TruNorth Solar CEO Marty Morud worries that without tax credits, his companies and others will not be able to employ as many people. Shown are TruNorth workers putting panels on a house in Golden Valley. (Photo by Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune)
By Christopher Vondracek | The Minnesota Star Tribune | May 28, 2025 at 9:08AM
Below is a preview of the article. Please view the full article here: https://www.startribune.com/solar-energy-tax-credits-congressional-budget-bill-industry-downturn-green-clean/601354348
WASHINGTON — When Marty Morud opened his solar installation business 15 years ago in Minnesota, his customer base included early adopters and climate-conscious believers.
Now, Morud’s company, TruNorth Solar out of Arden Hills, puts solar panels on barns and schools.
This evolution in the industry, he said, came with a change in how Americans view green energy. And the federal government was in lock-step, with tax credits boosting the shift.
Now, however, Congress is on the cusp of passing a budget bill that effectively vaporizes green energy tax credits, including those used to finance solar panel manufacturers to wind farms and geothermal home-heating systems.
Morud, TruNorth’s CEO, said the change in course makes his head spin.
“A vast majority of our customers are now middle-income, even low-income,” he said. “That’s because [the government] figured out they could pay everyone’s electric bill for the next 30 years or invest in a cheaper version of energy.”
Across Minnesota, a nascent solar industry — sprung from the ashes of the Great Recession with millennial optimism — is reconciling with the emergence of the budget bill, which companies say will crush the industry.
The credits provided both sustainability and job creation, Morud and other supporters said.
But for those who agree with President Donald Trump, who has called the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) supporting clean energy credits a “Green New Scam,” the time has come for an industry to stand on its own legs without the need for tax breaks to be competitive.
Griffin Dooling, CEO of Minnetonka-based Blue Horizon Energy, which like TruNorth started in 2009, sells to customers who use tax credits to finance clean energy systems. Dooling held dozens of meetings in Washington, D.C., over the past several months trying to veer Congress away from obliterating the green-energy incentives.
Under the IRA, various credits were consolidated into a single tech-neutral credit, an attempted overture to Republicans in Congress.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like that generated the support that we had expected,” Dooling said, “At least not so far in this legislative process.”
Under the bill, tax credits for home and commercial-grade solar projects would sunset or soon be eliminated. Products from China and other countries of concern would be banned. And it would be harder to sell tax credits, a financial incentive for investors.
“It’s really just the kill-shot for the industry,” said Logan O’Grady, executive director of MnSEIA, a solar energy association. “We’ve already seen customers saying we can’t move forward with the projects with such a radical swing.”
Roughly 5,000 people across Minnesota are employed in the solar industry. The state is not a solar leader, ranking 19th in the U.S. for installed capacity. But the state’s rural landscape and embrace of clean energy has attracted marquee investments…
Again, this was just a small portion of Chris’s article. Please view the full article here:
“Congressional Budget Bill Could Kill Solar Industry in Minnesota Just as it was Gaining Momentum.” Star Tribune, 28 May 2025. https://www.startribune.com/solar-energy-tax-credits-congressional-budget-bill-industry-downturn-green-clean/601354348
