Title
Authorizing the Office of Financial Services to apply for a Geothermal Planning Grant from the Minnesota Department of Commerce for Mount Airy community in partnership with District Energy St. Paul.
Body
WHEREAS, the Office of Financial Services, in partnership with District Energy St. Paul, would like to apply to the Minnesota Department of Commerce’s Geothermal Planning Grant Program, which was established by the Minnesota Legislature in 2024 to provide financial assistance to eligible applicants to examine the technical and economic feasibility of installing geothermal energy systems; and
WHEREAS, the City of Saint Paul’s Climate Action and Resilience Plan adopted in December 2019 established a goal to achieve carbon neutrality citywide by 2050; and
WHEREAS, Mount Airy Homes is a family housing development located near downtown Saint Paul owned by the Saint Paul Public Housing Authority (“PHA”) whose residents rely on District Energy St. Paul, a local nonprofit utility, to keep their homes warm and to heat their domestic hot water; and
WHEREAS, District Energy is the largest hot water district system in the United States established in 1983 through an innovative public-private partnership led by the City of Saint Paul; and
WHEREAS, Mount Airy Homes and the adjacent Mount Airy hi-rise apartments are located in a Justice40 community whose residents face high energy burdens; and
WHEREAS, establishing a geothermal district system to augment a portion of the district energy system utilized to serve Mount Airy residents would further reduce the need for fossil fuel-based technology resulting in greenhouse gas emissions reductions, and energy cost savings; and
WHEREAS, District Energy St. Paul is planning to perform needed maintenance to the distribution infrastructure that supplies the Mount Airy townhouses and this grant would fund the study of possibly deploying a geothermal system alongside needed maintenance to maximize planned capital investment; and
WHEREAS, the maximum grant amount of $150,000.00 with no match required from the Geothermal Planning Grant Program would support a geothermal feasibility study for the Mount Airy Homes community; and
WHEREAS, the City certifies that it will comply with all applicable laws and regulations as stated in the grant agreement; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, that the Saint Paul City Council authorizes the Office of Financial Services, in partnership with District Energy St. Paul, to apply for the Geothermal Planning Grant Program.