Electrek reports that Wisconsin's largest solar farm has officially become online after two electricity providers, Madison Gas and Electric (MGE) and We Energies, powered up the 3,500-acre-spanning solar farm in two phases. This renewable energy plant can reportedly power up to 90,000 homes.
Coined as the Badger Hollow Solar Farm, MGE states on its website it is in Wisconsin's Iowa County; the 300 megawatt (MW) solar-powered energy plant is a renewable energy project close to the towns of Cobb and Montfort. The power plant was reportedly completed through two 150-MW projects. The second phase first powered Wisconsin's homes and businesses in December 2023. Meanwhile, December 2021 saw the facility's first phase go online.
Ten percent of the project's production will reportedly belong to MGE. Additionally, MGE holds a third of Two Creeks Solar, an operating solar array in Manitowoc County owned by WPS and the state's first utility-scale solar array.
According to Jeff Keebler, Chairman, President, and CEO of MGE, the cooperative ownership arrangements result from many years of the state's utility collaboration. Businesswire adds that Scott Lauber, President and CEO of We Energies, says the project is an innovative initiative that exemplifies the company's dedication to providing its clients and communities with a promising, sustainable future.
Year-Round Clean Energy
The solar power plant can maximize its electricity output by having 830,000 solar panels move and monitor the sun throughout the day. In the winter, when the light reflects off the snow and onto the panels, the ability of the panels to gather solar energy from both sides is then utilized.
Lauber says that the Badger Hollow Solar Park will play a significant part in assisting the companies in providing inexpensive, dependable, and clean electricity from the coldest winter mornings to the warmest summer days.
Constructing the Solar Farm
This solar power plant was not constructed without its share of problems; however, as the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel states, the United States stopped delivering the solar panels to Badger Hollow and Paris in late 2022. Customs and Border Protection was looking into whether forced labor was utilized by Polysilicon, a Chinese company, in the production of the panels. The government investigated a total of over 1,000 orders for solar panels.
We Energies placed a second order with LONGi for panels that employed a different polysilicon supply before the agency ultimately issued the panels. Any extra panels might be utilized at the Darien Solar Energy Center, according to the senior vice president for infrastructure and generation planning of WEC Energy Group at the time.
MGE reportedly purchases and distributes natural gas to 173,000 consumers in seven south-central and western Wisconsin counties, in addition to producing and distributing electricity to 161,000 customers in Dane County, Wisconsin. MGE Energy, Inc. is MGE's parent business. The firm has almost 150 years of history in the Madison region.
According to its website, We Energies is one of the country's most giant holding corporations for natural gas supply and electric generation and distribution, with the operational know-how and financial capacity to meet the energy needs of the Midwest.
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