The first utility-scale renewable energy project in southeast Wisconsin went into service in December, capable of generating enough electricity to power around 60,000 homes.The 200-megawatt Paris Solar Park in Kenosha County was one of the two major renewable energy projects in the state that came online in 2024, with two more expected to come online in 2025.The other solar project to come online this year was Alliant Energy’s 200-megawatt solar project in Grant County, which can provide enough energy to power more than 50,000 homes. That capped off Alliant’s buildout of 12 large-scale solar projects totaling 1,089 megawatts.
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Both the Paris and Grant County projects have battery components that are expected to come online in 2025, the utilities behind the projects said.In 2025, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin anticipates the Darien Solar Energy Center in Walworth and Rock counties and the Apple River Solar Project in Polk County to come online.The commission also has applications for six additional solar projects — four with a battery component — and one wind project under review, according to an agency spokesperson. If approved, those projects would provide an estimated 1,027 megawatts of generating capacity and 190 megawatts of storage.In December, utility regulators also approved the largest solar project in state history, expected to generate more than 1,300 megawatts, enough to power more than 200,000 homes.RENEW Wisconsin Policy Director Andrew Kell said 2024 was a good year for renewable energy in the state but more is needed to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.A 2022 report from RENEW Wisconsin and Clean Wisconsin estimated that Wisconsin would need a total capacity of 31,000 megawatts of solar, 21,000 megawatts of wind and 7,000 megawatts of battery storage by 2050 to achieve net zero emissions.“We have made some major steps now to move in that direction,” Kell said. “We still have a long way to go.”This photo shows panels at the Paris Solar Park in Kenosha County. The site came online in December. Photo Courtesy of We EnergiesThe Paris Solar Park features nearly 500,000 solar panels that can move to track the sun throughout the day and capture solar energy on both sides.Brendan Conway, a spokesperson for We Energies, the project’s majority owner, said absorbing solar energy from both sides comes in especially handy in the winter when days are shorter and there’s snow on the ground.“The sun bounces off the snow, reflects right back on the backside of those panels and that’s generating even extra solar power,” he said. “Even though we might have less sun in the wintertime because the days themselves are shorter, when you reflect the daylight off of snow, we can actually get in some cases about the same amount that we’d get on a sunny summer day.”The Paris solar fa