The Past, Present, and Future of Renewable Energy Development

The Past, Present, and Future of Renewable Energy Development

by | Jul 27, 2026 | Public Service Commission, Renewables, Utility Scale

The Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) recently released two documents that provide useful insights into the past, present, and future of renewable energy development for our state. The PSC’s 2025 Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) memo provides statistics regarding utility-scale renewable energy that serves Wisconsin’s electricity needs, including projects located in Wisconsin and in neighboring states. The 2026-2032 Draft Strategic Energy Assessment (SEA) provides many insights, and most pertinent to the renewable industry, the SEA outlines utility plans for additional renewable energy development.

In short, the RPS memo tells a high-level tale of how Wisconsin got to where we are today with renewable energy. It shows that while wind-generating facilities have historically met most of Wisconsin’s renewable energy needs, production from new Wisconsin-based solar projects has increased the total amount of renewable energy that we use. As of 2025, about 20% of all the electricity we use in Wisconsin comes from renewable energy.

Separately, the draft SEA paints a picture of what the future could hold for Wisconsin. According to utility plans, the growth of Wisconsin-based solar will continue through 2030, as will battery energy storage systems (BESS) that support clean energy integration. Starting in 2030, utilities are planning for new Wisconsin-based wind projects to come online and add to Wisconsin’s renewable energy portfolio. This begs the question: Is Wisconsin on track to add enough renewable resources to serve our future needs? Due to policy uncertainty and speculative data center growth, the crystal ball is much too murky to answer that question with much confidence.

The 2025 RPS Memo

Let’s begin with a look back at Wisconsin’s historical renewable energy development. This figure from the RPS memo shows the growth of wind energy serving Wisconsin’s needs compared to baseline hydroelectric and biogas/biomass resources over the last decade plus:

And this PSC figure below presents utility-scale solar production over that same time span separately, as solar production was relatively flat until about 2020:

While the RPS memo does not provide detailed historical stats, based on RENEW’s participation in PSC cases and observation of renewable energy trends, we can provide insight into renewable energy development. This includes development that occurred before 2013 and new trends shown in the RPS memo figures. 

Between 2008 and 2013, renewable energy growth in Wisconsin was mostly driven by wind projects. According to the 2012 RPS memo, at that time, wind projects located in neighboring states contributed about 43% (2.8 million Megawatt-hours, or MWh) to Wisconsin’s renewable energy portfolio. Wisconsin-based wind projects contributed another 20% (1.3 million MWh). Altogether, wind production made up about two-thirds of Wisconsin’s renewable portfolio, with baseline hydroelectric and landfill gas making up most of the rest. The addition of these wind facilities after 2008 helped Wisconsin reach the 10% statewide renewable energy goal for the first time in 2013.

While growth in all renewable energy serving Wisconsin fell flat between 2013 and 2019, in 2020, wind energy production began to increase again, thanks to new projects. A new trend began here as well. For the first time, utility-scale solar projects located in Wisconsin came online and started to significantly contribute to our renewable energy portfolio. 

The 2025 RPS memo pie chart below presents a snapshot of what renewable resources serve Wisconsin’s electricity needs today. This is Wisconsin’s current renewable energy portfolio:

While non-Wisconsin-based wind projects used to occupy about two-thirds of this pie in the mid-2010s, that percentage has shrunk – not due to a reduction in wind production, but due to the growth of Wisconsin-based solar. In fact, while non-Wisconsin wind production increased from 2.8 million MWh in 2012 to 5.9 million in 2025, Wisconsin solar production grew astronomically over that same period – from a mere 5,000 MWh in 2012 to 4.2 million MWh in 2025.

The PSC only counts renewable energy production from facilities certified by the PSC as renewable resources, either owned by Wisconsin utilities or contracted by them to serve Wisconsin’s electricity needs. Each year, the PSC calculates the RPS percentage as total renewable energy production from these facilities divided by total retail sales of electricity to Wisconsin customers.

The main takeaway from the 2025 RPS memo is that renewable energy now serves about 20% of Wisconsin’s electricity needs. This includes a doubling in percentage from 10% in 2013, when Wisconsin first met its statewide goal, and a noticeable uptick from 2024, when 18.5% of our electricity came from renewables. To see where Wisconsin is headed, we will now have to look at the draft SEA.

