Minnesota Regulators Approve Primergy’s 150-Megawatt Solar-Plus-Storage Northern Crescent Project Unanimously

• Minnesota’s PUC greenlights Primergy’s Northern Crescent: up to 150 MW of solar with a 50-MW battery in Faribault County.

Primergy’s Northern Crescent project has cleared its biggest hurdle. Minnesota’s Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved the Faribault County build, combining up to 150 MW of solar with a 50-MW battery. It’s the latest evidence that Upper Midwest grids are leaning into hybrid assets to manage steeper ramps and higher renewable penetration, with batteries shifting energy into evening hours and earning revenues from fast-response services.

The approval follows a docket that examined land use, drainage, wildlife habitat, and community benefits. Primergy’s plan leans on single-axis trackers and a DC-coupled design that optimizes annual yield while trimming curtailment on mild, sunny days. The battery’s size suggests a multi-hour duration suited for peak shaving and contingency reserves, and interconnection studies point to using the storage component to reduce impacts at the point of intertie.

For local stakeholders, the project brings a mix of short-term construction work and long-term tax base contributions, along with vegetation management commitments that can improve pollinator habitat. For grid planners, it expands a toolkit that increasingly includes hybrid PPAs and capacity payments—recognizing that clean megawatt-hours have more value when they show up at the right time.

With the thumbs-up secured, attention turns to procurement of long-lead equipment and sequencing with substation upgrades. If milestones hold, Northern Crescent could be delivering evening electrons by the middle of the second half of the decade.