Solar power farm to go up at Point Beach

Posted at 11 a.m. on January 31, 2017

The Brillion News

TWO RIVERS – WPPI Energy and NextEra Energy Resources, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, Inc., on Tuesday, January 31, announced plans to build a 100 megawatt solar energy center – Wisconsin’s largest – with a capacity to serve more than 23,000 people with affordable, clean energy.

NextEra Energy Resources plans to build and operate the Point Beach Solar Energy Center on land adjacent to its existing Point Beach Nuclear Plant in Two Rivers. The project will create 150-200 jobs during its construction period, which typically lasts six to nine months. The Point Beach Solar Energy Center is scheduled to come online in 2021.

WPPI Energy has entered into a 20-year power purchase agreement to buy the electricity from the solar energy center to serve its 51 member utilities and their customers across Wisconsin, Upper Michigan and Iowa.

“We are pleased to partner with WPPI Energy to bring the largest universal solar energy center to Wisconsin,” said Mike O’Sullivan, senior vice president of development for NextEra Energy Resources, the world’s largest generator of renewable energy from the wind and the sun. “This energy center will harness the state’s own sunshine to create clean, renewable energy, as well as good-paying jobs and increased tax revenue for the state and local community.”

This project will nearly triple the amount of solar energy capacity in Wisconsin. according to the renewable energy advocacy group RENEW Wisconsin.

The photo accompanying this story is a solar power grid near Medford, Wis., owned by the Dairyland Power Cooperative.