The Strategic Energy Assessment (SEA) 2026-2032

The SEA is a forward-looking document that attempts to project future needs and future supply within Wisconsin’s electricity industry. Wisconsin does not have an Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), as many utility-regulated states do. To somewhat fill that IRP gap, the SEA serves as an information-gathering and reporting process that the PSC is required to do by state law. The PSC released a draft that covers the 2026-2032 period and is now seeking public comments through September 28 to inform updates and edits made to its final revised report.

The first takeaway from the draft SEA is the projected rise of data centers in Wisconsin. Over the 2026-2032 period, collective utility forecasts project a 40% increase in statewide summer peak. The SEA also states that 72% of this projected increase is due to new data centers and their electricity needs. 

While this blog will focus on renewable energy insights provided by the SEA, we must also note that bullish utility projections of new data centers in Wisconsin are highly uncertain, and that the SEA does not provide a rigorous vetting of utility forecasts that would be included within IRP proceedings.

Before we delve further into the SEA outlook for renewable development, let us reference one important SEA statistic that the RPS memo misses. That statistic is the installed capacity of customer-owned solar, which can also help us understand a fuller picture of Wisconsin’s renewable energy production. The SEA states that in 2025, Wisconsin residents and businesses owned 318 Megawatts (MW) of rooftop solar. If we assume a 13% average capacity factor for rooftop solar, this equates to about 362,000 MWh of electricity produced by these customer-owned solar systems in 2025. 

Since utilities do not register these customer-owned solar systems for RPS compliance, the RPS memo does not capture Wisconsinites’ direct contribution to Wisconsin’s renewable portfolio. But if you insert the Wisconsin rooftop solar production estimate into the calculation of that 20% RPS statistic mentioned above, Wisconsin’s 2025 statewide renewable energy percentage increases to about 21.4%. 

As we turn to the SEA’s 2032 renewable projections, it is important to note Wisconsin’s current installed capacity of renewable resources. Wisconsin currently has 2,189 MW of utility-scale solar generating capacity, 827 MW of wind generating capacity, and 510 MW of BESS storage capacity in service. 

From this understanding of Wisconsin’s current generation portfolio, we can better contextualize the planned build-out coming over the next several years. The table below is informed by SEA-collected statistics and reflects utility-planned additions:

If these plans fully come to fruition, by 2032, Wisconsin will nearly triple its in-state solar and wind generating capacity and more than quadruple its current capacity to store electricity. 

Based on other information within the SEA, a bit more insight can be shared with regard to the start-up timing of these resources. The start of operations for these solar and BESS resources will mostly occur between 2026 and 2030. Many of these solar and battery projects have already been approved by, or have applications pending before, the PSC. Applications for Wisconsin wind additions are just now beginning to be presented to the PSC. Those wind projects would likely start operating between 2030 and 2032.

Later this summer, RENEW plans to follow up on this blog to compare the SEA 2032 clean energy projection to the 2050 modeling results for what Wisconsin will need according to our Wisconsin Zero Carbon Study.

Trump Administration’s Freeze on Wind Projects Threatens America’s Affordable, Sustainable Energy Future

Trump Administration’s Freeze on Wind Projects Threatens America’s Affordable, Sustainable Energy Future

by | Jul 23, 2026 | Renewables, Utilities, Utility Scale, Wind

*On Thursday, August 6, the United States District Court for the District of Oregon ruled that the Trump administration’s use of a review process to freeze wind development violated statutory and regulatory deadlines. The administration has been ordered to resume the review of onshore wind projects and provide status updates every 30 days on its progress.

In a political effort to prevent new wind projects from being built, the Trump Administration has gone to increasingly great lengths. Recently, the administration has spent several billion taxpayer dollars to buy out offshore wind leases.

The cancellation of offshore wind leases earlier this year led several Northeast states to sue the administration, and a group of eight states has filed a notice of intent to sue over the settlement the Trump Administration made to buy out wind leases belonging to Invenergy and Bluepoint Wind.

For about a year, the Trump Administration has also utilized formerly routine national security reviews to stall the approval of new wind projects.

For years, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Department of Defense (DoD) worked with wind energy builders to balance the development of wind energy with concerns about national security and radar interference, mitigating any issues. In the DoD’s own words, this review is supposed to be a “timely, transparent, and repeatable process.” 

But in August 2025, the DoD stopped signing off on any national security mitigation plans to allow proposed wind energy projects over 200 feet tall to move forward.

More than 150 wind projects across the country are impacted by this so-called “wind freeze.” The indefinite pause on DoD approvals creates a cloud of uncertainty that leaves projects without the necessary insurance and financing, threatening the development and deployment of renewable energy and putting immense financial strain on wind project developers.

