Wisconsin greenlights first wind farm in 14 years

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Midwest Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

WIND

• Wisconsin regulators greenlight a 118-megawatt wind farm, the first to be approved since 2011, as well as a 180-megawatt solar farm that is expected to improve water quality in the surrounding area. (media release)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Wisconsin regulators say the state’s only oil refinery has violated air pollution laws more than two dozen times and failed to conduct proper monitoring of its emissions. (Wisconsin Public Radio)

BUILDINGS

• A nonprofit foundation retrofits its historic headquarters, a 45,000-square-foot building in downtown Minneapolis, to run entirely without natural gas, providing a demonstration that older buildings can be effectively decarbonized. (Sahan Journal)

GRID

• The CEO of grid operator PJM says the states in its territory must reform their energy siting rules to encourage more power production as the region faces soaring electricity prices and growing demand from data centers. (Utility Dive)

SOLAR

• Minnesota regulators approve plans for a 150-megawatt solar farm that will include 50 megawatts of storage capacity, and which is slated to start delivering power to the grid in 2028. (Minnesota Public Radio)

• A 50-kilowatt solar array on a health and human services building in Milwaukee County will provide 11.5% of the facility’s energy and signals the county’s commitment to reducing its carbon emissions. (Milwaukee Courier)

• A new 342-megawatt solar park in Illinois will share land with row-crop agriculture under an agreement with American Farmland Trust. (Renewables Now)

• A commercial solar development in rural Missouri will provide 100% of its power to Microsoft as the tech giant tries to meet its surging energy demand. (media release)

UTILITIES

• The Ohio Supreme Court will consider whether a 2023 increase in Columbia Gas’ fixed customer charges creates a ​“manifest unfairness” by overburdening customers that use less gas. (Ohio Capital Journal)

• Wisconsin’s largest utilities and almost all of Indiana’s investor-owned utilities are ​“backsliding” on their commitments to transition to clean energy, according to a new report from the Sierra Club. (Vernon Reporter, WFYI)

JOBS

• Though Illinois ranked 10th in the country for clean energy jobs in 2024, federal policy changes pose a ​“serious risk” to the sector. (WBEZ)

HYDROGEN

• A company looking to refine techniques for identifying and extracting underground hydrogen supplies for use in clean energy generation opens a laboratory on the Ohio State University campus. (Fuel Cells Works)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Utility Minnesota Power deploys the first of 16 planned fast-charging stations in the northeastern part of the state. (Herald-Review)

NEW FROM CANARY 

• Did California just screw up the largest virtual power plant in the US? — Jeff St. John

• Carrier wants to pair batteries with air conditioners to help the grid — Julian Spector

• Why states are threatening to leave PJM — and why they probably won’t — Kathryn Krawczyk