• Exclusive Content
  • Events
  • Endeavor Business Media Energy
    1. Renewables

    Alliant Energy's new 1-MW Fond du Lac Community Solar is Generating Power

    Jan. 26, 2022
    Alliant Energy expects to locate multiple community solar projects in coming years and build a total 1 GW in solar capacity within four years
    Image credit Alliant Energy
    Fond Du Lac Community Solar Alliant Energy 61f18330e4990

    Midwest power utility Alliant Energy has started operations on the first of its community solar projects planned for Iowa and Wisconsin.

    The company announced that the 1-MW Fond du Lac community solar project is producing power beginning this month. Alliant Energy expects to locate multiple community solar projects in coming years.

     “As a leader in solar development, Alliant Energy is excited to offer new options that benefit our customers, strengthen the communities we serve and support our aspirational goal to attain net-zero carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity we generate by 2050,” David de Leon, president of Alliant Energy’s Wisconsin Utility, said in a statement.

    This is Alliant Energy’s first community solar garden to generate energy for the power grid. For subscribers paid in full, bill credits will appear on their February statements.

    Alliant Energy announced the Fond du Lac community solar project in December 2020 and by November 2021 it was fully subscribed.

    Community solar farms can offer customers the option of paying for solar power on the grid, but not dealing with the upfront expense or construction challenges of panels on their rooftop.

    Just in the past three months, a handful of utility-scale community solar projects have been commenced or commissioned in the U.S. Summit Ridge Energy completed work on 9.2-MW solar project in Maryland, while data center provider Markley Group has signed a community solar power purchase agreement (PPA) with solar EPC Borrego in the northeast U.S.

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.