Residents press committee over proposed Avangrid 150‑MW solar project; developer says battery storage withdrawn

Committee members and Maple Creek residents spent more than an hour on Tuesday debating a proposed Avangrid solar project that would place roughly 1,200 acres of panel arrays and a substation in and around Maple Creek and New London. Residents told the Economic Development Committee they do not want prime farmland converted to a utility‑scale solar array and raised concerns about property values, wildlife, road damage and long‑term soil or water impacts. Derek Buss, lead developer for Avangrid, said battery storage has been withdrawn from the company’s current filings and described the state and regional permitting steps required for a project of this size. The discussion matters because the project would be large enough to fall under state review, not local zoning. That shifts decision authority from town or county permitting to the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin, which reviews projects of 100 megawatts or larger through a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity process that includes public information meetings, environmental review and hearings. Residents at the meeting said the proposal would remove large contiguous tracts of productive farmland and change the rural character of Maple Creek. “We would love to keep Maple Creek rural farmland,” said Susan Griffin, town chair for Maple Creek, adding that at a 2023 town meeting “99.9% of the people that were there did not want the solar field to go in.” Lynette Gitter, clerk for the town of Maple Creek, provided committee members with a visual map of the proposed array during public comment. Several speakers said they feared a small number of large landowners were deciding for the rest of the community. “It ain't like it's 20, 30 guys that are going for this. It's 1 or 2,” said Scott Carriage, a resident of Maple Creek, describing how leases concentrated control among few owners. Avangrid’s Derek Buss said the panel area would be seeded with native grasses and that leases require restoration of land to its prior use after decommissioning. “Our lease agreement requires us to restore the property back to its existing use,” Buss said, adding that under the company’s plan the vegetation under panels would be a native seed mix intended to reduce soil disturbance and runoff. Buss confirmed Avangrid had paused its separate battery storage application. “We have pulled back on our battery storage application with the utility,” he said, and said the company would accept contract language restricting future battery development if the city or county required it. On local revenues, Buss cited a state calculation that projects pay $4,500 per megawatt annually. Using that figure, he said, a 150‑megawatt project would generate roughly $675,000 a year; about 58% would go to Outagamie County and the remaining roughly $283,000 annually would go to the town of Maple Creek. Buss also described tax calculations for an operations and maintenance facility and substation inside New London, estimating an initial first‑year payment in the low hundreds of thousands tied to the substation’s assessed value. Committee members said they are not prepared to vote on any land sale. John (unidentified city official) told residents the city needs a written sales or lease agreement to analyze tax and other implications formally. “I think that for this committee, they need to see that agreement to see what it would be before you guys have enough information for the full decision,” he said. No sale, lease or contract was presented to or approved by the committee during the meeting. The committee’s next step, as recorded in the meeting, is to continue negotiations with Avangrid and to request any proposed sale or lease agreement for review; committee members said they would not forward or recommend a sale until they could review a written agreement and fuller technical details, including the company’s PSC filing documents and environmental studies. Community members were told they will have further opportunities to comment during the PSC process if Avangrid applies for a CPCN. Buss said Avangrid has applied to MISO (Midcontinent Independent System Operator) for interconnection studies and that the PSC process typically takes 12 to 18 months and includes public information meetings, an environmental assessment and potential hearings. No formal motion or vote on land sale or approval of the project took place at the meeting. The committee adjourned after agreeing to continue discussions and to seek documentation before considering any formal action.