Wisconsin, US headquartered public utility Alliant Energy Corporation plans to have up to 1 GW of solar energy generation capacity in Wisconsin by the end of 2023 as part of its Powering What's Next plan to include clean and technology intensive business growth. All of this solar capacity is expected to be spread across its Wisconsin service area and should cater to the electricity requirements of some 260,000 homes.
It also hopes to break ground on its first Wisconsin Community Solar project in Fond du Lac County in 2020, but does not identify the capacity in the released statement.
According to this plan, customers have the choice to have up to 100% of their energy supplied by renewable energy sources, interconnect private solar panels to the power grid, participate in utility owned but a customer sited solar panel program through roof leasing designed for medium-sized projects of 200 kW. It also offers large consumers aggregate services with multiple accounts under a single renewable energy contract.
Expanding solar energy, stated Alliant Energy, will reduce its reliance on coal-powered generation for which it will share next steps early next year. Falling costs of solar panels, technological improvements in PV technology and availability of the federal solar investment tax credit (ITC) juxtaposed with high-maintenance and costly coal-power generation act as the company's motivations to move ahead with this plan.
Alliant Energy aims to bring down its carbon-emissions by 40% by 2030 and reduce its water supply needs from fossil-fuel generation by 75% by 2030, hence investment in solar that doesn't require too much water and doesn't emit harmful emissions.
With this approach, Alliant Energy has joined the likes of fellow US utilities that are steering their portfolio mix towards renewables, specifically solar PV including AEP, Green Mountain Power, Georgia Power, Xcel Energy among others.
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