Community solar legislation may be a bit delayed in Wisconsin but a bill is being materialized and is expected to be introduced in the 2025 legislative session over the next few weeks, according to Beata Wierzba, RENEW Wisconsin’s Director of Government Affairs, in an interview with NPM.

“For the 2025 session, the coalition that we’re working with is working on a new bill based on the old one—with a few little tweaks—and looking for a new senate lead that will take the bill forward in the session,” Wierzba said.

RENEW Wisconsin, a non-profit focused on advancing renewable energy policies and programs in the state, is backed by dozens of members including Engie, Dimension Energy, Invenergy, Nextera, OneEnergy,Summit Ridge, and All Energy Solar.

In the 2023-24 legislative session, Republican Senator Duey Stroebel sponsored a bill in the Senate and Rep. Scott Krug, D-72, sponsored one in the general assembly. While Krug was reelected in November, Stroebel was defeated by Democrat Jodi Habush Sinykin, D-8, by a narrow margin.

Both bills received hearings last session, however Wierzba described the hearings as informational rather than on the bills themselves, largely due to significant opposition from utilities. There was not enough desire by the legislature to hold a hearing, create a vote, and move the bills forward, Wierzba said.

The bills proposed the establishment of a community solar program that allowed third-party ownership of community solar facilities.

“Utilities are allowed to do this—they have not. There’s very few community solar projects built,” Wierzba said. “All of them combined I believe it is under 5 MW, which would be one single project under this proposal. There is a waiting list of participants who want to do this, but the utilities are not providing that option.”

“Talking to developers, there is so much demand for it. People are interested. We do not think that there will be anything left over (unsubscribed portion),” Wierzba said. “You will have enough people signing up.”

Previous legislation also proposed a model where siting projects would need approval by local governments.

“Being community solar, it’s in the community so you want the community to support it,” Wierzba said.

Other details that are still being worked out include the credit customers would receive from subscriptions, which would need to be developed by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin because each utility is a little different and the costs vary, Wierzba said.

Wierzba said the coalition is putting their resources into finding a new senate author, which there are a few in the works, before going forward with the amended draft.

While the current session commenced in January, legislators are hyper focused on the state budget which must be approved in July.

“A lot of legislatures are dealing with fiscal stuff so it is slower on other bills. At this point we are not panicky,” Wierzba said. “It gives us a little more time to find the authors, cosponsors, and build out the process more.”