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Walworth County tables 6 MW Tesla Farm solar proposal after residents raise health, aesthetic and procurement concerns
Summary
A proposal for a 6-megawatt solar array on roughly 32 acres in Troy Township was tabled May 15 after sustained public opposition and committee requests for additional materials; the applicant and opponents will return for a decision on June 19.
The Walworth County Zoning Agency on May 15 delayed action on a conditional-use application for a 6-megawatt ground-mounted solar array proposed on roughly 32 acres of an approximately 52.5-acre parcel in Troy Township (Tesla Farm LP / 1Energy). The committee voted to table the matter until its June 19 meeting so absent members could review materials and staff could supply additional information.
Residents and organized opponents raised health and property-value concerns, questioned supply-chain and decommissioning plans, and asked the committee to consider alternatives such as rooftop or brownfield siting. Opponents also said many panels are manufactured abroad and cited broader labor- and procurement-related worries.
John Koges, leading organized opposition, said local residents feared electromagnetic fields and potential long-term health effects and asserted nearby home values could decline; he cited external studies and urged denial. Speakers including Bridal Martin Erdman and Nelson Erdman raised procurement and disposal concerns, saying panels are often made overseas and that post-decommissioning materials could be difficult to reuse.
Project representatives, including Nolan Stumpf of 1Energy, described the project financing and operations. Stumpf said the project would use third-party construction financing and no direct government grant funding, that the panels under contract came from Indonesia, and that the project’s interconnection voltage will match the existing 24.9 kV three-phase lines on Highway 20. He also said industry studies show magnetic-field exposure from solar inverters is negligible at typical residential distances and described a decommissioning plan committing the applicant to remove equipment at the end of its life.
Committee members said they wanted legal and policy guidance and a clearer staff memorandum on grounds for denial versus conditions the county can impose. A motion to table the application to allow staff to supply the committee with the requested materials and to provide drone imagery of the proposed site passed; the applicant said it would supply documentation and was agreeable to a short clarification to a town-proposed weed-eradication timing condition.
No formal approval or denial was recorded. The public hearing portion is closed and the committee will take up the matter for decision on June 19.
