Summer temperatures are reaching extreme highs, and data centers are threatening power grid stability. Still, clean energy advocates in Wisconsin say there are encouraging signs of a more sustainable future.
In a state without an integrated resource plan, projects and breakthroughs in the green energy space are revolutionizing how residents power their homes and how much they pay.
“I see these next few years as a really hopeful time,” said Maria Chavez, senior analyst for the national nonprofit, the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Here are some success stories from The Badger State, along with a look at what else can be done.
Clean energy projects in the works
Approved by the state’s Public Utilities Commission in January of this year, the Emerald Bluffs Solar Project will include a 225-megawatt clean energy facility in the centrally located Juneau County, projected to be completed in 2027. Once finished, it will reduce emissions while creating 20 long-term jobs and generating millions in utility aid payments to the community over the next 35 years.
Similarly, a 200-megawatt solar farm created by Akron Solar was approved this year for Adams County.
A major wind project is also on the table for approval: a 277-megawatt wind farm in Columbia County planned by Columbia Wind. The PSC approved the Badger Hollow Wind project in 2025 in Iowa and Grant counties.
There are also a few wind projects in the works for Iowa, Lafayette, and St. Croix counties.
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“Wisconsin doesn’t have a clean energy mandate, and we’re also seeing incentives and policy changes at the federal level that are making it harder to deploy clean energy projects, and yet Wisconsin is still managing to make sure that those projects go through because they’re needed,” Chavez said. “So that’s a good sign that some of these projects are still trucking along.”
Multifamily and central metering success
Many of the state’s successes don’t come from top-down policy but from grassroots organizations.
Elevate is a Chicago-based nonprofit across the Midwest and Pacific Northwest aimed at helping individuals access affordable heating, water, cooling, and power. Elevate implements the Efficiency Navigator program, which partners with various municipalities to upgrade apartments. It’s stationed in Dane County and has expanded to the city of Eau Claire, with plans to do the same in Green Bay, said Heather Allen, director of policy at Elevate.
“We work with local landlords who own what we call naturally occurring affordable housing, so it’s not tax subsidy housing, but it’s housing that’s low rent,” Allen said.
The program helps upgrade buildings with improved air sealing, HVAC systems, insulation, boilers, water heaters, and, in some cases, solar and heat pumps, reducing emissions from the buildings and lowering utility costs for residents. So far, they’ve upgraded 76 buildings in Dane County, resulting in annual savings of $43,000 on utility bills alone. Allen said the cities and counties they work with provide funding for the projects to meet their own sustainability goals.
“It’s about comfort, it’s about energy savings, and it’s about bills,” she added.
Allen said retrofitting projects that were previously stymied have now become possible following a 2025 PSC ruling that allows multifamily metering in certain housing arrangements. In the past, when developers proposed converting hotels into affordable apartments, the projects were delayed because they were required to install utility meters for each unit, adding to the costs for both developers and residents.
“People actually get a meter fee as well on their utility bills, so it’s saving people money that way,” said Elizabeth Hittman, associate director of policy at Elevate.
Data centers change the landscape
Data centers are the next frontier in energy problems for many communities nationwide as local and state governments struggle to regulate their expansion and protect consumers.
Chavez pointed to a recent PSC decision regarding a proposed data center. We Energies was looking to provide electricity to Oracle for a massive data center project that would have required millions in upgrades to the utility’s infrastructure. The commission rejected We Energies’ request, which would have weakened its existing financial guarantee requirements to accommodate the project, citing the potential that customers would have to foot the bill if the data center backed out or couldn’t pay.
Allen pointed to an encouraging study looking specifically at Wisconsin, which showed that if the state were to retrofit 38,000 homes for improved energy efficiency with upgrades to windows and HVAC systems, the grid would save enough money to power major data centers and do it more cheaply than a new gas plant or coal plant might—and, in some cases, even more affordably than solar and wind plants.
“It’s very interesting—just depending on the state that the homes are in,” Allen said. “You can get some real effective bang for your buck.”
What needs to be done
Allen said adopting an integrated resource plan would have a major impact on the state’s shift to clean energy. Without a plan and commitment in place for that move, state-level energy decisions are often made on an ad hoc basis, lacking a long-term vision or measurable goals.
“It’s a roadmap for the state, and you can put guidelines and guardrails in place for the new generation being brought online,” Allen said.
In the same vein, Hittman believes it’s time to adopt a data center policy, something many states are either working on or struggling with at the moment.
“We’re seeing a couple of different iterations of that that popped up this last legislative session,” she said. “So we’re hoping to see something get across the finish line this next session.”
Finally, the lack of explicit legislation for third-party ownership and community solar—currently offered in Illinois and Minnesota—is an added barrier in Wisconsin. Changing those rules could open up the option to more homes.
“Folks would save money that way by having solar in their home, and then it’s owned by the company,” Allen said. “So the maintenance isn’t necessarily an issue for them, and that’s super important for the low- to moderate-income population.”
Encouraging signs for climate action
In the meantime, rising utility rates in the state often encourage residents to consider adopting solar, Allen said. Similarly, the more drivers adopt electric vehicles, the more interested they become in solar to power those vehicles. Hittman said solar installers have begun asking homeowners about their plans to purchase EVs and heat pumps so they can design new systems to accommodate those needs.
“So it’s kind of like one issue is spurring the other,” Hittman said.
Chavez said she’s seen an increase in residents’ awareness and understanding of key energy issues in the state in recent years, a shift she credits in part to the buzz around data centers and to many grassroots efforts to educate voters heading into the midterms.
“To me, that’s a really hopeful and encouraging sign because it means that we’re informed, we’re educated, we understand how decisions are being made, and we’re holding those in power accountable for protecting folks,” she said.
