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Minnesota Emerges as the Midwest’s Leader in the Clean Energy Transition

Inside Climate News · By Aydali Campa · last updated
In its most recent legislative session, the state leapfrogged Illinois to become the regional front-runner in equitable clean energy transition efforts.

By Aydali Campa

Six months ago, John Delurey, the senior regional director at Vote Solar, would have said that Illinois “sits on the shoulders of some of the most robust and equitable climate legislation in the country and region.” But after this year’s legislative session, Minnesota is giving Illinois a run for its money as the equitable clean energy state in the Midwest, he said.

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State of Play

Renewable energy sources — once the fuel of the future, then practical in specific, narrow applications — are increasingly economic mainstream sources of power generation. Hydropower was long the mainstay of U.S. renewable electricity generation, although wind power surpassed hydro for the first time in 2019, and solar continues its rapid growth. The continued growth of wind and solar, with their fluctuations, is tied in part to improvements in storage technology: batteries.

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