For the Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, caring for creation is more than an environmental commitment. Rooted in the Franciscan belief that all people, creatures and elements of nature belong to God’s family, the community’s solar array project is designed to serve both the Earth and its inhabitants.
Last fall, installation began on the solar array — a collection of multiple solar panels that generate electricity as a system, also sometimes called a solar garden or farm — on the St. Francis Campus property in Little Falls. By November the array was operational, offsetting the community’s costs for fossil fuels to heat the buildings on their campus.
A sign welcoming visitors to the array site notes that it was designed, built and paid for by the sisters to be a “powerful demonstration of how we can reduce fossil fuel consumption, a significant contributor to our climate crisis.”
“I believe this was Sister Carolyn Law’s brainchild,” said chief operating officer Tim Houle. “She started the calculations for what the return on investment would be. She reached out and tried to find different vendors that could help us. I think we went through a couple of different vendor options before we settled on Cedar Creek Energy.”
Sister Carolyn, who died in 2023, did not live to see the project completed, but sisters and staff members credit her vision and persistence with getting the solar array project off the ground.
The contract with Cedar Creek Energy is a five-year arrangement, Houle said. The sisters loaned them the money to build the array so they would be able to claim the solar tax credits.
“They are paying us back, and at the end of the five years, the array becomes ours for a nominal fee,” Houle added.
Because of the complexity of the sisters’ electric infrastructure, which includes the adjacent St. Gabriel’s Hospital and other buildings, the project was also in the planning stages for longer than usual before the installation even began.
“The heart of the matter for us, was not the return on investment; it was reducing fossil fuel burning for our electricity and so it was sized to offset what we consume for electricity,” Houle added.
The panels are approximately 4’x6’ and there are 120 panels.
Mike Schut, director of integral ecology for the sisters, echoed their commitment to decreasing fossil fuel use while also restoring the natural habitats on the property.
“Deeper than that, is the theology and worldview that says we are all kin and are concerned about climate change and [its] impact on all creation, on all species, on us and on those made poor,” he said. “So, it’s really the theology and worldview of kinship that is behind this.”
Sister Mary Hroscikoski has been leading the habitat restoration efforts on the sisters’ campus and has been working to restore the prairie under and around the solar panels.
Before this project started, the land under and around the solar array was a field of invasive grasses.
“Our purpose in restoring this land is to provide what I’m starting to call affordable housing for wildlife,” she said. “So much of their housing, their shelter, their food has been removed, as we humans have taken over so much of the land for our habitation and our needs. We’ve stripped it of habitat that they need, so if we’re putting in a solar array, we have the opportunity to put in a prairie beneath that … that can include a mix of grasses and flowers and other types of plants that will feed pollinators and provide habitat for them, as well as other small animals.”
During an event Sept. 12, the sisters collaborated with Great River Greening, the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources and the Morrison County Soil and Water Conservation District to plant more native species and continue habitat restoration on the site.
Before the solar panels were put in, there was an initial planting of native species, Sister Mary explained. The planting on Sept. 12 was another stage to increase the variety of life there and attract and support other species.
Beneath and around the array, native grasses and wildflowers are being planted to create food and habitat for pollinators and other wildlife.
“It’s about affordable housing for all of creation,” Houle said. “And we don’t like to distinguish which critters we’re talking about.”
We are humbly proud of our Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls. By running this article, more people may consider the use of solar. Also in Little Falls until Oct. 4 is an incredible water exhibit, Come, see, and cover as it meets our Pope’s exhortation, our diocese’s encouragement of care for creation, this state and earth’s dire needs.🙏🏽😍 320-547-1030 (my cell)