Some developers missed the construction window to qualify for federal tax credits, which were phased out by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act on July 4.

Faced with endless delay, a coalition of renewable energy trade groups and wind energy development companies sued the DoD back in late May, alleging violations of administrative law and seeking to undo the freeze. That case is known as Renewable Northwest v. Hegseth.

Earlier this year, efforts by the Interior Department to hold up five offshore wind energy projects on the East Coast were stopped by federal courts, with judges allowing the projects to proceed, overriding the agency’s security concerns.

The Benefits of Wind Energy

Unfortunately, the impacts of this purposeful administrative delay will negatively impact all Americans. Stalling or canceling wind energy projects robs communities of tax revenue and jobs, and cuts off a critical source of clean energy as data centers and the AI boom demand more and more power.

In 2025, wind energy produced about 11 percent of America’s utility-generated power. Once installed, wind turbines provide reliable, fixed-cost power at a competitive price, even without subsidies.

Compare that to alternatives like natural gas, where prices can vary substantially with the ebbs and flows of international energy markets and lead to unexpected and unwelcome increases in consumers’ energy bills.

Once turbines have been built, wind energy is not vulnerable to international political crises or other supply shocks. Paired with solar energy, transmission networks, and battery storage, wind power is a key building block of a clean energy future.

States Seek To Intervene in the Lawsuit

This past week, the attorneys general of 18 states and Washington, D.C., filed a motion to intervene in Renewable Northwest v. Hegseth, seeking to represent the interests of their respective states.

The states argue that this agency decision is illegal and causes them serious harm, taking away their authority over energy policy and thwarting their plans to develop clean energy and meet state-level emissions reduction targets.

Those targets are meant to protect human health and the environment, but are jeopardized by a significant delay in wind energy development at a critical moment in the renewable energy transition.

The states that have had wind energy projects stalled by the Trump Administration may face energy insecurity, rising power costs, and dirtier air as a result of DoD actions constraining the development of wind power.

According to the states’ motion, public and private investments in these wind energy projects and the underlying infrastructure, such as job training and research and development, total billions of dollars. Those investments were intended to facilitate the buildout of wind energy, but are now stranded assets until the pending projects can gain the DoD approval needed to move forward.

Finally, the states hoping to intervene in the case argue that they have suffered economic harm, as the halt in wind project approval means that projected jobs and valuable tax revenue go unrealized.

In Colorado alone, more than 7,000 jobs are in jeopardy on proposed projects that involve $2.6 billion in private investment. In 2022, Colorado-based wind projects contributed $10 million in state and local tax receipts and $18 million in lease payments to Colorado residents.

The Bottom Line

The Trump Administration’s anti-wind policies are not just bad for community health and efforts to address the ongoing climate crisis — these policies stand in the way of economic development that investors, companies, and consumers all benefit from.

Trump’s administration has touted an “energy dominance” strategy, but refusing to greenlight wind energy — a clean, proven, and cost-effective form of energy — is deeply shortsighted.

Should the freeze be allowed to continue, Americans will feel the pain in their pocketbooks.

We must continue to push our political leaders to facilitate the clean energy transition that our society needs: creating jobs and investment, lowering energy costs, and ditching fossil fuels for clean power.

Brian Wagenaar, a Twin Cities native, is one of RENEW’s 2026 summer law clerks. He is currently a student at the University of Wisconsin Law School and starts his second year in the program this fall. Prior to his time at UW’s Law School, Brian earned his bachelor’s in environmental policy from UW-Green Bay.

PSC Approves Fox Solar Project

PSC Approves Fox Solar Project

by | May 21, 2026 | Public Service Commission, RENEW Wisconsin, Solar, Utility Scale

On Thursday, May 21, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) approved the Fox Solar Project. At 100 Megawatts (MW), this solar project will produce enough clean energy to power about 25,000 homes. The project is paired with a 50 MW battery energy storage system, providing the flexibility to provide power when the sun goes down.

Located in Oconto County, it is planned for completion in 2028. Projects like this have a wide range of local and statewide benefits, including economic growth, new funding for local municipalities, and reduced emissions from energy production.

Witness testimony from David Loomis of Strategic Economic Research stated that this project will create 300 temporary jobs during construction, along with an additional 20 long-term jobs related to the project’s economic activity.

Along with jobs, the project will support the surrounding communities through utility-aid payments. Over the 25-year life of the project, it is expected to contribute more than $13 million in utility aid payments to Oconto County and the Town of Morgan. Recent legislation has changed utility-aid payments to also include battery installations, which has increased the previous estimate on payments for local governments.

