WEC Energy Group has announced an agreement to acquire an eighty percent ownership in a large solar project in Texas. 
The company says it will be spending about $250 million on the Samson I Solar Energy Center, located about 140 miles northeast of Dallas. The facility began commercial operation in May 2022 and is currently covered by a long-term power purchase agreement with AT&T, according to a release. 

“The Samson Solar project is an exciting addition to our Infrastructure business and highlights our continued investment in affordable, reliable and clean energy,” WEC Energy Group Executive Chairman Gale Klappa said in a statement. “This project will help one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies meet their clean energy needs for years to come.” 

The abrupt shut down of privately owned Sun Badger Solar  has left customers in Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota wondering if their solar installations will be finished or if they will lose deposits for work that was never started.

Customers have lodged dozens of complaints with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and Wisconsin Better Business Bureau, and law enforcement agencies in multiple communities are investigating customers' complaints of fraud. Furloughed employees of the Waukesha company wonder, without much hope, if they'll be called back or paid for work they did before the company as its finances unraveled.

Madison Gas and Electric has been approved by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin to purchase more solar energy and battery storage.

MGE can now purchase solar energy and battery storage from the Darien Solar Energy Center and will own 25 megawatts (MW) of solar energy and 7.5 MW of battery storage from a solar battery storage facility in Rock and Walworth counties in southern Wisconsin.

The Public Service Commission has voted 2-1 to approve a petition on third-party financing of small-scale solar power systems. PSC’s order will allow North Wind Renewable Energy Cooperative to build solar panels on a family’s home and lease them to the family. Renewable developers and environmental advocates supported the decision, while utilities argued that solar financers are effectively building power infrastructure and selling energy to the public through leases and power purchase agreements. PSC has yet to issue a full written order, and the legal implications of its decision are still unclear.

WUI and utilities had opposed the action and questioned whether the Commission had the authority to make the decision without legislative action.

WEC Energy Group will become the majority owner of a large Illinois solar farm that will provide energy for a single Fortune 100 company.

The 250-megawatt Maple Flats Energy Center is being built in south central Illinois by Invenergy, a renewable-energy developer based in Chicago. The 1,500-acre solar array will produce enough electricity to power 75,000 homes, but that energy will be sold under a long-term contract to a single customer that the company did not identify.

Xcel Energy will move forward to build Minnesota’s largest-ever solar project at the Sherco plant site in Becker, as it transitions away from using coal at the site in the coming years. Today, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) provided the final approvals needed for Sherco Solar, which is a key component of Xcel Energy’s plan to nearly triple the amount of solar on its Upper Midwest system by 2028.

In addition to being the largest single solar development in Minnesota, the Upper Midwest and among the largest in the United States, Sherco Solar will provide clean energy while also being the lowest-cost solar on Xcel Energy’s Upper Midwest system. It will also create jobs and investment in the Becker community as the Sherco coal plant is retired in the coming years. The solar project will serve as a direct replacement for most of the capacity of the first coal unit retiring at the Sherco plant.

Alliant Energy is about to begin construction on six new solar projects in central Wisconsin that will generate enough electricity to power about 100,000 homes annually once completed. The utility has received approval for the projects from the Public Service Commission. 

The projects are Albany Solar in Green County, Beaver Dam Solar in Dodge County, Cassville Solar in Grant County, Paddock Solar in Rock County, Springfield Solar in Dodge County and Wautoma Solar in Waushara County.