State utility regulators approved a pair of renewable energy projects last week, including Wisconsin’s first large-scale wind farm in more than a decade.
The Badger Hollow Wind Project in Iowa and Grant counties and the Whitewater Solar Project in Jefferson and Walworth counties received approval from the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, or PSC, on Thursday.
The Badger Hollow Wind Project is a 118-megawatt wind farm that will be able to generate enough electricity to power more than 30,000 homes, while the Whitewater Solar Project is a 180-megawatt solar farm that will be able to generate enough electricity to power more than 21,000 homes, according to the developers.
Because both were proposed by developers and not state electric utilities, they were not required to provide their project cost to the PSC. Regulators would review costs to Wisconsin energy providers and ratepayers if the facility or power from the facility is purchased by state utilities.