TOWN OF TWO CREEKS, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – From cornfield to Two Creeks Solar Park. It was a ceremonial groundbreaking for a large solar energy farm in Manitowoc County was held Thursday afternoon.
“Half a million panels across approximately 800 acres,” said Wisconsin Public Service President Mike Hamerlik.
In April, regulators approved plans for the Two Creeks Solar Project. It will be built in the towns of Two Creeks and Two Rivers, just south of the Point Beach Nuclear Plant.
Matt Cullen, the spokesperson for Wisconsin Public Service, tells FOX 11.
“This facility really is going to be well suited to providing energy to our customers at the time they need it most which is those hot summer days during those times which the sun might not be shining that’s where our strategy to preserve fuel diversity does come in.”
The Two Creeks project is one of two solar farms being built through a partnership between Wisconsin Public Service and Madison Gas & Electric. The other is the Badger Hollow Solar Farm in southwestern Wisconsin.
The Two Creeks project is expected to generate 150 megawatts, enough to power about 41,250 homes a year.
The solar power is intended to replace some of the capacity lost when the coal-fired Pulliam Power Plant in Green Bay was shut down. It will be WPS’ first industrial-scale solar facility, the utility has said.
“This is Historic. This is a historic day for Wisconsin,” said Governor Tony Evers. Both WPS and MG&E share a goal with Evers to be completely free of carbon emissions by 2050.
“This project itself, at Two Creeks alone, will provide more than double the energy we produce for solar in 2018,” said Evers.
The cost of the two solar parks is $390 million and it will come with a cost to customers. Cullen says it is currently being considered for the current rate review.
“We’re focused on what we can do that provides the most benefit to our customers. From our standpoint, this goes back to keeping rates low while maintaining a high level of reliability.”
Construction is expected to be completed by the end of 2020.
