Charter Steel set to break ground for solar field

Plan sparked opposition in town but firm says it considered concerns when designing 60-acre array

CHARTER STEEL will construct a 60-acre solar array on land to the north and west of its Saukville facility (above) that will generate 8% of the power used by the plant. Photo by Sam Arendt
By 
KRISTYN HALBIG ZIEHM
Ozaukee Press staff

Charter Steel is expected to break ground this month on a 60-acre solar array at its Saukville plant that will provide 8% of the power used at the facility.

The array will be located on fields Charter owns north and west of the plant, and is expected to be operational by May 2024, Director of Environmental Rob Thompson said.

“It will be a long process. The supply chain has impacted things,” Thompson said, noting the lead time for electrical components such as the inverters is significant.

Thompson said construction of the solar array will begin this month. Charter has all the necessary permits, including a conditional use grant from the Town of Saukville.

The project did not require approval by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission, he noted, due to its size and the fact Charter is not a utility.

The project will be constructed by SunVest Solar, which will also do the maintenance work on the array once the project is completed, Thompson said.

According to the project website, officials expect the most intense part of the construction work will be the first two months as deliveries are made by truck and pilings installed.

After that work is completed, construction will shift to installing the racks the solar panels go on. Then, the solar panels will be installed.

Standard dust suppression practices will be used during construction, according to the website. These practices include watering roadways and dust-prone areas daily and seeding or placing straw near exposed soils within 14 days of initial exposure.

The typical workday for the project will be from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., the website states, but can be adjusted in compliance with town ordinances.

When the Town of Saukville held a public hearing on the solar field last summer, roughly 30 neighbors opposed it based on concerns about everything from the impact on property values to noise.

Thompson said the company took their comments into consideration when drawing up the final plans.

“We made an effort to shrink the footprint as much as we could,” he said.

To help shield the solar array from view of neighbors and motorists passing by and block any noise, he said, Charter will install berms — something they had always planned on doing.

For the most part the panels won’t be visible, Thompson said, noting Charter is installing six-foot berms with a few trees around much of the perimeter.

“It should get close (to blocking the view of the panels) if it doesn’t do it all,” he said.

Charter wants the array to produce 15  megawatts, about 8% of its annual energy consumption, so it will install about 30,000 solar panels, Thompson said. They will be fixed rather than on a solar track system, he added, because “we can fit more in a smaller footprint that way.”

The solar fields will be fenced, he said, noting the fence will be about seven feet tall and about 25 feet from the panels. Any wildlife that gets inside the fence should be able to get out again, he said.

“This will not impair the ability of wildlife to move around the wetlands,” Thompson added.

It won’t be a chain link fence, Thompson noted.

“We wanted it to look less visible,” he said.

Much of the land will be planted with pollinator plants, he added.

“It won’t be tilled. It won’t be farmed, so there won’t be pesticides and herbicides,” Thompson said.

The solar fields will be monitored 24/7 both electronically and with cameras, he said.

The 30,000-panel solar field will produce 27 million kilowatts annually, enough to power 2,500 family homes, according to the project website, when it is completed.

For a company like Charter, which uses a significant amount of electricity to recycle steel, that’s important, Thompson said, noting electricity is the second highest cost for the company.

But, he added, that’s not the only concern driving the solar field. The company’s customers have also pushed it to reduce its carbon footprint.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that a proposal like the Charter Steel solar project will eliminate the equivalent of more than 21,000 tons of carbon dioxide, the main culprit that creates greenhouse gases, each year it operates, according to the project website.

The $25 million project represents a long-term investment for Charter, Thompson said, adding that the solar fields will also offset any issues with the reliability of the grid.

Charter’s solar fields are expected to last a minimum of 25 years, Thompson said, and more likely 30 to 35 years.

“It’s not the panels that fail,” he said. “It’s the structure.

“For us, 30, 35 years from now we’ll turn it (the structure) back into usable steel.”

And at that point, he said, Charter will take a look at the available technology and determine the future of the fields.

For more information, visit saukvillesolarinfo.org.

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Wisconsin’s largest paid circulation community weekly newspaper. Serving Port Washington, Saukville, Grafton, Fredonia, Belgium, as well as Ozaukee County government. Locally owned and printed in Port Washington, Wisconsin.

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