The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) – Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations selected the Wisconsin Office of Sustainability and Clean Energy’s (OSCE) project to build renewable energy in northern Wisconsin as one of 17 community-driven projects in rural and remote areas across the US to receive funding. This program is distributing $366 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to build rural clean energy infrastructure, lower costs, and provide economic growth opportunities to remote rural communities.
The project, Resilience and Prosperity in Rural Northern Wisconsin encompasses 24 sites across Red Cliff Band Tribal Lands and Bayfield County. The $9.8 million in federal funding awarded for this project seeks to increase regional energy reliability due to extreme weather events with the deployment of 23 microgrid systems. Wisconsin’s OSCE will promote local workforce development—particularly for construction and permanent project jobs, create avenues for meaningful public engagement, and provide clean energy education to residents. Also, OSCE aims to deploy solar power, battery storage, smart controls to enable islanding, and electric vehicle charging stations.