The News: A new report from WILL, titled “Energy Choice for Wisconsin: A Free-Market Case for Community Solar,” outlines how privately financed community solar projects can expand consumer choice, strengthen the electric grid, preserve farmland, and inject market competition into Wisconsin’s monopoly utility system.
WILL’s focus on energy policy comes as reliability and affordability have become growing concerns, with Wisconsin now facing the second highest energy rates in the Midwest and warnings of potential energy shortfalls in the coming years. With these concerns, Wisconsin needs an “all-of-the-above” strategy that relies on cost-effective and reliable energy sources to meet our growing power demands. Free market community solar can play a modest, but important role in achieving that goal.
The Quotes: WILL Research Director, Will Flanders, stated, “Wisconsin is heading toward an energy shortfall, and the free market offers the best path to lower energy costs. Community solar, when implemented through a true free-market approach, can strengthen reliability, reduce costs, and open a competitive and innovative energy market in Wisconsin. Greater freedom and consumer choice are essential to meet the growing demands on our electric grid, and this is a great opportunity to move in that direction.”
State Representative Scott Krug (R-Rome), stated, “WILL’s research provides a clear path for reform: open up competition, respect local control, and let innovation happen. Community solar is a practical way to make that vision a reality for Wisconsin ratepayers.”
State Senator Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point), stated, “Our community solar legislation will benefit the entire state of Wisconsin by opening up a new market sector in the energy industry. The bill will help strengthen local control, create new jobs, encourage innovation and competition, assist our farmers and drive down energy costs for our residents and small businesses. Wisconsin’s electricity rates are among the highest in the Midwest and we need to change that.”
What is Community Solar: Community solar allows consumers to access solar power without the expense or hassle of installing panels on their own property or relying on large-scale utility-run solar projects that depend on hundreds or even thousands of acres of farmland. A community solar project starts with a solar array being built in a central location, like an open field, a closed landfill or on a large rooftop.
Unlike most traditional solar projects, community solar installations are developed by private companies or local landowners, not just utilities. These developers add to the grid by selling subscriptions to nearby households, businesses, or organizations. Subscribers receive credits on their utility bills for their share of the electricity produced, lowering their overall energy costs while adding to the overall grid capacity.
The Key Benefits of Community Solar:
Expanding Consumer Choice: Community solar introduces limited competition into a highly regulated energy marketing by empowering private developers to build additional capacity that individuals and businesses can voluntarily subscribe to.
Strengthens the Electric Grid Without Harming Property Rights: By generating power closer to where it is consumed, community solar reduces the necessity of costly transmission lines – and the associated use of eminent domain – while also easing stress on aging infrastructure and improving grid resilience during storms or outages.
Preserving Farmland and Local Economies: Community solar projects generally use smaller land footprints, rooftop space, or underutilized areas than large utility scale solar projects. This approach respects property rights while giving farmers the freedom to generate new income from their land without sacrificing acres of precious farmland.
A Market-Based Alternative to Utility Monopolies: Community solar ensures that landowners and communities—not just monopoly utilities—can decide how to produce and sell electricity. By opening the market to private developers, Wisconsin can restore freedom of choice in energy without relying on mandates.
Local Control: Smaller-scale utility projects like those authorized under community solar legislation do not fall within the purview of the Public Service Commission, meaning that siting decisions are made at the local level rather than by a state-level entity.
Wisconsin’s Looming Energy Crisis: A 2025 assessment by the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) found that the Midwest region, which includes Wisconsin, was at risk for energy shortfalls over the summer as there have been ongoing retirements of dispatchable power sources such as coal and gas. A longer term forecast by NERC has found that the region is facing “capacity shortfalls in the next five years” if new generation and infrastructure fail to keep pace with demand.
At the same time, Wisconsin’s energy affordability has worsened, with residents now paying the second-highest electricity rates in the Midwest. The state’s rising costs come just as AI data centers and industrial electrification are expected to drive unprecedented growth in electricity demand across the country.
Despite these challenges, Wisconsin has yet to adopt a statewide statutory framework for that allows for alternative, privately financed generation models like community solar, leaving residents and businesses without the energy choices available in several states around the nation that allow for these projects.
Legislative Action: Representative Scott Krug (R-Rome) and Senator Patrick Testin (R-Stevens Point) recently introduced Assembly Bill 493, legislation to authorize community solar projects in Wisconsin. This is similar to legislation that has been introduced and passed in a number of red and blue states around the nation.
WILL’s Free Market Energy Work: This report follows other recent WILL work on energy policy, including efforts to protect property rights and promote fair competition in Wisconsin’s energy sector. WILL has defended landowners against the use of eminent domain for utility transmission projects and has opposed “Right of First Refusal” legislation that would block competitive bidding and drive-up costs for ratepayers.
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