Prairie River
Hydro power plant · Itasca County, Minnesota
Nameplate capacity
1.0 MW
Rank in Minnesota
#652
of 804 plants
In service since
2020
April 2020
Details
- Primary fuel
- Hydro
- Technology
- Conventional Hydroelectric
- Operator
- ALLETE, Inc.
- County
- Itasca County
- Generating units
- 2
- Share of state capacity
- 0.01%
- Rank among hydro plants in Minnesota
- #22 of 22
- EIA plant code
- 378
Generating units
| Unit | Technology | Nameplate | Summer | Online | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Conventional Hydroelectric | 0.7 MW | 0.5 MW | 2020 | Operating |
| 2 | Conventional Hydroelectric | 0.3 MW | 0.2 MW | 2020 | Operating |
Nameplate is the maximum rated output; summer capacity is what the unit can reliably deliver on a hot day, which is typically lower.
Similarly sized plants in Minnesota
| Plato CSG1, LLC | Solar | 1.0 MW |
| Platt Solar | Solar | 1.0 MW |
| Prawer Project CSG | Solar | 1.0 MW |
| Preston Garden (CSG) | Solar | 1.0 MW |
About this data
From EIA’s inventory of operable generators, May 2026 release. Capacity is nameplate — the maximum rated output of the equipment, not what the plant actually generates over a year, which depends on how often it runs. A 1.0 MW solar plant and a 1.0 MW nuclear plant have the same entry here and produce very different amounts of electricity.
“In service since” is the earliest in-service date among the units still listed, so a site rebuilt around newer equipment can read as younger than the site itself. All Minnesota power plants · What Minnesota actually generates