By Ava Kian for MinnPost.
Broadcast version by Mike Moen for Minnesota News Connection reporting for the MinnPost-Public News Service Collaboration

The Lodge of Whispering Pines stands among the trees near an entrance to the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness, at the end of a hilly and winding road, 20 miles north of Ely. 

It has what most other resorts in northern Minnesota offer: a great view of the outdoors, cute cabins, campsites and the glimpse of a quieter life. But it’s the sun shining brightly on these cold winter days that sets the lodge apart. 

In fact, it wouldn’t be open without it. 

After sitting dormant during the winter for the past decade, strained by high energy costs, the Lodge of Whispering Pines is up and running on the strength of a solar project that largely powers its dozen cabins. 

Owner Daniel Houle, who bought the lodge in 2022, noticed how the winter climate was taxing the business. The cost of heating was too high to justify it being open, so for the previous ten years, the lodge remained closed in winter.

“Because it’s been a seasonal resort, we haven’t had anybody in the spring or the fall,” said Denise Myers, who lives on-site with Houle and helps operate the lodge. “I know that they did some hunting and some winter activities for a while, but I think it was just too expensive to keep up because they had to run the generator.” 

Solar power will also help the resort save money during the peak season because its electricity comes from an on-site solar field. 

Before the solar project was implemented, a diesel generator ran 24/7 to create electricity from May through October. The cost of diesel was around $4 a gallon — a “bad deal,” as Houle put it — coming out to roughly $2,800 a month. Now, almost all of the electricity comes from solar panels. 

“I could have stayed and paid 20-grand a year, 25-grand a year in diesel fuel,” he said. “But this way, we’ve got clean energy. It works. It’s dependable. And the big winner is I get to be open in the winter, without having to have a million customers come through.” 

Financial struggle for resorts 

Houle said electricity has always been a financial struggle for remote resorts like his. He said lot values seem to be going up, with land values outpacing cash flow values. But tourism is strong in the state. 

“(We’re) assured to move forward into the next decade because we now have ample power to keep our property running and it’s affordable,” Houle said.

He got the solar project up and running with the help of funding from the Minnesota Department of Commerce’s State Competitiveness Fund (SCF) Matching Funds Program, along with a federal USDA REAP grant.

The state program was funded by the Legislature in 2023. Pete Wyckoff, the deputy commissioner of energy resources at the Department of Commerce, said one of the main goals of the matching program is for Minnesotans to be incentivized to tap into federal dollars. 

“There has been a sort of unprecedented level of opportunity for nationwide federal aid to come in the form of grants and loans and tax credits to help clean energy transition and climate projects,” he said. “One of our goals is just to make sure that Minnesota gets its fair share of the pie. We have been seeing this as a way to help encourage more of that federal money to come back to Minnesota.”

From 2022-2026, an estimated $2.21 million has been and will be awarded to Minnesota organizations through federal infrastructure funds. There are still more federal grants available, too. 

The projects vary in size. Wyckoff said projects like the one at the Lodge Of Whispering Pines, for example, cost the state a little over $100,000 while another project in the program will cost as much as $10 million.

Future rounds for the SCF Matching Funds will open throughout 2025. The state has offered some technical assistance, too, to assist with things like grant writing, for example. Lodge of Whispering Pines received separate help with grant writing from Bonnie Zupec, a friend of Houle’s who said the application process involved having a clear idea of the project and planning out various elements. 

“Whispering Pines is a project we’re really excited about. I think it’s a great example of how Minnesota businesses can pair funding that’s available from the state of Minnesota with available funding at the federal level,” said Lori Brown, the program director for the State Competitiveness Fund. 

The total amount allocated to the program is $100 million. So far, the state fund has reserved about $17 million from SCF for projects that have received approval for federal awards, associated with just less than $61 million in complimentary federal funds.

The entire project in Ely cost around $180,000. It was really because of those grants, both state and federal, that Houle was able to do this. 

“Economics drives a lot of buses,” he said. “Really, without the grants, I don’t know how many more guys will jump into it. For us out here, it was different, because we’re off grid, so we don’t have electric.”

