ALBANY — The 50-megawatt Albany Solar Project located in Green County, Wisconsin, is part of Alliant Energy’s Clean Energy Blueprint, a strategic roadmap to cost-effectively accelerate Alliant’s transition to renewable energy and reduce carbon emissions. Once complete, the project will positively impact the environment and generate enough energy to power around 13,000 homes.
Civil sitework is underway at the Albany Solar Project. This includes setting up the laydown area, building roads and site grading to ensure the solar panels are at the proper angle to generate energy.
During this time, crews will begin to install an 8-foot deer fence around the entirety of the project to secure the site.
Alliant has already begun planting native grasses and pollinator habitat. Low-growth grasses, which reduce the need for mowing and provide soil health and groundwater benefits, are planted between solar panel arrays. Pollinator habitat grows on the outskirts of the project area. Alliant is planting grasses early to allow them to take root and help provide stability for the dirt.
Once the civil sitework is complete, crews will begin to install the piles. These metal posts anchor the solar arrays to the ground and support the tracking system that allows the panels to follow the sun daily from east to west.
Bulldozers, scrapers and graders will do much of the work in the first few months. Then, pile drivers will drive the 15-foot piles into the ground. Unlike poured concrete footings, these piles can be easily removed at the end of the project’s life. Most of the work after that will involve smaller machinery, including forklifts to transport deliveries of solar panels and skid steers for other minor work.
Full-time water trucks are on-site to mitigate dust blowing in the area, and crews use a silt fence and filter strips around the project site to contain dust when possible.
Traffic will likely increase on the roads surrounding the solar project. They’ll have around 100 workers on-site any given day and regular deliveries of project materials. Alliant documented preconstruction road conditions and will repair any damage construction activities cause.
The project substation will be constructed parallel with the solar arrays.
The Albany Solar Project is expected to be operational by the end of 2023.
Additional updates, photos and details for the Albany Solar Project throughout the construction process will be available online at alliantenergy.com/albanysolar.