Madison, Wisconsin-based RMT, is looking outside of its home state for its new wind and solar farms, which will add 1100 megawatts (MW) of capacity this year to its 3800 MW portfolio.
The Republican state legislature has been erasing years of work on uniform wind siting requirements. causing several firms have already backed out of plans to site wind farms there.
RMT, which a subsidiary of Midwestern power company Alliant Energy Corp., says it plans to build 10 wind farms and 8 utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) projects across the U.S. this year.
RMT has been in the wind industry since 1996.
Wind projects include:
- Post Rock (201 MW) in central Kansas
- Windstar (120 MW) in California’s Tehachapi Mountains
- Milford II (102 MW) in Utah.
Wisconsin Moves Further into the Dark
Now that the state has scared away three proposed wind projects, they are turning to the state’s Renewable Energy Standard (RES).
A new bill introduced in the Assembly (AB 146) would dramatically undercut the effectiveness of Wisconsin’s RES.
The state RES requires that 10% of Wisconsin’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2015.
Currently, utilities get renewable energy credits if they exceed RES requirements in any given year. Those credits expire after four years, to encourage utilities to keep adding more renewable energy projects over time. Under the new bill, those credits wouldn’t expire.
Another bill, which has passed the state Senate and is awaiting final passage in the Assembly, would allow hydroelectric power from large dams to qualify as "renewable energy" in the RES.
The more hydro used in the state, the less solar and wind are needed to fulfill the RES requirements.
77% of Wisconsin residents support more wind power and 69% favor installing them "close to where they live." The results mirror those of nationwide polls and surveys in other states.
Wisconsin renewable energy businesses say the bill is a "stealth campaign" attacking the renewable energy standard. Read more:
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