And the Lodge of Whispering Pines is going to save a lot of money and remain open because of it. 

It has a diesel generator as a backup, but Houle and Myers haven’t used it nearly as much as they used to. They’ve reduced their diesel use by roughly 80%, from 25 gallons of diesel a day to around 5 gallons a day, Houle estimated. They can’t sell the energy back, so they store their batteries for those days when they get less sun. Their system has a storage volume of 143 kilowatts. 

They’ve got 72 panels that bring in energy that can be stored in batteries. The total solar capacity of their panel operation is 38 kilowatts per hour and the batteries have a total storage capacity of 140 kilowatts. 

“We are a microgrid. We are our own power company,” Houle said. 

A storied lodge looks forward

Lodge Of Whispering Pines features 12 cabins that have a woodsy feel and campsites for a more nature-centered experience. Big Lake sits right next to the resort, a place where visitors can try winter activities like snowshoeing, or in the summer take up their wilderness day trips. 

The lodge’s previous owners operated it for nearly 30 years. Its original owners, Marie Sarkipeto Ericson and Roland Ericson, built the lodge in the 1920s and opened it in 1936. 

Myers and Houle want to put Sarkipeto Ericson front and center. She was one of the first female guides in the Superior National Forest. They want to continue her work and help teach people about the outdoors. 

“She’s like our patron saint,” Houle said. 

“Why does she not get a name for stuff?” Myers said. “We’re going to put her name in it.”

So far this season, one family stayed over Christmas time. In the coming weeks, the lodge will host college students taking a wilderness course at Minnesota North College-Vermilion. 

“We’re hoping to get a lot of the youth across the state of Minnesota to come up and experience winter,” Houle said. 

The resort has previously been an outfitter for the boundary waters and will continue to be so. Guests can sleep there before heading into the canoe area, and Myers and Houle feel they can finally sleep at night. 

“Before, you (were) always thinking the generator is going to stop in the middle of the night, and when you have 70 guests here and the generator stops because of mechanical things,” House said. “The dependability of this, just in the last couple of weeks, I think I’m not as stressed because it’s dependable. We have stored power. It kind of can’t go wrong.”

While there have been some skeptics, Myers thinks this will be a leader in a new movement. 

“I want to preserve all this for … (the) inheritance of my grandchildren’s grandchildren’s grandchildren. There needs to be places they can come outside and play and live,” Myers said. “For us to do this and look at how little gas we’re putting in, and the idea of maybe getting other people out to enjoy this so they want to preserve it, too. I feel like I’ve died and gone to heaven. It feels like the best reward I’ve ever had working here, being a part of this.”


Ava Kian wrote this article for MinnPost.


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Groups in Pennsylvania are asking Congress to preserve federal clean-energy tax incentives.

Concerned about the possible repeal of 30% energy tax credits that have supported projects across the state, they gathered at a local charter school to tout its solar-panel installation as an example.

Andrew Reagan, president of the group Clean Energy for America, said there is bipartisan support for the tax credit. He said it directly benefits southeastern Pennsylvania residents, who are investing in solar and other forms of clean energy to save on energy bills while reducing air pollution.

"Folks are saving money," he said. "They're becoming more energy independent, and at a time of skyrocketing energy prices, it's never been more important to have that flexibility to both lower your energy bill as well as make some of these projects more self-sufficient."

One recent study predicted that repealing the tax incentives could raise residential electric rates by an average of $83 a year and eliminate close to four million jobs.

Reagan said now is the time for Pennsylvanians to let their representatives know how they feel.

The solar installation at ASPIRA Bilingual Cyber Charter School was done by the Bucks County company Exact Solar last year, and is one of many that have been supported by tax incentives.

Daniel Pompile, the school's director of culinary arts, environmental education and food services, said it offers a culinary arts program, and its greenhouse project is a way to provide fresh, organic produce and educate kids on where food comes from.

