Solar Power Keeps Growing in Decorah

Posted: October 7, 2025 in City News

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

From the City of Decorah 

Contact: Jim Martin-Schramm, Chair, Decorah Sustainability Commission, marschja@luther.edu

Solar Power Keeps Growing in Decorah

Decorah, (IA) – One of the action items in Decorah’s Sustainability Plan is to establish the amount of installed renewable energy generating capacity (kW-AC) through 2024 and to compare that amount to the 2020 baseline.  Below are some of the highlights:

  • The number of solar photovoltaic (PV) projects increased 40% from a total of 234 projects in 2020 to 328 projects in 2024.
  • The amount of installed solar PV generating capacity increased 43% from a total of 4,013 kW in 2020 to 5,734 kW in 2024.
  • Luther College’s 1,542 KW of installed solar PV capacity remained the same from 2020 through 2024 and represents only 27% of the solar in Decorah.
  • The amount of solar installed per capita increased from 529 watts in 2020 to 756 watts in 2024.
  • According to the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, The State(s) of Distributed Solar — 2024 Update (April 2025), Decorah’s 756 watts of installed solar per capita is 7.3 times greater than the Iowa average (103 watts), and even higher than the State of Hawai’i, which leads the nation at 638 watts per capita.

Decorah also has 1,600 kW of installed wind energy capacity (Luther’s wind turbine), but that amount did not increase from 2020 through 2024.

In total, Decorah has 7,334 kW-AC of renewable energy generating capacity installed through the end of 2024, which amounts to 967 watts per capita.

Alliant Energy provided the installed capacity information to the City of Decorah at the request of the Decorah Sustainability Commission.  The next update will be conducted in three years.

 

For more information, contact Jim Martin-Schramm, Chair of the Decorah Sustainability Commission.

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