RENEW Wisconsin selected 13 projects for this year’s Honor Roll. These projects and the organizations involved in them demonstrate leadership, ambition, and climate awareness in their design and use of clean energy.
ALLIANT ENERGY (WPL) SOLAR PORTFOLIO
In 2023, Alliant Energy’s Wisconsin utility placed in service eight utility-scale solar plants totaling 639 megawatts as part of its Clean Energy Blueprint. By the end of the year, Alliant had finished work on 11 of the 12 projects in its solar portfolio. When the final solar plant is completed this summer, they will together generate approximately 20% of Alliant’s resource mix in Wisconsin, sufficient to power nearly 300,000 homes annually. Many Wisconsin contractors participated in the construction of these projects, including Westphal Electric and Mashuda Contractors.
BADGER HOLLOW
Developed by Invenergy and owned by WEC Energy Group and Madison Gas and Electric, Badger Hollow Solar Park is now fully operational. At 300 MW, it is Wisconsin’s largest operating solar power plant, capable of generating 6,000,000 megawatt-hours per year. This is equal to the annual consumption of 90,000 Wisconsin households. Badger Hollow was one of the first utility-scale solar plants approved by the Public Service Commission in 2019. Since then, Invenergy has secured permits for four more solar and storage projects in Wisconsin, totaling 1.35 gigawatts. Two of them are under construction today.
BAYFIELD COUNTY
Bayfield County successfully commissioned the area’s first multi-building, intelligent microgrid on November 10, 2023. The Bayfield County Courthouse and Jail automatically integrate solar PV, battery storage, and backup diesel generation under a single utility meter. The system will provide electric power with or without the electric grid and can optimize economic benefits during normal grid-tied operation through features like demand management and energy arbitrage. The system is not only a first for the area but a first for Wisconsin and the Midwest.
CITY OF MADISON
In the previous decade, the City of Madison set a goal of installing one megawatt of solar capacity by 2020 to supply its own facilities. By the end of 2022, about 1.5 MW of behind-the-meter solar power had been installed, mostly through the City’s Green Power training program. In 2023, the City added 585 kW of solar PV at nine different facilities, including 200 kW apiece at both Streets West and the Nakoosa Rd. Fleet Garage, bringing overall installed PV capacity serving City facilities to more than 2 MW.
COLLEGE OF MENOMINEE NATION
In 2023, Eland Electric partnered with the College of Menomonee Nation to install a 40-kilowatt solar array on the tribe’s reservation in Keshena. In addition to powering a college building, this array kicks off an initiative to help local community members develop the skill set needed for installing and maintaining solar arrays. The Menomonee Nation hopes to build its own reservation-wide solar energy utility service.
HOLY WISDOM MONASTERY
In 2023, Holy Wisdom embarked on an ambitious effort to become an all-electric facility using carbon-free sources onsite to the greatest extent possible. The monastery’s journey to a carbon-free future began with a significant expansion to the onsite PV capacity already in place. Designed by the team of Hoffman Planning and Madison Solar Consulting and installed by Northwind Solar, the new array is built upon single-axis trackers, and its output flows directly into the utility distribution system. When the ground-source heat pump and battery storage system are commissioned later this year, Holy Wisdom Monastery will have effectively achieved carbon neutrality. Wisconsin’s Office of Energy Innovation helped kick off this project with a $575,000 grant awarded in 2021. Local solar developer John Young contributed financing for the solar array.
MCFARLAND PUBLIC SAFETY BUILDING
In 2023, the village of McFarland celebrated the opening of its new Public Safety Center, likely the first net-zero municipal building in the state of Wisconsin. With 51 geothermal wells for efficient heating and cooling as well as solar panels that can produce up to 470kW of photovoltaic energy, the facility will produce as much energy onsite as it consumes annually, leading to its designation as a net zero facility. Taking advantage of federal and state clean energy funding (including an Energy Innovation Grant), this $20 million building should pay for itself in year one.
RED BARN WIND ENERGY CENTER
Commissioned in 2023, the 92 MW Red Barn Wind Park was developed by Minnesota-based PRC Wind and built by Allete Clean Energy for the project’s current owners, WEC Energy Group and Madison Gas and Electric. Approved by Grant County in 2019, Red Barn is the first project in Wisconsin to have advanced from the proposal stage to full operation under the state’s Wind Siting Rule (PSC 128). The output from this 28-turbine project should equal the annual consumption of 50,000 Wisconsin households.
SHEBOYGAN SENIOR COMMUNITY
Sheboygan Senior Community is a faith-based, nonprofit continuum of care facility providing respite, short-term rehab, assisted living, skilled nursing, and end-of-life services. Designed and installed by Plymouth-based Arch Solar, the installation consists of a 198-kW ground-mount solar array and a battery energy storage component. In addition to a grant from the Wisconsin Office of Energy Innovation, the project’s financing relied on a generous commercial benefactor, who provided 95% of the funding for the senior community’s project. The organization worked with Legacy Solar Cooperative to secure this funding. In addition, Couillard Solar Foundation donated one-third of the 438 panels that make up the array.
SOLARSHARE WISCONSIN
In 2023, SolarShare Wisconsin, a cooperative entity organized under Chapter 185, invested capital provided by members to bring two smaller solar projects in western Wisconsin to fruition. SolarShare Wisconsin partnered with OneEnergy Renewables, which has developed more than 20 smaller-scale solar projects across Wisconsin, to build its first two arrays in Juneau County, totaling 4.5 MW. Now energized, the Lemonweir (lemon•weer) and Webster Creek projects supply electricity to Oakdale Electric Cooperative. SolarShare Wisconsin plans to add another solar project to its portfolio later this year. At a site near Lake Hallie (rhymes with rally) in Chippewa County. Like the first two projects, the Lake Hallie project, also developed by OneEnergy, will be financed with capital provided by SolarShare Wisconsin members.
UW-HEALTH EASTPARK MEDICAL CENTER GARAGE
In 2023, UW-Health partnered with SunPeak and Staff Electric to design and oversee the construction of a 1 MW solar parking canopy on the garage adjacent to its Eastpark Medical Center. This PV canopy not only supports UW-Health’s carbon reduction goals but also provides additional protection to patients and visitors using the facility.
UW-PARKSIDE
UW-Parkside partnered with McKinstry to host a 2.1 MW solar array, similar to the one McKinstry designed for UW-Platteville a year earlier. Built on a parking lot, UW-Parkside’s array is the largest installation in 2023 serving a Wisconsin school or municipality. McKinstry selected Westphal Electric to build the structure and interconnect the PV system to the grid. The electricity generated by the McKinstry/Westphal installation flows directly to UW-Parkside campus buildings.
YAHARA SOLAR
As noted on Dane County’s website, the 17-megawatt Yahara Solar project, completed in 2023, enables Dane County to become not only the first county government in the state to achieve 100% renewable electricity status, but also the 4th county in the nation to reach the 100% goal. Key partners in the project include Alliant Energy (the local utility), SunVest (the project developer and owner), and Pieper Power (the installation contractor). Yahara Solar will produce more than 36 million kilowatt-hours of renewable electricity per year — enough to power more than 3,000 Dane County homes.
