‘Think of it as the Oscars of our industry’
‘An experience worth remembering, memories worth believing in’
May 26, 2025
HALLIE – The Chippewa Sun solar array has become a bright new source of energy for the Eau Claire area.
Brian Elwood – Xcel Energy’s regional vice president of customer and community service – said Xcel worked with Madison-based OneEnergy Renewables and a number of other local companies to bring the project to life.
Plans for Chippewa Sun, Elwood said, began as early as 2018, with construction commencing in spring of 2024 in Hallie.
Since construction completed, he said the five-megawatt solar array has successfully generated carbon-free, renewable energy – purchased by Xcel Energy and integrated into its distribution system – to support its three dedicated subscribers:
- The University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC), where 100% of the electricity at The Sonnentag (the university’s recently built event center) is offset
- The Pablo Group – an Eau Claire real estate company – which will reduce the environmental impact and improve sustainability at its SpringHill Suites by Marriott property
- The City of Eau Claire, where City Hall, the water treatment plant and other city buildings’ electricity usage will be offset
“(Chippewa Sun) went operational at the end of last year with generating electricity, and customers are starting to see credits on their bills at the first part of this year, this spring,” Elwood said.
Something new under the sun
The origins of this ambitious renewable energy project, Elwood said, are linked with Xcel Energy’s own environmental objectives.
“In 2018, Xcel Energy was the very first utility in the country to establish a goal to provide 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050,” he said.
The energy company has always availed itself of its services for customers and communities, but Elwood said increasingly, those conversations have focused on renewable options.
Such was the case, he said, with UWEC.
“Several years ago, when the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire announced The Sonnentag project, we sat down with leadership at the university, and they were talking about different goals they had for the project – and among the leading goals was its focus on sustainability,” Elwood said. “Knowing what our company provides and the trajectory our company was on, we started looking at different ways we could partner with the university to help them achieve those sustainability goals.”
Several options were discussed, he said, but an off-site solar array proved to be the best solution, with the university accounting for roughly half of the service subscription.
The Pablo Group – which, according to its website (pablo.com), “strive(s) to lessen negative impacts on the planet and work with others to do the same” – was tabbed as another subscriber.
The subscription would be rounded out by the City of Eau Claire, which – per eauclairewi.gov and akin to Xcel Energy – has outlined a path to 100% renewable energy and carbon neutrality by 2050.
Karl Hoesly, president of Xcel Energy-Wisconsin and Michigan, said in a recent statement that Chippewa Sun is “a testament to the leadership and vision of our three subscribing customers, and the dedication of our exceptional contractors and suppliers.”
“This project not only propels us toward our vision of providing 100% carbon-free electricity to our customers by 2050, but it also advances the individual sustainability goals of our partners,” Hoesly said.
Elwood said the solar array depended on “having a team all focused on the same goals.”
“All the pieces came together to make it a successful project and also meet the timelines that the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire was looking at (for) The Sonnentag project,” he said. “It was a longer timeline, but all those pieces had to come together, which really focused us on opportunities, as a company, to follow through on.”
Chippewa Sun’s longer timeline, Elwood said, also had to do with its size, as the array covers nearly 24 acres and contains 11,830 solar panels.
Employing “the latest and greatest in solar technology,” he said both sides of the array’s bifacial panels are able to capture the sun’s energy – a particularly valuable capability in winter when sunlight reflects off snow.
Furthermore, Elwood said the panels aren’t stationary, rather, “they move very, very, very slowly throughout the day to track with the sun to maximize their efficiency.”
Another challenge of the process, he said, was obtaining approval for the project in light of its lack of local precedent.
Elwood said Xcel Energy had previously established solar arrays in Eau Claire, Cashton and Ashland, but those three one-megawatt arrays service more than 120 subscribers.
However, he said other companies’ larger-scale arrays exist elsewhere in the state.
“We work through the Public Service Commission to get approval on these projects, and knowing that other utilities in Wisconsin had offered this type of program really gave us hope that we could do it as well as they had, and provide it as a solution for our customers,” Elwood said. “So, I think the challenge was more of an opportunity that our team stepped up to, and we were able to get the program approved. We’re fortunate that we had very good contractors as well.”
Array of hope
So far, Elwood said he feels nothing but positive about Chippewa Sun.
Though it’s a unique project for the region and an expression of “the art of the possible,” he said Xcel Energy has approached the array with a goal unvarying over its 101-year history: “to maintain our systems and to reliably serve our customers, all the time.”
“The success of our communities (and) the success of our companies that we serve is critically important to us, and we want to do whatever we can to help them achieve not only their energy goals (and) sustainability goals, but just to be successful,” he said. “We know… that’s better for everyone who lives and works here, and we want to be operating within an area that’s a great place to live and work.”
Xcel Energy’s persistent, “solutions-focused” approach, Elwood said, has yielded consistently strong results.
“Whenever we’re adding resources, maintaining our system or upgrading our system, we’re doing that with a focus on safety, but also making sure our systems stay incredibly reliable,” he said. “And the reliability for our system, over a long period of time, has been more than 99.9%.”
Elwood said Xcel Energy also focuses on minimizing the costs of each of its projects and services.
“Our customer bills are among the lowest in the nation, and we’re really proud of the fact that we’re able to be at the leadership of this clean energy transition, while maintaining affordability and reliability for our customers,” he said.
With these factors bolstering Xcel Energy’s local reputation, Elwood said the public was all the more amenable to the Chippewa Sun project.
Further endearing the array to the community, Elwood said the “forward-thinking” SolarShare Cooperative, “who’s helping manage the land portion” of the solar array, works with local schools to teach about renewable energy, and has already arranged a number of school field trips to Chippewa Sun.
To accommodate the local environment, he said the array – adjacent to a residential area as well as State Highway 29 – has been landscaped with wildflowers and pollinator plants.
The positivity of Chippewa Sun, Elwood said, has the potential to shine beyond the region as well, adding to the growing public momentum for solar energy.
“We are definitely having discussions with other larger customers, who are interested in going even further and faster on their own sustainability goals and using a program like this to do that,” he said. “This definitely has created a greater awareness for (solar arrays).”
Elwood said Xcel is currently involved in a number of large projects in western Wisconsin, including one in Dunn County and another in St. Croix County.
Having devoted nearly three decades of his career to Xcel Energy, Elwood said it’s been rewarding to witness such progress.
“I would say we are at one of, if not the most exciting times in the energy industry,” he said. “There’s so much change and transitioning happening.”