Beyond the economic aspects of this project, it also provides an additional source of clean, reliable energy that isn’t subject to volatile fuel prices. With this project we’re removing 304 million pounds of CO2 related to energy production in the first year of operations, and that’s just the CO2 emissions.

The amount of emissions reductions we’ll see from the project is about the same as taking almost 30,000 cars off the road. Avoided emissions, whether from energy production or our cars, means healthier air for everyone. We estimate that in Fox Solar’s first year of energy production, we’ll see $690,000 in economic benefits associated with the public health improvements we expect to see

Thanks to everyone who took the time to share their support of Fox Solar with the PSC!

PSC Approves Muddy Creek Solar Project

PSC Approves Muddy Creek Solar Project

by | May 14, 2026 | Public Service Commission, RENEW Wisconsin, Solar, Utility Scale

On Thursday, May 14, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin approved Muddy Creek Solar, a 322 Megawatt (MW) solar project paired with a 300 MW battery energy storage system. Developed by Geronimo Power, the project is expected to provide nearly $2 million in annual utility aid payments to local municipalities.

Geronimo Power has also shown its commitment to supporting the community that will host the project by pledging an annual $75,000 donation to local school districts. Through a Charitable Pledge Agreement, the Menomonie Area School District and the Elk Mound Area School District will receive $12,500 and $62,500, respectively, for 20 years after the project begins operations.

In addition to the direct cash benefit to local municipalities, the project is expected to create more than 800 temporary jobs during construction and more than 50 long-term jobs. Also important to consider is the direct payments to landowners who have leased their land for the life of this project.

This project shows that clean energy projects can bolster our local economies, provide our state with the energy it needs, and reduce our carbon emissions from energy generation.

In total, we expect this project to reduce emissions by 954 million pounds of CO2, the equivalent of removing 94,000 gas-powered vehicles from our roads. And that’s just the CO2.

Thanks to the reduction of CO2 and the several other greenhouse gases that fossil fuels would pump into the air we breathe, Wisconsin can expect more than $2 million in economic benefits associated with public health improvements in Muddy Creek Solar’s first year of operations alone.

This solar and battery project will provide many things Wisconsin needs—jobs, reliable energy, consistent income for landowners, more funding for our schools and local governments, and cleaner air. And when the project reaches the end of its life, the land can be returned to its prior use, whether that be agricultural, recreational, or some other purpose.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to share their support for this much-needed energy project. Together, we can transform how Wisconsin is powered.

Utilities Ramping Up Solar Power Build-Out

Utilities Ramping Up Solar Power Build-Out

by | Apr 29, 2026 | RENEW Wisconsin, Renewables, Solar, Utility Scale

But their anticipated output would not be sufficient to serve data center projects in the construction pipeline

*Guest Blog by Michael Vickerman—RENEW Wisconsin Board Member

Construction of large solar power plants in Wisconsin will accelerate throughout the decade, thanks to a series of regulatory approvals handed down over the past 12 months. Indeed, by all appearances, solar power will dominate utility investment in new sources of electric power for the foreseeable future.

In March 2026 alone, the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) approved utility requests to acquire three solar projects—two in Columbia County and one in Rock County—totaling 315 megawatts (MW). When energized over the next two years, these three plants will generate more than 600,000 megawatt-hours of zero-emission electricity annually to customers. That amounts to 0.9% of electricity consumption in the Badger State. 

As shown in Table 1 below, WEC Energy and Madison Gas & Electric will add 1.265 gigawatts, or 1,265 MW, of solar power to their generation fleets over the next three years. Construction is well underway at the Koshkonong and High Noon project sites, and ground will be broken this year on the other solar plants listed in the table.

Construction is also proceeding on a 250 MW solar plant in central Wisconsin owned by Minneapolis-based Geronimo Energy. Anticipated to be placed in service later this year, the Portage Solar plant will produce electricity for the wholesale market and sell the renewable energy credits (RECs) from that generation to Microsoft, which will soon complete construction on a hyperscale data center in Racine County. When activated later this year, Microsoft’s facility will become the largest consumer of electricity in the entire state, with a baseline demand of approximately 500 MW. Microsoft will purchase all of the RECs produced by Portage Solar to offset a portion of that facility’s electricity usage. 

Utility-owned solar generating plants often come paired with battery energy storage systems (BESS) placed within the project boundaries. These installations can store up to four hours of electricity at the battery’s rated capacity. 

