Sabathani Reaches Major Milestone in Community Energy Project

We are thrilled to announce Sabathani Community Center’s $6 million in new funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which will allow us to fully complete our geothermal heating and cooling project.

This transformative project was also made possible by the $6 million in Renewable Development Account appropriations from the Minnesota Legislature. We extend our deepest gratitude to our bill sponsors, Rep. Athena Hollins and Sen. Tou Xiong, as well as MN House and Senate leadership, including Rep. Patty Acomb and Sen. Nick Frentz, for their unwavering support.

New funding also includes a recent award from Hennepin County C-SITE $2.5M grant which includes $100,000 for Sabathani’s solar array as a subrecipient. The solar will tie into battery backup storage and microgrid technologies provided by Xcel Energy allowing Sabathani to remain with power to serve our community during a power outage. 

We would like to thank Janet Brown, Project Consultant and Development Support, for her four-plus years stewarding this project and Capit0l Strategies for essential government affairs support. Other committed project partners include; Center for Energy and Environment (CEE), Apex Facility Solutions, McKnight Foundation, The City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County, The Minneapolis Foundation, The Institute for Market Transformation, Renewable Energy Partners, Xcel Energy, CenterPoint Energy, Cooperative Energy Futures, Darcy, and the MN Department of Commerce. Additionally, we are grateful to our friends at the Minneapolis American Indian Center and to our technical consultants at the Department of Energy and National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) for their work through the Communities LEAP grant.

We are deeply grateful and excited to have reached this significant milestone in our Community Energy Project, with the geothermal system now fully funded and final designs in development. This achievement brings us one step closer to transforming Sabathani into a model of sustainable energy. We look forward to breaking ground in early Spring and eagerly turning our attention to the next phase: developing the solar energy and battery storage component. While we still need to raise an additional $900,000 for the solar array and $2 million to expand the geothermal district energy to serve multi-family housing, we are confident that, with continued community and partner support, these next steps will come to life.

For more details on this exciting milestone, read the full press release here. Sabathani’s $6 million in funding is part of a larger $10 million EPA Community Change grant shared with the Minneapolis American Indian Center (MAIC), which received $4 million to support their solar energy and workforce development efforts. Together, these funds will drive critical green energy initiatives that benefit both organizations and the broader community, advancing climate resilience and sustainability in BIPOC communities.