Village eyes alternate solar plan

Saukville officials Tuesday night amended a village ordinance to allow solar panel arrays to be erected on village-owned property in the Dekora Woods Business Park.

They did so to potentially accommodate a project that Wisconsin Energy Power Co. (WEPCO) had hoped to place next to the village’s water treatment plant.

But since that project was announced in June, the company has discovered that site was in a flood plain and now is “open to alternatives,” Village Administrator Dawn Wagner said.

WEPCO spokesman Brendan Conway said the presence of the flood plain raises “liability concerns.”

“We don’t see any reason we can’t find something elsewhere on village land,” he said.

The village’s hope is that the business park site would be one of those alternatives.

In June, the village agreed in concept to lease land to WEPCO to erect about 2,000 solar panels on a vacant site east of the village water treatment plant.

If finalized, the project would be one of the first in the state built under WEPCO’s Solar Now program, which the state Public Service Commission approved in December.

Under what is also known as the Rent-a-Roof program, the company leases property or space, including roofs, from governments, schools or nonprofits like churches, for solar panels, allowing them to benefit from solar energy despite being unable to take advantage of federal tax credits, since they pay no taxes.

Under the preliminary agreement with the village, WEPCO, the parent company of We Energies, would pay the village $21,356 per year. The proposed lease is for 30 years.

The solar array would generate 490 kilowatts, enough to power about 100 houses, Conway said. 

The energy produced would be added to the general grid and not be used to help power the treatment plant or other village operations.