Minnesota requires data centers to support clean energy transition

Fresh Energy says data centers built in Minnesota must use clean energy, pay for needed grid infrastructure, and pilot waste-heat and other clean-heat technologies to avoid hindering the state’s decarbonization goals.

• Main announcement/action: Fresh Energy calls for data centers to comply with Minnesota’s 100% clean electricity by 2040 law, to pay the full costs of any local electricity infrastructure upgrades (per the 2025 data center policy package), and to pilot clean-heat capture from server waste heat for local heating uses.
• Background/details: The organization highlights that data centers in Minnesota should be powered largely by wind, solar, battery storage, and demand response programs, that the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission must oversee rate design and integrated resource planning to prevent indirect rate impacts, and that references include Minnesota being 50% carbon-free for electricity and North Dakota examples of large loads affecting rates.