Prairie's Edge Casino sits on the Upper Sioux Indian Community's land outside Granite Falls in western Minnesota. It's the tribe's financial foundation, providing money for housing, healthcare, schools, and tribal police.
In 2024, the tribe built a 2.5 megawatt solar array next to the casino. It's a big system, and it's designed to offset about 30 percent of the casino's electricity. That's a substantial cut to the tribe's energy costs. The project is designed so that not a single watt is sent to the larger power grid.
Last year, the tribe's electrical co-op, Minnesota Valley Light and Power Association, threatened to cut off power to the casino if the tribe switches on the solar array. Minnesota Valley has an exclusive right to sell electricity in its service territory. It's adopted a policy that limits its members to small energy projects. The tribe filed a formal complaint with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission last May, and
the case has moved to an administrative court.
Logan O'Grady leads Minnesota Solar Industries Association, a statewide trade group, said the issue isn't about solar, it's about sovereignty. "If we get a ruling in this case by the Public Utilities Commission that says, yes, this tribal nation can and should be able to do whatever they feel is best for them, that means that a homeowner with a 20 kilowatt system that's a lot smaller should get those same rights, and that principle should apply exactly to them. "
Fifty rural electric cooperatives operate across the state. Many have the same policy. Members can't produce more than 40 kW of electricity without selling it back to a wholesaler, which sells it back to a co-op, and the rates go up along the way. A decision in the Upper Sioux case could determine whether tribal nations and Minnesota customers have the right to generate their own electricity and cut down on what they buy from the co-op. Throughout the Upper Midwest, cooperatives set their own limits. They range from 40 to 200 kW for larger businesses and farms.
When it comes to the conflict between Upper Sioux and Minnesota Valley, O'Grady said the tribe's project isn't in conflict with the co-op's board's policy. "Because they're not what we call exporting, they're not giving back any excess energy to the utility, so there should be no size limitations there."
Under Minnesota Valley's policy, members who crank out more than 40 kW have to sell it and then buy it back at a higher rate. In briefs filed with the administrative court, the Minnesota Department of Commerce is siding with the tribe. The agency says federal law adopted after the energy crises of the 1970s requires utilities to support customers who self-generate.
Nate Matthews runs the Tribal Utility Commission for the White Earth Nation, a tribal nation in northwestern Minnesota. He's watching the case closely because White Earth is building a large solar array to power its own casino. "But those costs for purchasing the power are rising and have risen over the last few years. How that then translates into specific rates, that's what we want to kind of take a look at and how that gets levied so that some customers aren't subsidizing others."
Matthews said that for tribes, the stakes go beyond electricity costs. "If there is a conflict here, does tribal sovereignty take precedence over a local co-op board's policies? Both of us in Indian country working with renewable energy believe it does. We do have those inherent tribal sovereign rights."
Until the power dispute is settled, the Upper Sioux community is waiting to switch on its solar array.
The Upper Midwest Newsroom is a public media collaboration between Wisconsin, North and South Dakota, and Minnesota, made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
