GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — An undeveloped 30-acre parcel obtained by the City of Green Bay in a 2003 border agreement with the Town of Scott could become the next site of solar energy.
OneEnergy Renewables is seeking a 30-year lease of the land, with a 10-year extension option, to develop a solar field near the Wisconsin Public Service substation.
The bi-facial panels of the five- to six-megawatt solar field would track the sun to power about 1,600 average Wisconsin homes.
As a distributed generation center, the solar field would serve the nearby substation and connect to the utilities distribution system.
“The property that they’re looking to use is really kind of landlocked, around some wetlands [and] doesn’t really have great access,” said City of Green Bay Principal Planner David Buck.
At the time Green Bay acquired the land, Buck explained the City developed a Tax Increment District (TID) that remained open for 18 years. It has since closed, and efforts to build what the City calls the “University Heights Commerce Center” has been “very slow going,” Buck said.
October 8, the City held an informational meeting with OneEnergy representatives, Green Bay residents and officials with the Town of Scott to discuss the future of the area.
That discussion included a presentation by OneEnergy about the proposed solar development.
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Attendees raised questions regarding the safety and decommission process of the solar field, but they did not voice strong opposition to the project.
“I thought the reaction was pretty good,” Buck stated after the meeting. “If they [OneEnergy] were proposing this on a different site, I think they might have gotten a different reaction.”
While meeting attendees declined to share their individual thoughts on the project following the meeting, Stumpf and Buck similarly expressed that the community seemed receptive to the plan.
“These projects are, you know, a really great way for the community to learn about where they’re energy comes from,” commented Stumpf.
In addition to the solar panel installation, Stumpf mentioned that OneEnergy plans to plant native vegetation, including pollinator friendly species, on the property while it rents the land.
The zoning of the parcel does classify a solar field as a permitted use of the site, but OneEnergy will need the City’s approval to rent the land.
