Shakopee Energy Park holds grand opening

Shakopee Valley News

Though the plant has been operational since February, the Shakopee Energy Park made its debut during a grand opening on Thursday.

The plant is owned by the Minnesota Municipal Power Agency and produces power for Shakopee and 11 other communities.

"It's going to power the member communities and Shakopee for decades and decades to come," Mayor Bill Mars said during the opening ceremony.

Construction began after MMPA purchased the land from Canterbury Park.

Shakopee Energy Park houses five engines which can be at full capacity in two to 10 minutes, compared to hours for some other engines. The engines were loaded into the facility over Labor Day weekend.

Visitors toured the energy park and then attended a sponsored horse racing event at Canterbury Park afterwards.

The engines were made in Finland and transported to the United States. Each engine took 45 minutes to transport from the train station to the facility.

The engines only run at about 720 rpm (what a car runs at idle) so they are quiet.

"Even with all the engines running you could stand outside and you would not know it's running — there's no vibration and there's no sound," Shakopee Public Utilities Manager and MMPA Board Chair John Crooks said at the ceremony. "We wanted to make sure it, number one wasn't going to be an eyesore and number two, wouldn't cause problems for people who live around here."

The plant generates power from natural gas, with liquefied natural gas as a backup. Spark plugs ignite an air-fuel mixture, causing fuel to combust which creates an expansion of hot gas that powers generators which produce electricity.

The engines are predicted to last 20 to 30 years.