PSC approves Whitewater Solar project with conditions after contested review

Whitewater Solar LLC’s application for a 180-megawatt photovoltaic generation facility won approval from the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin on Sept. 25, 2025, after commissioners applied standard statewide conditions and several project-specific requirements. The company’s project area spans roughly 2,400 acres across the city of Whitewater and parts of Jefferson and Walworth counties; about 10–15 acres are expected to be fenced for arrays, a substation and an operations building.

The commission framed the decision around the statutory CPCN requirements in Wisconsin Statute 196.491 and related laws, and commissioners stressed that the record — which included public comments, interventions and additional filings after mid‑process layout changes — supported issuing the certificate with conditions. “I will vote for the approval of this application, but with conditions that we can get into as we work our way through the decision matrix,” Commissioner Tricia Nieto said during the discussion.

Why this matters: the project is a merchant generator that will sell output into the wholesale market rather than directly serving retail customers. As a merchant plant it is exempt from the needs-analysis typically required of regulated utilities, but the commission must still determine whether the project meets public-interest siting and environmental criteria and whether it will have undue adverse impacts. The commission found no persuasive record evidence that the project would harm…