Wind and Solar Land Leasing in Columbia County, Wisconsin

Why the county isn't the decision-maker for a large project

Wisconsin law gives the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSC) siting authority over large electric generation facilities, including utility-scale solar and wind projects above certain size thresholds -- which means a project like Columbia County's High Noon solar and battery-storage facility goes through a state Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) process rather than a county rezoning or conditional-use hearing. Columbia County Planning & Zoning can weigh in during that state process and still has authority over things the PSC doesn't preempt (like local road-use agreements or decommissioning bonds a county negotiates with a developer), but a county Planning Commission generally cannot deny a state-sited project outright the way it can deny an ordinary rezoning request.

That's a meaningfully different process than the Town of Lodi rezoning fight described on the county hub page, where the county board's ordinary zoning authority actually controlled the outcome. If you're a landowner near a proposed wind or solar project, understand which process applies before assuming a county hearing is where the decision gets made.

What's actually been proposed in Columbia County

The most concrete, currently-documented project is a solar and battery energy storage facility (reported as the "High Noon" project) developed by Invenergy, mapped across roughly 4,300 acres in the Towns of Lowville, Leeds, Arlington, and Hampden -- though the actual panel/array footprint is smaller, closer to 2,000 acres, because state siting rules require developers to control at least 25% more land than the project needs, giving flexibility to adjust layout without re-filing. Wisconsin utilities Madison Gas and Electric, Wisconsin Electric Power Company (We Energies), and Wisconsin Public Service Corporation have been approved to acquire ownership interests in the completed facility. Site work -- grading, substation construction, pre-construction tree clearing -- had begun as of the most recent reporting found in this research pass.

Separately, Alliant Energy has proposed a wind farm in Columbia County that drew organized opposition explicitly seeking to build a coalition across the state, rather than staying purely local -- a sign that renewable siting fights in this county are being watched, and potentially replicated, elsewhere in Wisconsin. Project scope, township footprint, and approval status for both projects can change as PSC and local proceedings continue; check current status directly with the PSC and Columbia County Planning & Zoning before relying on any specific acreage or township figure here.

If you get a lease offer, or you're buying near a proposed project

• If you're a landowner in Lowville, Leeds, Arlington, or Hampden considering a solar/wind lease offer, get independent legal review of the lease term length, decommissioning obligations, and payment escalation clauses before signing -- these agreements often run decades and are highly negotiable on first offer.
• If you're buying land near an active or proposed project rather than inside its footprint, ask Columbia County Planning & Zoning what's been filed with the PSC for that specific area, since a project's township footprint can extend well beyond where construction has visibly started.
• Don't assume a county rezoning denial (like the 2023 Town of Lodi case) sets a precedent for a state-sited renewable project -- the two processes run on different legal tracks with different decision-makers.
• Check whether a specific parcel is within a project's land-control footprint (including the ~25% buffer land developers must control) even if it looks outside the actual panel/turbine layout on a current site plan, since layouts can shift within that footprint.