By Thomas Content of the Journal Sentinel

Doyle: Siting bill sends message to wind industry

Milwaukee Area Technical College and Johnson Controls Inc. will build
the state’s largest solar power project, a $6.9 million “solar
education farm” that will help train technicians in the renewable
energy field.

The project initially will be installed near the Milwaukee River,
north of Capitol Drive. It will be portable, allowing the panels to be
moved to a different location in the future, said representatives of
MATC and Johnson Controls.

The project was given the go-ahead Wednesday by the Wisconsin
Technical College System Board during the board’s meeting in
Rhinelander.

The solar farm will be built on MATC property that is home to the
transmitter used by Milwaukee Public Television. The project is
expected to save the station $70,000 a year in energy costs for
powering the transmitter.

“I’m elated,” said Michael Sargent, MATC’s chief financial officer.

With nearly 2,500 solar panels, the solar farm can generate 411
kilowatts of electricity, or roughly enough power over a year’s time
to supply about 60 homes. That’s bigger than the 385 kilowatts of
solar power being generated by Johnson Controls from two different
systems at its headquarters campus in Glendale.

MATC says the farm will be designed to serve as a training center for
technicians, designers, site assessors, electricians, sales personnel
and other professionals in the renewable energy field.

“So our project would not only produce power but also be extended into
education for technicians and engineers of the future, because we’re
going to need more technicians and engineers involved in this
marketplace to fulfill the needs of the future,” said Don Albinger,
vice president of renewable energy solutions at Johnson Controls.

The 32-acre property is along the west bank of the Milwaukee River in
the 800 block of E. Capitol Drive. Construction is expected to begin
in October, after the project receives permits from the City of
Milwaukee. The project is expected to be finished by next summer,
Sargent said.

Urban sites targeted
Traditional solar farms are built in rural areas, but the vision for
this project is to take empty spaces in urban areas such as parking
lots, remediated landfills or brownfields and generate energy from
them.

“We’ve designed this as a demonstration of how you can use land in an
urban setting that is underutilized,” said Sargent, noting that
another possible candidate for solar would be the Tower Automotive
property until it is redeveloped.

“In the meantime, you can generate power where it’s used, as opposed
to setting up a (solar) farm in New Mexico.”

The developers say they believe this will be the first entirely
portable solar farm in the nation.

The college has applied for funding from the U.S. Department of Energy
through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to make MATC a
regional training center to prepare workers in urban-solar
installations and related fields.

“We’re also asking to be a regional training center for training the
trainers in urban photovoltaics,” said Sargent. “This is where
teachers at other technical schools would come so they could go back
and train their students.”

The college is seeking $2 million in funding through the
stimulus package and has committed $4 million itself to build up
its academic and training programs.

Johnson Controls undertook the design of the project and will be paid
$6.7 million, Sargent said. The Glendale firm’s renewable energy
division, based in Milwaukee, was selected after a competitive bidding
process.

“This definitely needed innovation,” Albinger said, noting the
complexity of incorporating eight different types of solar power and
the need to make the project portable. “My group engineered the whole
thing.”

The farm will sit on top of an old landfill that is still regulated by
the state Department of Natural Resources.