Public speaks out at Summit Lake Solar and Battery Storage hearing

WORTHINGTON — Dozens of individuals attended a more than three hour public hearing Monday evening hosted by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to gather commen on the proposed Summit Lake Solar and Battery Storage project. Conducted at the Worthington Event Center, 20 people voiced their opinions — only four of which gave support to Geronimo Power’s subsidiaries.

The project requires two separate permits, one for the 200-megawatt utility-scale solar energy conversion facility and the other for the 200 MW Battery Energy Storage System (BESS). Both permit requests were submitted by Geronimo to the PUC in February 2025.

Minnesota Court of Administrative Hearings Administrative Law Judge Kimberly Middendorf presided over the hearing on behalf of the PUC, who makes the final decision on the permit application after reviewing comments made and all evidence in the record.

The PUC will also use a report written by Middendorf, including recommendations to approve or deny the applications based on information gathered through the process. It is expected the report will be filed by June 19, allowing the commission to make a tentative decision in August.

Written comments will be accepted until 4:30 p.m. April 20 via email to publicadvisor.puc@state.mn.us or mail to Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, 121 7th Place East, Suite 350, St. Paul or visit https://mn.gov/puc/get-involved/public-comments/comment-form/

“This public hearing is part of the fact gathering process to enable the (PUC) to make an informed decision on the projects,” Middendorf said.

PUC Energy Facilities Planner Craig Janezich said general factors they consider when making their decision include conserved resources, minimized environmental impacts, minimized human settlement and other land use conflicts, and an efficient, cost-effective and secure power supply and electric transmission infrastructure.

Chloe Farnsworth / The Globe

Sited on 1,417 acres near the unincorporated village of Reading, the total land for the project amounts to 1,990 acres. The solar and storage project is proposed to interconnect to the existing Nobles Substation via a 992-foot 345-kV transmission generation tie line.

“Construction could begin as early as 2027 with a targeted commercial operation date in 2028,” Senior Permitting Specialist Alia Mohammad said.

The original project layout was presented during the environmental assessment scoping meetings in May 2025, but since then, Geronimo has received feedback from state agencies, local officials and residents. They also completed additional technical and environmental analysis, Mohammad said.

“The work helped us better understand site constraints related to setbacks, drainage, proximity to residents and overall project layout,” she said. “As a result, we made several intentional changes to this original design to address those considerations.”

One of the most significant changes was relocating the BESS farther away from Reading. Setbacks from the solar arrays were also increased to 150 feet from non-participating residential property lines and 300 feet from all existing residents.

“We also added a 50-foot setback from the edge of the public roads right-of-way to the fence line of the project,” Mohammad said. “The adjustment was made specifically to accommodate snow drifting and winter maintenance concerns and to provide additional buffering along roadways used by the public.

“Overall, these changes represent a more thoughtful and refined layout than what was initially presented last year,” she continued. “The amended design balances energy production with reduced visual drainage and community impacts and incorporates what we heard through the scoping process.”

The Geronimo team walked through the same presentation from the May 2025 public hearing , explaining the project and how it works, before handing the mic to Environmental Review Manager Sam Weaver, who prepared an environmental assessment (EA) for both projects that looks at human and environmental impacts of the project.

“During that public scoping meeting that we had, there were quite a few themes that emerged that people were clearly concerned about,” Weaver said. “As part of the environmental assessment, we issue a sample permit or a draft permit where we can impose conditions … above and beyond what we would usually require.”

While there’s no guarantee the PUC will adopt the special conditions, Weaver proposed noise mitigation requirements that include pre- and post-construction noise modeling.

“We are also requiring that they submit written notifications to adjacent landowners and maintain a dedicated website to alert all adjacent landowners of any construction noise,” Weaver said, adding that coordination is required between the applicant and all adjacent landowners.

There are also specific wildlife protections the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources proposed for wildlife-friendly lighting, erosion control and dust control.

Weaver then addressed the major concerns of drain tile , with special conditions that a drain tile survey must occur before construction, and any damage done to drain tile will be repaired immediately by a local contractor.

Another special condition referenced BESS safety and first responder training. Before construction, Summit Lake must distribute a Hazard Mitigation Analysis to emergency responders detailing the results of equipment testing and any risks associated. They also must provide regular training on battery technology used in the BESS for local firefighting crews and emergency services personnel.

“If they need to get new equipment or if they need to do training … that cost will be borne by the applicant,” Weaver said.

All of the information Weaver provided is addressed in the EA, which can be found at https://puc.eip.mn.gov/ .

Weaver then said discussion of data centers is outside the scope of the EA, as the PUC does not permit data centers, and directed those questions to Nobles County before opening the public hearing on the solar and BESS projects.

The first three people to speak — Stacey Karels, Tony Wicken and Nathan Runke — are in a labor union and gave their support to the projects, all saying it would provide local jobs for local hire. However, attendee Paulette Sjogren later pointed out that none of the three are local.

