Solar projects on closed landfills offer new use for former Minnesota waste sites

Minnesota has more than 100 closed landfills, but there is an approach to deal with the waste sites that also brings the state closer to energy independence. It involves repurposing these landfills into solar farms. The Anoka-Ramsey landfill has now been covered with nearly 9,000 solar panels that help power 750 nearby homes.

MPR Chief Meteorologist Ben Cathey spoke with the CEO of Connexus Energy, Brian Burandt, and Hans Neve, a program manager with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, about how closed landfills can be transformed and what benefits they can bring to a community.

“Up front, people often say, ‘I don't want to live by solar,’” Burandt said. “Then after the system goes up, we've seen housing development go all around it. And when the University of Minnesota came out and did some study and talked to those homeowners, they were happy to live by it. They now know what their neighbor is for the next 30 years. It's something that's silent. There's pollinator habitat and people tend to be happy to be living adjacent to a solar system.”

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Correction (Oct. 27, 2026): A previous version of this story misspelled Connexus Energy and Brian Burandt. It has been updated.