Built by an attorney who reads the fine print for a living
I'm Dan Swenson, a Minnesota attorney. My job is reading documents most people understandably never read — statutes, program terms, the eligibility footnote that quietly disqualifies your project. I built MN Rebate Buddy because Minnesota energy rebates are scattered across dozens of utility PDFs, state pages, and federal rule dockets, and the difference between reading them carefully and skimming them is often thousands of dollars.
The attorney habit that runs this site: every dollar figure links to the official source, and every program status shows the date we last verified it. When a program hasn't launched — like Save Energy Minnesota — we say "not launched, no date" in plain sight, because the Department of Commerce is actively warning about scammers who claim otherwise. When federal rules change and make published amounts uncertain, we flag the figures as provisional instead of letting them look settled.
Where the data comes from
- Utility rebates: the official rebate pages of Xcel Energy, CenterPoint Energy, Minnesota Power, and other Minnesota utilities, checked by hand and re-verified on the date shown with each program.
- State and federal programs:the Minnesota Department of Commerce, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the IRS — cited directly, including when the honest answer is "expired" or "not launched yet."
- Your electric utility:determined from the State of Minnesota's official electric service area boundaries (MnGeo), not guesswork by ZIP code.
What this site is not
MN Rebate Buddy is not affiliated with the State of Minnesota, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Energy, or any utility, and nothing here is legal or tax advice — reading this site doesn't create an attorney-client relationship. No utility or contractor pays to appear here or to look better than the official source says. If we ever refer you to a contractor, we'll disclose it plainly, the same way our privacy policy spells out what happens to anything you submit.
Spotted an error?
Detail-oriented is a promise, not a boast. If a rebate amount, deadline, or program status here doesn't match the official source it links to, I want to know: daniel.c.swenson@gmail.com. Corrections ship fast here.