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ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – The city of Rochester is expected to receive $2 million in federal dollars to build up geothermal and solar energy in the city. It’s part of the city’s District Energy Project for downtown Rochester.
The goal of the project is it create a entire district of buildings with renewable energy, starting in downtown Rochester with buildings like city hall and expanding outwards.
That’s going to look like installing solar panels and systems to use heat from the earth’s crust to heat buildings.
City leaders were planning to get some money from the state for the project, but after the legislature didn’t pass a bonding bill, they had to look for funds elsewhere.
Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith picked up this project and added it to a federal bill that’s expected to pass through Congress.
“This will absolutely help us move forward. We know that buildings and transportation are the two biggest drivers of greenhouse gas and this addresses one of those two and one that we can have control over so that feels really good and it’s a great first step,” Rochester Mayor Kim Norton said.
It’s unclear when the city will receive these funds, but Mayor Norton says she is pretty confident it will happen soon. Last year, when similar projects were added to federal bills, they passed through Congress smoothly.
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