Wisconsin continues adding more renewable energy to its grid, as the 250 MW Darien Solar Energy Center is now up and running.
The project in Walworth and Rock counties is largely owned by We Energies, the state’s largest electric utility and a subsidiary of WEC Energy Group. Wisconsin Public Service (WPS), which is another WEC Energy Group company, and Madison Gas and Electric are also co-owners.
Darien Solar features more than 600,000 solar panels and was developed by Invenergy.
America’s Dairyland has made great strides in installing utility-scale solar the last couple of years. Wisconsin is targeting net-zero emissions by 2050.
According to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), through the third quarter of 2024, Wisconsin has about 2,610 MW of solar generation capacity, the 18th-most in the United States. However, this is a 171% increase from the approximate total of 960 MW online in the state in 2023.
Corporate giants like Target, IKEA and Brookfield Properties Retail have all gone solar in Wisconsin.
Darien Solar is We Energies’ second large scale solar project to power up in recent months. The Paris Solar Energy Center in Kenosha County went online in December. We Energies is also partial owner of the state’s largest solar park, Badger Hollow Solar in Iowa County.
The utility plans to develop Dawn Harvest Solar, a 150 MW solar and 50 MW battery installation in Rock County, targeted to begin operations by October 2027. It will include 350,000 silicon PV modules fixed to horizontal single-axis solar trackers. Another project, Ursa Solar, is a 200 MW farm in Columbia County expected to be operational earlier that year. The proposed developments are part of We Energies’ plan filed with Wisconsin regulators in October to add more than 500 megawatts (MW) of solar power in the state.
But all of these pale by comparison to the proposed Vista Sands solar project.
The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin in December approved the more than 1.3 GW solar farm, set to be the biggest in the state and one of the largest ever built in the U.S.
Vista Sands Solar LLC, a subsidiary of Doral Renewables, will construct the facility with a generating capacity of 1,315.6 MWac plus a 300 MW battery energy storage system (BESS) in the Village of Plover and the towns of Grant, Plover, and Buena Vista in Portage County, Wisconsin. Doral is targeting construction to begin in March 2025 and wrap up in December 2028.
The proposed project will encompass about 7,110 acres of the roughly 9,854-acre project study area, which is mostly farmland. The solar array is planned to take up just over 5,000 acres, and an additional nearly 1,600 acres of alternative spots for PV were provided by Doral in its application to the PSC initially submitted in January 2024. The BESS and associated operation and maintenance building will require 5.1 acres.
Since Doral is an independent power producer, the Wisconsin PSC did not review any costs associated with Vista Sands. The Commission would only do so if the facility is purchased by Wisconsin utilities.
