TOWN OF MORGAN, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Renewable energy could be coming to Oconto County. But not without a fight.
Plenty of questions circle around a meeting in the Town of Morgan.
The small Oconto County community includes people both supporting or standing against making some fields home to solar panels.
Resident Karen Kispert, says, “We invest in these communities based on the fact that its agricultural.”
That’s just one problem some have against the project.
Kispert, sporting a Help Stop the Birch Solar Project tee, shared concerns on behalf of some of the town’s residents.
The investments she’s talking about, could be some who bought retirement homes hoping to overlook trees and fields and might be looking at panels and fences instead.
“Living out in the country does not look like thousands of solar panels. That’s not what people have in mind,” Kispert said.
Then there’s following the money.
“In this particular project, which is a 150-megawatt project that’s proposed, would bring $600,000 a year, of which $350,000 will go to Oconto County and $250,000 will go to the Town of Morgan,” NextEra Energy project manager Thomas Von Bische explained.
NextEra Energy is the company behind the solar project.
Von Bische says the project will reign in $21 million over the life of the project.
That number coming from multiplying $600,000 over 35 years.
But some tell town chairman Fran Wranosky, it’s not enough.
“There’s absolutely nothing we can really do,” he said.
On top of frustration with the project, some residents expect town supervisors to put a stop to it.
“The statutes that put out by the state if it’s above 100 megawatts, the town and the county can’t do anything.”
This week’s meeting was intended to be purely informational.
And the project is in its very early stages. NextEra has to submit an application after certain studies have been completed to take the next steps. And that application won’t be submitted until 2023.
