Other factors, however, serve to inhibit them. Over the past decade or so, however, co-ops have received fewer such loans and now obtain most of their capital from conventional private sources. Since private sources generally consider renewable energy projects riskier than conventional alternatives, the cost of capital for such projects is higher, and may increase with the advent of competition. The lack of regulatory oversight, combined with an intrinsically conservative management culture, has generally led co-ops to exclude renewable energy from their resource portfolios. This has been reinforced by the ready availability of cheap fossil fuels from local sources, by a legacy of overcapacity from the 1970s and 1980s, and by the low avoided cost of power that results.
Renewable energy has a relatively high political profile in Minnesota.
In exchange, NSP was allowed to store nuclear waste above ground temporarily at the Prairie Island nuclear power plant. Since then, legislators have encouraged other utilities in the state, including co-ops, to support renewable energy actively. Through their regulatory and legislative involvement, Minnesota co-ops also have more contact with stakeholders such as environmental and consumer groups. All these factors tend to improve prospects for renewable energy development in Minnesota co-ops. With more than 75,500 members, DEA is the second largest distribution co-op in Minnesota and about eight times the size of the median distribution cooperative in the United States.