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Executive Summary

Wisconsin is facing a choice about its energy future. Our dependence on fossil fuels threatens our environment and economy. Clean energy can help Wisconsin reduce our impact on the environment while creating jobs and boosting our economy.

Solar energy can play a big role in helping Wisconsin break its dependence on fossil fuels. Wisconsin has the potential to get 18 percent or more of our electricity from solar power, and to use solar energy to slash our use of natural gas and other fossil fuels as well. A variety of technologies and tools enable Wisconsin to tap the energy of the sun to power our homes, businesses and industry.  With strong and consistent public policy support, solar energy could have a bright future in Wisconsin.

Despite our cold-weather climate, Wisconsin has surprisingly good solar resources.

• Wisconsin’s solar resources are comparable to those of New Jersey, which already produces enough solar electricity to power 9,000 homes—second only to California nationwide.

• Wisconsin receives 20 percent more sunlight than the world’s leader in solar development, Germany—a country with a similar climate.  

Wisconsin has the potential to integrate large amounts of solar energy into its economy.

• Wisconsin has significant potential to develop technologies like rooftop solar panels. Wisconsin has the technical potential to generate 11.9 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of electricity each year from panels atop homes and businesses in the state—enough electricity to power two thirds of the state’s 2.5 million homes.

• Solar hot water collectors on suitable homes throughout the state could provide 3.5 percent of the energy used in Wisconsin’s homes.

• Well-designed buildings can use the sun’s heat to provide much of the energy they need for heating.

• Wisconsin is uniquely suited to use solar energy in industry. Breweries, cheese factories, and other food processors are good candidates for the use of solar process heat systems, which capture solar energy for use in industrial processes.

• Agriculture can also benefit from solar energy. Farms often require electricity—for tasks such as pumping water for livestock or powering electric fences—at remote locations, where photovoltaic (PV) panels can provide it more easily than the electric grid or diesel generators. Tasks such as keeping barns warm in winter or washing milking equipment, meanwhile, consume a great deal of heat, which can be captured using solar collectors.

Solar energy will offer significant benefits to Wisconsin’s environment, and help reduce global warming pollution.

• Wisconsin emits 112 million tons of global warming pollution from burning fossil fuels every year. If global warming goes unchecked, Wisconsin could see damage to its forests, lower levels of water in its lakes, and more frequent severe weather events. Solar energy can reduce Wisconsin’s emissions by replacing fossil fuels. Solar panels produce 89 to 98 percent less global warming pollution over their lifetime than coal power plants.

• Fossil-fueled power plants in Wisconsin also emit large amounts of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide, pollutants that cause smog and acid rain. If Wisconsin takes full advantage of its potential to install rooftop photovoltaic panels, the electric sector’s output of those pollutants would be reduced by over 30 percent. 

Integrating solar energy into Wisconsin’s economy will create jobs and help businesses.

• Wisconsin does not have a single oil well, coal mine, or natural gas field.  Today, $16 billion leaves the state through purchases of fossil fuels every year.

• Using solar energy will create jobs in this state. Wisconsin companies like Orion Energy Systems are already employing hundreds of Wisconsinites to build and install solar energy equipment, and more jobs will be created as the state grows its solar energy sector.

• Solar energy is increasingly cost-competitive with other fuel sources, and investing in solar energy would insulate Wisconsinites from future price instability and price increases in the fossil fuel market.

Wisconsin businesses and communities are already showing the promise of solar energy.

• Orion Energy Systems employs 250 people at its factory in Manitowoc producing an advanced solar-based lighting system.

• More than 3,700 facilities nationwide have installed the system.

• Central Waters Brewing Company in Amherst has doubled its production without consuming any additional natural gas by installing rooftop solar heat collectors.

• Near Waukesha, Kohl’s has installed almost 900 solar panels apiece on two of its department stores, providing 20 percent of the electricity that each building consumes.

• In Appleton, teachers are praising the new daylighting approach used to light several elementary classrooms, which has cut the rooms’ electricity use by half.

• In Amherst, Gimme Shelter Construction has built a headquarters that relies primarily on a rooftop collector for heating, and receives 100 percent of its electricity from a photovoltaic array.

Solar energy is increasingly cost competitive. The price of photovoltaic panels has plummeted over recent years, falling 20 percent in 2009 alone. By middecade, experts predict that solar electricity will be price-competitive against other forms of power generation.

Wisconsin should implement policies that promote the adoption of solar energy.

• Setting a strong renewable energy standard in Wisconsin will help jump-start solar development.  Wisconsin should strengthen its renewable energy standard to require 25 percent of the state’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025.

• Policymakers should adopt incentives and lower barriers to the adoption of solar energy.
  

• A feed-in tariff, a policy that subsidizes photovoltaic electricity by raising the price PV owners are paid for the electricity they sell back to the grid, would help expand Wisconsin’s PV market.

• Financing a solar system requires paying for years of energy in one purchase; creative financing options can defray that cost over time and open up the possibility of investing in solar energy to more people. 

• Restrictions on the size of systems and unnecessary paperwork can complicate the process of connecting a PV system to the grid. Removing those barriers can simplify the process of installing PV.