Columbia County Administration Building
Columbia County Administration Building
As a hotly debated solar project is reaching the final planning stages, another likely divisive project is on the horizon with preliminary discussion.
At the Columbia County Board of Supervisors Planning and Zoning Committee’s November meeting on Tuesday, Planning and Zoning Director Kurt Calkins informed board members of some of the details of an Oct. 31 report on progress of the High Noon Solar Project.
A letter from the vice president of regulatory affairs of WEC Energy Group, Richard Stasik, to the Public Service Commission, published on the PSC online project archive, informed the agency that Wisconsin Electric Power Company, Wisconsin Public Service Corporation, and Madison Gas and Electric Company had together been approved to acquire ownership interests in the High Noon Solar Electric Generation Facility and Battery Energy Storage System to be installed on property in the townships of Leeds, Lowville, Arlington, and Hampden.
An addendum to the letter included an updated timeline of the project. Between April and July of this year, according to the report, developers had begun mobilization and civil grading, substation construction, pre-construction seeding, and pre-construction tree clearing. The substation is planned to be complete and in service by November 2026, while photovoltaic arrays are due to be in service September 2027.
The note also included a tally of project employment thus far, with 55 Wisconsin residents employed for construction work and 52 out-of-state construction workers.
The process had also included final discussions regarding demands from the developer, and a rebuttal by Calkins, with potential concerns about school property tax revenue, area security, and assurance of compensation for road damage during construction.
“I will float that paperwork back to them and they’ll float it back to us, and then I will certainly connect with Darren [Schroeder, county board chair] and leadership to decide precisely how we want to proceed with that,” said Calkins. “My hope is that maybe by December I can hand it out and you guys can see it.”
As well, Calkins, told the board members, in the previous weeks he had met with a company representative of interested parties regarding a potential data center in the Town of Pacific.
“We learned a little bit more about what they want to do, the property that they are looking at, which is at the corner of [Highways] 16 and 51, directly east of Alliant Energy,” said Calkins. “If they want that site to work, they’re going to have to go through a plan amendment to industrial, rezone to industrial, and a conditional use permit.”
The project, as described, according to Calkins, would include $10 billion of investment through three phases, resulting in 400 permanent jobs, operating as early as 2027.
“We told them, ‘If you’re going to come back, we need to know what the benefit is on the property tax side.’ With a $10 billion project, they make it sound like we’ll never worry about levy limits again.”
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