Our own Eric Udelhofen spoke this week at SEIA’s Solar Goes Corporate Conference in Washington, DC. 

Eric shed light on OneEnergy’s role in creating a unique solar energy partnership that helped Organic Valley and Dr. Bronner’s on their journey to becoming 100 percent renewably powered.

Eric spearheaded OneEnergy’s work with these and others businesses, municipal cooperatives, and city governments to make ten solar projects known as the Butter Solar portfolio a reality across Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa. 

In addition to Organic Valley and Dr. Bronner’s, our partners in this arrangement included Native Energy, the City of Madison, Wisconsin, and the Upper Midwest Municipal Energy Group, which represents fifteen municipal utilities across the three states.  

The power produced from the Butter Solar Portfolio is sold to the Upper Midwest Municipal Energy Group. Organic Valley and Dr. Bronner’s will buy renewable energy credits from three solar projects for more than 25 years to help support the project and keep electricity prices low for everyone that lives in these rural Midwestern communities. The City of Madison and NativeEnergy will also buy renewable energy credits from projects within the Butter Solar Portfolio.

As Eric noted at the SEIA conference, we believe this creative arrangement between sustainable businesses, local utilities, and solar developers offers a model for the country, especially in highly regulated markets. 

“Progressive customers like Organic Valley and Dr. Bronner’s are helping move the solar industry forward and helping its benefits reach rural customers throughout the Midwest,” said Eric. “We are excited to work with other Renewable Energy Credit partners to help build upon the success of the Butter Solar portfolio.” 

The underlying premise of this arrangement is that clean, locally-sourced energy can be delivered cost-effectively and bring companies like Organic Valley and Dr. Bronner’s closer to their clean energy goals.  

Our sincere thanks to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) for highlighting this groundbreaking partnership and to all of our partners for their trust in OneEnergy Renewables as the developer of the Butter Solar portfolio.