At the Koshkonong project, for example, the battery system is designed to accept as much as 660 MWh of electricity generated onsite. These BESS units will enable grid operators to discharge stored electricity directly into the transmission system when demand peaks later in the afternoon and evening. 

In just a handful of years, solar has emerged as the fastest-growing in-state source of electric power, and its contribution to electricity supplies now surpasses wind and hydro combined (see Table 2). Accounting for 6.6% of Wisconsin-generated electricity in 2025, solar generation could reach the 10% threshold by 2030.

Will solar growth be large enough to offset anticipated load growth driven by hyperscale data centers? 

As impressive as solar’s growth was in 2025, it wasn’t large enough to fully offset the increase in electricity consumption that occurred that year. The other generation resource that saw a significant increase in output from 2024 was coal, whose rise came at the expense of fossil methane. Factoring in other hyperscale data centers now under construction, it will be a challenge to offset rising electricity sales with new solar generation.

As applied to retail electricity customers, the term “capacity factor” is a measure of their actual electrical consumption in a year divided by its peak demand multiplied by 8,760, the number of hours in a year. The consensus estimate of a hyperscale data center’s capacity factor falls in the 75% to 80% range. 

Compared with other customer types, hyperscale data centers impose an unprecedented level of demand on the electric grids that serve them, due to the following reasons.

  • Massive scale of operations serving millions of users; 
  • Expansion of AI use is driving the need for high-density computing power;
  • Energy-intensive cooling systems; and
  • Always-on operations requiring uninterruptible electrical service.

With the above in mind, let’s estimate the power consumption from Microsoft’s Mt. Pleasant campus that will commence operations later this year. If we assume a peak load of 500 MW and a capacity factor of 75 to 80%, electricity consumption from this particular entity would range from 3.3 to 3.5 million MWh per year, or 5% of the electricity sales recorded in the entire state of Wisconsin last year. 

It would take six solar plants the size of Koshkonong–1,800 MW in total–to offset, on a MWh by MWh basis, the anticipated consumption from just the Mt. Pleasant data center alone. When the two Beaver Dam and the Port Washington data center projects are brought into the picture, the number of Koshkonong-size projects needed to offset all four hyperscalers in the pipeline would exceed 20. 

Given that, it’s fair to conclude that the data center build-out will elevate greenhouse gas emissions from Wisconsin’s electric power industry even with a robust expansion of in-state solar power. Unless something changes on the ground, this worrisome outcome, and all the unpleasant environmental and economic consequences that it will amplify, is quite literally baked into our future.

Bent Tree North Wind Project Approved

Bent Tree North Wind Project Approved

by | Apr 21, 2026 | Renewables, Utilities, Utility Scale, Wind

On April 21, Alliant Energy announced the unanimous approval of the Bent Tree North Wind project. The 153-megawatt (MW) wind project will include 32 wind turbines and expand on the existing Bent Tree Wind Farm, which has been operating successfully since 2011. Since the project is located in Minnesota but will send power to Wisconsin, it required approval in both states.

Upon completion, the Bent Tree North Wind project is expected to generate enough electricity to power about 50,000 homes each year. This expansion of Alliant’s renewable energy portfolio is a win for Wisconsin residents in terms of both energy affordability and grid reliability.

More renewable energy means less reliance on fossil fuels, which at times experience volatile pricing, and diversifies our energy resources. This helps keep energy prices from rising and gives us more options for keeping the lights on.

And while this project will reduce the carbon footprint of our state’s electricity production, it will also be economically beneficial to the region where it is hosted. It is expected that the local area will see $100 million in local economic benefits over the project’s 30‑year (or so) life. Some of these benefits will come in the form of tax revenue, landowner payments, and wages for the 100-150 construction jobs the project will support.

The turbines used for the project will also support the economies in the Midwest. Alliant Plans to use Nordex N133s, a 4.8 MW turbine, which has several key components constructed at Nordex’s Iowa facility.

The turbines are also designed to produce more energy per tower, resulting in less disturbance to the land hosting the project. Standing at an impressively tall 606 feet, the towers are able to support larger rotors, which in turn increases energy production and efficiency. This means more energy at a lower cost.

We’re glad we were able to show our support for a project that fights climate change, boosts local economies, and helps keep Wisconsin’s utility bills more stable. If you want to learn more about this project and some of the other things Alliant Energy has cooking, check out their efforts here—Alliant’s Wind Generation