Malory Fritz spoke next as a non-participating landowner immediately adjacent to the project. She questioned vegetation, asking if trees were to break or die, would they be replaced. Mohammad answered yes.

She then brought up lighting, as the Xcel Energy substation recently installed a lot of lights that “looks like something is on fire at all times” and shines into Fritz’s living room. It was clarified Summit Lake would use down lit lighting to lessen the illumination.

Amy Juarez also had lighting concerns as she lives directly behind the substation.

“It is so bright that we have had to black out our windows,” she said. “The noise control already is ridiculous when it’s windy, it’s almost like a tornado siren. And with it being conjoined with this battery, how much more noise are we going to have?”

With many other attendees concerned about noise, it was clearly stated Geronimo has to meet Minnesota state regulation and cannot exceed 50 decibels at any time. If, after construction, the facility is louder than that, Geronimo will either take the necessary steps to mitigate it or shut down the solar farm, according to Victoria Orchard, project delivery manager.

“We lived in Worthington for many years and we purchased our home outside of town so we could enjoy the quiet, the low lighting and enjoy our environment,” Juarez said.

Dale Solt has been a resident north of Reading for almost 50 years, and will be the closest resident to the BESS project. He said there is a highline owned by Xcel on the south side of his property.

“I have watched Xcel, the way that they do maintenance work on the highline with a helicopter. They have a pilot and then they have a cable with alignment that will come down and service the lines. It’s very interesting to watch,” he said. “After looking at things with the (California) moss landing fire, I was fearful of a helicopter crashing and going into that BESS unit. If a plane or something like that crashes, the magnesium is what burns very hot.

“One of the issues is the BESS layout, the way that it’s planned, approximately 20 acres is right near that highline,” he continued. “If the helicopter lost control … it could spin over and crash into the BESS unit causing a fire. … I think it would be best — if this project goes through — that the BESS unit … would be moved away from that line.”

Sjogren asked about the life expectancy of the solar farm (approximately 30 years), after which Geronimo would decommission it, meaning they would completely remove all of the equipment, including solar panels and cabling, to restore the land back to its natural state.

“We keep taking our farmland away and we wonder why our prices go up because we have to ship in our foods because we aren’t making it here; we’re bringing it in from somewhere else,” Sjogren said. “And our homes, we should be lucky if we’ll be getting a dime out of the dollar when this comes in because nobody’s going to want our homes.

“I moved out of … Worthington to have privacy, to have quiet. I won’t have that no more,” she added.

Mary Wagner, Worthington, shared her concerns with using farmland and asked for clarification on Geronimo’s restoration process.

“We want to make sure that the topsoil that exists on those parcels maintains for the life of the project so that we’re not distributing soil from one parcel to another and disturbing the topsoil that our landowners have worked on cultivating over a number of years,” Orchard replied. “Once the project is operational, we work really hard to establish a pollinator-friendly habitat of grasses across the site.”

Orchard said the intention of pollinator-friendly habitats is to allow the land to rest for one or two years before farming operations could begin again.

Wagner then asked why this location and not somewhere south such as Arizona, where farmland wouldn’t be touched.

“When energy is produced, the farther it has to go, the less efficiency there is,” Orchard said. “The way the grid is set up is to deliver power from the point it’s being generated to its nearest point of use.”

As a retired nurse, Wagner said the added stress in the community from the projects concerns her.

“The best way to take care of ourselves is to get good sleep and limit our stress,” she said. “I have heard more stress in these communities and it really concerned me.”

Dwayne Wienrank also commented on stress, saying “That’s all you’re doing, it’s causing stress. Everybody’s going through this thing, we don’t need any more stress in the world.”

Loretta Halbur, Nobles County drainage coordinator, said she’s been working with Geronimo for 18 months trying to address drainage tile within the project area.

Three drainage systems will be affected, including County Ditch 11, which encompasses about 1,400 acres and is valued at $1.1 million. It then outlets into Judicial Ditch 11B, which is roughly 12,000 acres and valued at $19.2 million. The third is the Judicial Ditch 8 system, which covers about 11,600 acres and is valued at $19.7 million.

Her concerns related to the drainage benefits and property values.

“All in all, there’s about 831 acres of drainage system that will be impacted by this and it comes out to about $1.12 million of property value that will be impacted by the solar project,” Halbur said.

Dennis Fultz, a Murray County resident, was the fourth to share his support for the solar project.

“I just think that the solar farms themselves are good for us in the short run and won’t do damages to the soil in the long run,” he said.

Other individuals who spoke during the hearing were James Joens, Rod Sankey, Rodney Burkard, Anna Deitchler, Jill Cuperus, PJ Klein, Lance Rogers, Trey Davis and Elizabeth Slater — all stating their disapproval of the projects.

Weaver said he can’t always be on site, and relies on community members to report to him if they see something, such as a violation of the permit.

“(We can have) a permit that tries to make it happen as responsibly as possible, but we can’t watch them while they’re constructing things,” he said. “I hope that if you all see something like this and if you see them violating what’s in the permit that you let us know.”