Controversy over solar farm in a town in Oconto County

TOWN OF MORGAN, Wis. (WBAY) — Concerns on Tuesday night in Oconto County continue with a number of residents fighting a plan by an energy resource company to build a large number of solar panels covering more than 1,000 acres.

The company NextEra Energy, which is looking to bring its Fox Solar Project to Oconto County, was originally expected to be at Tuesday night’s Morgan town hall meeting.

The town chair says they were informed earlier that NextEra would not be attending as a result of online threats from surrounding townships.

The Oconto County Sheriff’s Office tells Action 2 News’ Drew Best that they are aware of these threats but cannot share more at this time.

The town hall still reached full capacity for the meeting. Town and county officials fielded questions and concerns from the community about the proposed solar panel project.

Several people shared concerns about panels taking up farmland, increased fire danger from the large lithium batteries powering the panels, and the potential of data centers eventually setting up near the large energy supply, taking up more land.

An Oconto County board member said the reason the county and town don’t have a say is that the federal government encourages all green projects on agricultural farmland to move forward under the Green New Deal. However, that federal green energy bill was never signed into law. Rather, a Wisconsin statute, 66.0401, limits restrictions local governments can place on solar projects.

Both citizens and town leaders feel their voices are not being heard.

“We need to get our voices heard at our congressman’s offices, our representative’s offices. We need to start sending letters, you need to start calling them, and telling them that this is not okay,” one local said.

“The thought that you can just in 180 days stamp it, and they can just be on their way, can come in and do what they want. I don’t even know what to say about that,” Lori Witthuhn, Morgan Town Board Chair, said.

On Tuesday, Action 2 News reached out to NextEra for a response to this town hall cancellation but did not hear back at the time of this writing.

The town chair calls the next steps the intervening process, saying NextEra still needs a buyer and a joint development agreement with the village and county before moving forward with any project.

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