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Purchase of solar energy good for future environment

Plans announced recently by the Alger-Delta Electric Association to purchase power generated by solar panels is a very definite step in the right direction.

The power will be generated by hundreds of thousands of solar panels WPPI Energy and NextEra Energy Resource plan to construct near the Point Beach nuclear generating station in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. The company supplies Alger-Delta with electrical power which, in turn, retails it to Upper Peninsula consumers.

“This solar energy center adds diversity to help us meet WPPI Energy member utilities’ long-term needs in a way that’s more cost-effective than other opportunities currently available to us,” Mike Peters, president and CEO of WPPI Energy, said in a press release distributed to regional media. “In addition, our membership has achieved significant emission reductions over the past 10 years, and the clean, renewable energy generated by this project will help us continue that effort.”

It’s anticipated the 100 megawatt facility will come on line in about four years, supplying clean, renewable energy to its 51 member utilities across Wisconsin, Iowa and the U.P., including Alger Delta. As recently as 2015, all the solar generating facilities on line in Wisconsin totaled just 25 megawatts of capacity.

There is little doubt that clean energy sources such as solar will play a significant role in the future. We’d expect this project to be among an increasingly greater number of such projects that will be built going forward.

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