WEC Energy proposes a $400 million project that combines solar power and battery storage, enough to power 60,000 homes

WEC Energy Group, the parent company of We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service, has proposed building the state’s first project that would combine solar power with battery storage.

Madison Gas and Electric would own 10% of the project.

The proposed Paris Solar-Battery Park in Kenosha County — which must be approved by the Public Service Commission — is projected to cost $400 million.

The project would include 200 megawatts of solar generation — enough to provide electricity for 60,000 homes — and 110 megawatts of battery storage.

We Energies’ stake in the project would be 150 megawatts of solar power and 82.5 megawatts of battery storage. WPS’ stake would be 30 megawatts of solar power and 16.5 megawatts of battery storage.

The balance would be owned by MG&E.

“Projects like this maintain reliability, deliver significant savings to customers and support the goals of the Governor’s Task Force on Climate Change,” Tom Metcalfe, president of We Energies and Wisconsin Public Service, said in a statement.

WEC plans to add 800 megawatts of solar power and 600 megawatts of battery storage to its system as part of its plan to invest $2 billion in new solar, wind and battery storage projects by 2025. 

The company has the goal of reducing its carbon emissions by 70% by 2030.

The project announced Tuesday would be developed by Invenergy and then sold to the utilities if approved. Construction is expected to begin in 2022 and be completed in 2023. Battery storage will be important in maintaining the reliability of the power grid as utilities move to renewable energy.

“That’s the whole challenge with wind and solar power — it’s intermittent,” said Tom Content, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, which represents residential and small business customers before the PSC.

Battery storage also would be important in the expected move to electric vehicles. Reducing carbon emissions will hinge partly on fueling electric vehicles with renewable energy. Solar power stored during the day could be used to refuel electric vehicles at night.

The cost of battery storage decreased by almost 70% between 2015 and 2018, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

WEC Energy said that the proposed project will benefit customers because solar power does not have fuel costs and because of federal tax credits and the sharp decline in the cost of solar power and battery storage in the past 10 years.

The company also said the projects will create green jobs and help drive the state’s economy.

But WEC and other utilities have a clear financial incentive to invest in renewable energy: Their stockholders will earn a return — currently 10% in the case of We Energies and WPS — on their investment in the projects.

At the same time, We Energies and other utilities have proposed that they continue to earn a return, or profit, on their stockholders’ remaining investment in coal power plants that they shut down.

“The utilities shouldn’t be allowed to profit from both,” Content said.

We Energies plans to shut down its Oak Creek Power Plant in 2023 and 2024 as part of its move toward generating more electricity from renewable energy. The Oak Creek units, built in the late 1950s and 1960s, can generate 1,135 megawatts of electricity.

It shut down the Pleasant Prairie power plant, which could generate 1,200 megawatts of electricity, in 2018.

We Energies historically had relied heavily on coal for much of its power. Its Elm Road Generating Station in Oak Creek — completed in 2010 and 2011 at a cost of $2.3 billion — is expected to be one of the last large coal plants built in the United States.

Alliant Energy this month announced plans to close its Columbia Energy Center near Portage — the last of its coal-fired power plants in Wisconsin — by 2024.

The power plant, which can generate more than 1,100 megawatts of electricity, is co-owned by WPS and MG&E.

Alliant Energy also said it would shut down its Edgewater Generating Station, a coal plant that can generate 414 megawatts of electricity, in Sheboygan by 2022.

The utility said in 2019 that it plans to generate 1,000 megawatts of electricity from solar power by 2023.