State’s largest solar project coming to eastern Wisconsin

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Renewable-energy advocates are applauding a deal to build the largest-ever solar project in Wisconsin.

Officials with the Juno Beach, Fla.-based clean-energy company NextEra Energy Resources LLC and Sun Prairie-based utility WPPI Energy announced on Monday an agreement to build and operate a 100-megawatt solar-energy project in eastern Wisconsin. The project will be built next to the existing Point Beach Nuclear Plant just north of the city of Two Rivers.

The project will nearly triple the amount of solar energy being produced in Wisconsin, according to a news release from RENEW Wisconsin, a group that advocates the use of renewable energy. RENEW Wisconsin estimates that 55 megawatts’ worth of solar equipment was either in operation or being built by late January. That number is more than double the 25 megawatts the group estimated to be in use or being built at the end of 2015.

“Along with Dairyland Power Coooperative, which is building 20 megawatts of solar projects currently, WPPI Energy is showing that solar power is a competitive resource for electricity providers in Wisconsin,” said Tyler Huebner, executive director of RENEW Wisconsin. Follow @alexzank