"It also allowed us to plant the seed about green initiatives and lowering carbon footprints," he said, "and the kids are learning about the world in the process - about the environment where their food comes from, agriculture - and they're doing it in a fun, experiential kind of way."

Michael Lehane, sales manager for Exact Solar, said it installed a ground array and off-grid solar system for the school greenhouse, and is working on community solar projects as well.

"We're doing more straightforward projects, where we're installing solar on homes and businesses that are providing the electricity that they would normally have to get from the utility," he said. "And the economics of it are such that the cost of energy is cheaper, no matter which way you go."

He said the upfront cost can be a challenge, which is where incentives come into play. But uncertainty about whether the credits will stay in place is causing people to hold back on making the investment.


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Pennsylvania is among the five states projected to be hit hardest if the Inflation Reduction Act is repealed.

A report from the think tank Energy Innovation showed the law has brought more than $1.33 billion dollars in clean energy and transportation investments, creating nearly 4,700 jobs.

Megan Ziegler, CEO of the Southwest Pennsylvania Municipal Project Hub, said the Inflation Reduction Act helps modernize infrastructure and supports local governments and schools in upgrading outdated facilities. She added reducing tax credits and clean energy projects would negatively affect the Pennsylvania economy and environment.

"These are called direct pay or elective pay," Ziegler explained. "This was a great tool because this was the first time that local governments, nonprofits and schools, because of their tax-exemption status, were able to offset these investments in their buildings and their systems the way that private industry has been leveraging those for years."

The report revealed repealing existing federal clean energy tax credits and funding programs would increase average annual household energy costs in Pennsylvania by nearly $60 per year in 2030 and more than $80 per year in 2035.

Zeigler pointed out many homeowners in southwest Pennsylvania have used state rebates and tax credits to make energy efficient upgrades, helping to lower costs as temperatures rise. She warned cutting the programs would raise expenses and stressed the need for bipartisan support because clean energy investments create jobs and strengthen the economy.

"There was a lot of IRA funding that was dedicated to grid stability," Zeigler noted. "Ultimately, our region needs to make smart investments by diversifying our grid with more renewables, microgrids or even hydroelectric systems. This reduces blackouts and saves ratepayers over time as well."

Robbie Orvis, senior director for modeling and analysis at Energy Innovation, said the nationwide study showed what would happen to energy projects and jobs between 2025 and 2035 if cuts are made.

"When we compared the top 10 states for each of those side by side, we found that there were five states that were in the top 10 in both of those categories, and those were Texas, Florida, California, Pennsylvania and Georgia," Orvis reported.

He added those states risk higher energy bills and job losses due to growth in population, manufacturing and electricity demand. A Moody's analysis found President Donald Trump's 2024 policy plan could fuel inflation, slow the economy and trigger a recession by the middle of this year.

As President Donald Trump rolls back clean energy initiatives at the federal level, states like Maryland are pushing ahead with their own energy transitions.

Legislation moving through the Maryland General Assembly includes a bill to codify Gov. Wes Moore's campaign pledge, to transition the state to 100% clean energy by 2035. Another bill, known as the Abundant Affordable Clean Energy Act, would expand battery storage to the regional grid.

Rebecca Rehr, director of climate policy and justice for the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, said clean energy investments can also help the economy and combat rising energy costs.

"We can create a model of economic growth and clean energy adoption that other states can follow," Rehr contended. "We can really lead here, especially in the face of federal rollbacks. You can have economic growth and a growth of the clean energy industry here in Maryland at the same time. These go hand in glove."

Energy costs for many Maryland households have recently gone up 50% for gas and 30% for electricity.

Clean energy advocates in the state are also playing defense. Top Democratic leaders in the General Assembly introduced the Next Generation Energy Act, to build new natural gas plants. Rehr argued it would impede progress the state has made in the clean energy transition.

"If this bill moves forward as it was introduced, it not only seeks to build new gas in Maryland," Rehr pointed out. "It seeks to fast-track new gas in Maryland, which could have consequences and again sort of flies in the face of any environmental justice provisions in state law."

The state also has goals to produce 8.5 gigawatts of wind power by 2031.