The 1 megawatt (MW) Solar Connect Community solar garden in Eau Claire began generating power in late October 2017. The more than 3,000 solar panels are located on a city-owned abandoned landfill. Xcel hired Pristine Sun as the solar-developer. Over 90 percent of both the Eau Claire and La Crosse community solar gardens are subscribed. This was the first of Xcel’s three planned 1 MW community solar gardens. The others will serve La Crosse in 2018, and Ashland in 2019. Unlike the fixed arrays, Ashland’s solar garden will host a single-axis tracking system to improve solar capture.
Eau Claire, WI 10-2017
Photo courtesy of: PJ Nelson (CC BY-SA)