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Letting the sun do the work

Dunn Energy Cooperative recently had 3,400 solar panels installed at two West Central Wisconsin locations

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July 22, 2024

DUNN COUNTY – Based on its past sustainability efforts and the desire to be stewards of the land today and into the future, Dunn Energy Cooperative recently had 3,400 new solar panels installed in the villages of Boyceville and Colfax.

Jolene Fisher, director of member and employee engagement with Dunn Energy, said the projects were completed in partnership with Dairyland Power Cooperative, OneEnergy and local landowners.

Fisher said OneEnergy – which has five locations around the country, including an office in Madison – fully funded the solar arrays and now leases the land from area landowners.

“We have no capital in the projects outside of running the lines from the solar arrays to our substation,” she said. “We have a contract with OneEnergy for the power. Then, in turn, we distribute that power out to our customers who pay our regular rate.” 

Fisher said the panels, which are spread across more than 20 acres, will produce approximately 3.2 million kWh per year – which is enough energy to power 388 average Wisconsin homes per year.

“The co-op serves roughly 10,000 members in Dunn County and little parts of Barron, Chippewa, Pierce, Pepin and St. Croix counties,” she said.

The panels in Boyceville and Colfax, Fisher said, aren’t the organization’s first go with solar energy.

Dunn Energy, she said, had another set of solar panels installed in Downsville in 2017. 

“That one is a bit smaller, but (there) we have a piece that we sold as community solar, so members could sign up to get the production off certain units,” she said. “Customers pre-bought renewable energy, and for 20 years, they will get the production of however many units they bought.”

How a co-op works

A co-op, Fisher said, is a member-owned corporation created to provide a service for members that, individually, could not provide for themselves. 

“Co-ops were created through the REA (Rural Electrification Act) program through (President) Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s to help electrify the rural countryside – some organizations didn’t see the profit in sending out a single tap to a farm in the middle of nowhere,” she said. “(So), all the farmers got together and started a cooperative.”

Fisher said Dunn Energy still goes by that philosophy today – “keep it rural.”

A woman with brown hair wearing a maroon blouse and black blazer smiles at the camera.
Jolene Fisher

“It’s cool to think Dunn Energy dates back to the Roosevelt era (as part of the New Deal program) almost 100 years ago,” she said. “I think our articles of incorporation (as an organization) are from 1936. We serve all the rural parts of the county – we don’t serve the City of Menomonie or the Village of Knapp. We don’t have those municipal pockets, but we serve the rest of the rural parts of the counties within our service area.”

The panels

Though Fisher said she’s unsure how many solar panels make up Dunn Energy’s arrays, “it’s huge.”

“You can walk underneath them, so they’re fairly tall,” she said. “I can walk underneath them without hitting my head, and I’m about five feet seven inches tall. Native flowers are planted underneath.”

Fisher said some energy companies use another source of nature to keep the grounds beneath the solar panels looking good.

“Depending on the terrain, some companies hire sheep to graze it, so the panels have to be off the ground a bit,” she said.

Fisher said the panels give off “weird noises” when they track with the sun from the east and west.

“And then every day, they reset,” she said.

From planning to reality

Like any major project, Fisher said the planning for the installation of the solar panels “goes back quite a few years.”

“We started talking with OneEnergy in the summer of 2021, but (planning) started even before that,” she said. “Dairyland Power, where we purchase our power from, allows distribution cooperatives to procure roughly 10% of their load – (meaning) how much energy we provide in a year – from local renewable sources.”

By 2022, Fisher said Dunn Energy had the sites set, and construction started on the two arrays in 2023. 

Fisher said also in 2021, seven other local co-ops – including six in West Central Wisconsin  (Chippewa Valley Electric Cooperative, Clark Electric Cooperative, Pierce Pepin Cooperative Services, Oakdale Electric Cooperative, Polk-Burnett Electric Cooperative and Vernon Electric Cooperative) – joined Dunn Energy’s efforts with solar array projects of their own.

“All the co-ops were trying to get economies of scale,” she said. “There were eight of us that went in together and did 10 projects from 2021 to present day. In total, between the eight co-ops doing the 10 projects, there were about 20 megawatts of solar added.” 

Sustainability efforts

Though solar panels are a major source of sustainable energy efforts, Fisher said Dunn Energy aims to do even more.

“We’ve always believed in being good stewards of the land,” she said. “Recently, I was outside in the flower bed (under the solar panels) – it’s half an acre of pollinator habitat. We also turned our manicured lawn (at our Madison office) into native flowers for bees and butterflies.”

Fisher said it’s Dunn Energy’s mission “to provide affordable, reliable and environmentally responsible energy.”

A field of white, yellow, and purple flowers.
This is a half-acre pollinator habitat at Dunn Energy’s headquarters in Menomonie. The flowers are a mix of natives, including wild bergamot, prairie coneflower, oxeye daisy, yarrow, butterfly milkweed, lance leaf coreopsis and more. Submitted Photo

“We believe in that mission – this is the only Earth we have,” she said. “I’ve been here 20 years, and as long as I’ve been here, the philosophy we’ve had is, ‘this is what we’ve got, so let’s do it right.’ Our pollinator habitat and solar energy panels (are examples of Dunn Energy carrying out that mission).”

Other avenues, Fisher said, come through the sustainability efforts of its community partners.

“As I’ve said, we purchase our power from Dairyland Power Cooperative (DPC) in La Crosse,” she said. “Our power comes from wind farms and the dam up to Jump River, so DPC has a diverse portfolio of energy.”

Fisher said area farmers also want to help with Dunn Energy’s efforts.

“We’ve had farmers wanting to do manure methane digesters where they take the methane off their manure pits and turn it into energy,” she said. “We have one of those in the Village of Elk Mound.”

Dunn Energy also placed an EV (electric vehicle) charging station located in Chippewa County at the 29 Pines Eau Claire Travel Center.

More than sustainable energy

In addition to the support Dunn Energy provides its members, Fisher said the organization does what it can to support the greater community as well.

At the end of May, the company, she said, packed more than 10,000 meals for the Rotary Feed in Menomonie.

“It’s always an enjoyable event for our staff,” she said. “We also packed meals last fall in October for co-op month. In another community service project, all of our staff converged on Elk Mound and helped them knock out a bunch of projects they didn’t have the labor or money for. We painted benches, cleared trees and spruced up the parks.”

Fisher said recently, one of Dunn Energy’s crews spent the afternoon helping the Menomonie High School environmental biology class put up an osprey nest in the lower field behind the high school.

Regardless of its focus, Fisher said Dunn Energy believes every co-op should have the same cooperative principles – “serve members by supporting the community we serve and live in.”

“We do a lot of community service projects,” she said.

For more on Dunn Energy, visit dunnenergy.com.

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