How the Solar Farm Brings Benefits
This letter to the editor, by Paul Hambleton, appeared in the Hudson Star Observer on August 14, 2025.
Changes are happening in our communities. St. Croix County is one of the fastest-growing counties in the state, with its population now approaching 100,000. In Somerset and New Richmond — and in the growing villages along I-94 from Hudson to Roberts to Baldwin and beyond — rural areas are being divided into single lots. New housing developments are springing up in former farm fields. Industrial parks are filling up, storage units are proliferating and new businesses are emerging. These new homes and businesses, along with the growing popularity of electric cars and AI, all require electricity.
Xcel Energy is planning the Ten Mile Creek Solar Farm in central St. Croix County to help meet our needs for electricity when it decommissions the coal-burning and obsolete King Plant in Bayport, Minnesota, that now provides our power. The King Plant will be closed by Xcel Energy in 2028. The Ten Mile Creek Solar Farm is planned to replace it. The Wisconsin Public Service Commission, not St. Croix County, has the authority to review and revise, and then approve or disapprove this solar farm project.
Even though St. Croix County has no control over whether the proposed solar farm is built, it presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the County. People now living near the proposed solar farm will be impacted by changed rural land uses, and we need to listen to and address their concerns. We also need to consider the benefits of replacing our coal-generated electricity with solar-generated electricity.
The St. Croix County Board of Supervisors can and should resolve concerns about the negative impacts of the solar farm — through negotiation of a Joint Development Agreement (JDA) with Xcel Energy. At its Aug. 5 meeting, that board wisely voted to continue negotiating a JDA until at least October.
If the solar farm does get built, we all benefit in important ways. Up to 650 MW of cleaner and cheaper electricity produced by the solar farm will replace the dirtier and more expensive 550 MW of energy from the King coal-burning plant that we now rely on. Farmers and other property owners in the county will benefit financially from the long-term land-lease agreements they have signed with Xcel Energy. They can earn a steady income from the lease, possibly more than they could have by continuing to grow crops or graze livestock on their land for the next 30 years. The county, as well as the Towns where the solar farm is located, can receive annual payments from Xcel Energy, too. The soils of the solar farm will be rejuvenated by a 30-year fallow period. The water quality of our rivers and lakes, as well as that of our groundwater, will improve because the fertilizers and pesticides used to grow corn and soybean crops will no longer be annually applied to the fields.
You can learn more about the Ten Mile Creek Solar Farm on the Xcel Energy website at https://wi.my.xcelenergy.com/customersupport/s/projects/tenmile-creek-solar, and you can follow meetings and agendas of the St. Croix County Board at https://sccwi.portal.civicclerk.com.
