Xcel’s plan to shut down the venerable Alan S. King coal-fired power plant in Oak Park Heights, Minnesota exposes one of green energy’s dirty little secrets. Namely, the hugely disproportionate amount of land required for wind and solar facilities to generate power compared to coal, natural gas and nuclear plants.
The King facility generates 600 megawatts of power on a footprint of 140 acres. But Its proposed solar project replacement in St. Croix County in Wisconsin will need 5,000 acres–35 times more land–to erect hundreds of thousands of solar panels with theoretical capacity of 650 megawatts.
That reality, the Pioneer Press points out, has led to a a backlash to the Ten Mile Creek Solar Project among many of the picturesque county’s rural residents.
In an effort to replace the energy production of the soon-to-be-decommissioned Allen S. King plant in Oak Park Heights, Xcel Energy has set in motion plans for a large-scale solar farm spread across thousands of acres in western Wisconsin.
While the project would provide cleaner energy for the grid and a welcome windfall for some landowners and local governments, the prospect has rankled some nearby homeowners who have challenged it in community meetings and an online petition.
Opponents have garnered more than 4,600 signatures on a Change.org online petition listing their reasons for attempting to stop the project, as well as comments from their neighbors.
This issue is personal. Our health, our farmlands, our homes, our rural communities, the natural habitat and our rural lifestyle and culture are at risk. We need to show Xcel Energy that rural communities hold value that goes way beyond their commercial pursuit of profit.
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We chose to live here more than 30 years ago. The land is beautiful. We chose not to build, and take up more land. Instead, we bought a tiny old fix-it-up farmhouse and have improved it steadily over the decades. This summer we finished the addition and now have a nice handicap access deck to watch the wildlife and take in the view. 30 years of work, and now, if the project goes through, we will be surrounded by solar panels with high voltage lines less than 1/4 mile from our house. Please do not ruin our retirement years and our neighbors’ livelihoods. Utilize space that you have already destroyed.” Theresa, New Richmond
To make matters worse for the Wisconsin residents, the power produced in their backyard will be transmitted to Minnesota consumers in the metro area. No surprise a recent public meeting on the issue was filled to overflowing.
Dan Weatherly recently looked out the window of his Hammond Township home, seeing prairie views and farmland, something that originally led him to the area almost 20 years ago. He created the online petition against the solar farm last November.
“We would love to see the entire project scrapped,” Weatherly said. “We think it interjects health, safety and economic risks to the residents of St. Croix County.”
If the undeveloped land next door to him ends up part of the solar farm, the panels would be a stone’s throw from his home, he said.
Nevertheless, Xcel claims to have secured agreements with landowners covering more than half of the necessary 5,000 acres. The utility also counts on the fact that local governments stand to benefit.
If approved, the solar farm would bring in new money to the cities, townships and counties where the project is located. Wisconsin has a “shared revenue” program, one portion of which provides municipalities with aid for providing services to public utilities.
According to Xcel estimates, the first phase of the project when operational would provide about $1 million annually to the cities where the facilities are located and to St. Croix County. If the full 650 megawatt project was approved and operational, the project would provide $3 million annually, paid in combination to those cities and St. Croix County.
Opponents face daunting odds, given the Public Service Commission has the authority to overrule local zoning restrictions. Xcel plans to move ahead with the permitting process and potentially going online by late 2029.