a pay-as-you-go option with no upfront costs, mirroring the model now in place at the East Side facility.
Minnesota's broader community solar landscape has grown substantially since the state first began prioritizing low- and moderate-income access. MRES notes it received a Renewable Development Fund grant back in 2015 to build two community solar projects, with the program's goal later narrowing to focus on serving only low- and moderate-income subscribers. By 2023, the state had 467 completed community solar projects totaling 869 megawatts of installed capacity, according to EESI.
