Growing Our Use of Clean Energy 

MGE is continuing to grow our use of clean energy with new solar arrays.

With the help of some powerful partnerships, 2021 saw the addition of more cost-effective, carbon-free, solar energy to our community grid. Here’s a look at our recent projects.  
 

Solar to serve all MGE customers 

MGE continues to invest in large solar projects to serve all our customers. The 300-megawatt (MW) Badger Hollow Solar Farm west of Madison is being completed in phases, with a portion of the project that is now delivering 50 MWs to our grid! ! When phase two is complete, Badger Hollow will have added a total of 100 MW of clean energy to serve all MGE customers.  

The Hermsdorf Solar Fields 

Construction is underway for an 8-MW solar array in southeast Madison that will soon begin providing locally generated solar energy to the City of Madison and the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) under our Renewable Energy Rider program. 

"The Hermsdorf Solar project, in partnership with MGE and MMSD, will take the City of Madison one step closer to the goal of 100% renewable energy," said Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway.  

The carbon-free electricity generated by the array is expected to increase renewable energy use in City operations by nearly 20% and by about 16% for the school district.  
 

O’Brien Solar Fields  

The 20-MW O'Brien Solar Fields in the City of Fitchburg came online in June to serve several large customers, including the City of Fitchburg, the state of Wisconsin Department of Administration, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and several local businesses. The project built under our Renewable Energy Rider program is the largest solar array in Dane County. 
 

Dane County Airport Solar  

The 9-MW array along Highway 51 at the Dane County Regional Airport has generated more than 12 million kilowatt hours of electricity since it began operating in December 2020. According to Dane County, when combined with other projects, this array will help it to achieve 100% renewable electricity at county-owned facilities by 2024.  

In addition to providing local clean energy, the site features pollinator plantings that provide habitat for dwindling monarch and honeybee populations.  

"Clean energy is important to MGE, to our customers and to our community. MGE is committed to adding more cost-effective, carbon-free energy to our electric grid," said MGE Chairman, President and CEO Jeff Keebler. "Partnerships between MGE and all of our customers is great example of how working together we can advance shared energy goals and achieve net-zero carbon electricity for all of our customers by 2050." 

 

published: Nov-03-2021