Alliant Energy is advancing three solar projects in Wisconsin, all as part of the utility’s plan to add 1,089 MW of solar in the state by the end of 2023.
Largest among these proposed projects is the $93 million, 65 MW Paddock Solar Project, which is expected to begin construction in 2022 and wrap up toward the end of 2023. The project will be installed on about 468 acres of land, located off Highway 213 in Beloit, Wisconsin, right on the Illinois-Wisconsin border, southwest of Milwaukee.
All that stands between the project and construction beginning is application review and subsequent approval from state regulators, which project developers expect by June. The Paddock Solar Project is part of a 115 MW project portfolio sold to Alliant Energy by Capital Dynamics.
Also included in that portfolio is the 50 MW Albany project, though no development updates have been offered for that project and it is not included in the three-project, 165 MW portfolio that Alliant is advancing.
In the Town of Fulton, almost due west of Milwaukee, construction has begun on the $62 million North Rock Solar Project, a 50 MW installation which saw construction begin in August. According to a construction update, installation is over 40% complete, with 55% of all piles and 5% of trackers installed. Non-solar construction and site efforts, including road construction and site grading, is nearly complete, and electrical cable installation is roughly 50% complete.
The project is anticipated for completion and commercial operation in the first half of 2023.
Finally, another project awaits regulatory approval in summer 2022, the $78 million, 50 MW Green County solar project, being developed on 400 acres in the town of Decatur, located in the same general region as all the previously-referenced projects.
As was true with the aforementioned projects, Alliant expects the project to achieve operation in early 2023.
