LNPK Solar Garden

Lincoln Park Solar Garden

Here you’ll find the story behind the Lincoln Park Solar Garden and information on upcoming programming.

The Lincoln Park Solar Garden, completed in 2020, is a 40-kilowatt solar array at the northeastern entrance to Lincoln Park. It is Duluth’s first community-owned, low-income solar project. The power from the array benefits the Duluth Veterans’ Place, a transitional housing project by the Minnesota Assistance Council for Veterans, and provides long-term funding for an Eco3 Energy Fund to help families that are struggling to pay their utility bills.

2021 Design Series

Read about the four public design workshops we hosted for Lincoln Park community members

As built, the solar array stands 12 feet above the ground, which presents the opportunity to co-create a variety of community amenities at the entrance to the Lincoln Park neighborhood, along West Michigan Street. Thanks to funding from the NOAA’s Office of Coastal Management and the Minnesota DNR, our team engaged with community members through a series of workshops focused on gathering input for the future design of the Lincoln Park Solar Garden. Between May and September 2021, we hosted four workshops that touched on a variety of topics, including history, culture, climate adaptation, water, transportation, and biodiversity. You can find more details about the process and results of these workshops, as well as learn about some of the topics discussed, by visiting the Lincoln Park Solar Garden Design Series webpage linked below.

Saturday, May 22 2021

with Christina Woods, Executive Director of the Duluth Art Institute, and Carl Crawford, Human Rights Officer for the City of Duluth

Storytelling is a powerful tool that allows us to recognize the shared experiences of our community members while reinforcing everyone’s right to belong in the place they live. Workshop #1 focused on the history of Duluth and how we tell this story. Guest speakers, Christina Woods and Carl Crawford, shared their stories of Duluth’s history from the perspective of marginalized communities—indigenous Anishinaabe and African-heritage communities, respectively.

Thursday, June 24 2021

with Jodi Slick, Founder and CEO of Ecolibrium3

Adapting to the changing climate of our region is necessary to strengthen Lincoln Park’s sustainability as an urban community. For Workshop #2 Ecolibrium3 set up shop in Lincoln Park on a weeknight to engage passersby and community members in conversations surrounding local climate adaptation, relation to water, history, and neighborhood conditions.

Wednesday, July 28 2021

with Chris Belden, Alicia Kozlowski, Kris Liljeblad, Andrea Crouse, Mindy Granley, and Gary Eckenberg

Development that emphasizes sustainability and inclusion through participatory design will positively impact the wellbeing of our Lincoln Park community members. Through a mapping exercise, conversations with local experts on transportation, public policy, infrastructure, stormwater management, and sustainability, and a design activity focused on neighborhood art, attendees helped us re-imagine the entrance to the Lincoln Park neighborhood.

Saturday, September 25 2021

with Deb Smith, Communal Garden Manager at the Emerald Community Garden

Green infrastructure often requires minimal effort to positively impact the environment - we call this low-impact development. By engaging attendees in native plant demonstration, an interactive watershed game, and an opportunity to give input on the future of the Solar Garden, attendees examined green infrastructure models and considered how they may be implemented on the Lincoln Park Solar Garden site to sustain it as a community asset.

***All workshops and corresponding marketing materials were prepared by Ecolibrium3 using federal funds under award NA20NOS4190088 from the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, as amended, administered by the Office for Coastal Management, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce provided to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MNDNR) for Minnesota’s Lake Superior Coastal Program. The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of NOAA, the U.S. Department of Commerce, or the MNDNR.