From the Dane County Regional Airport and Alliant Energy Center to the Henry Vilas Zoo, the electricity in all Dane County operations is 100% renewable offset. That means we match every kilowatt of electricity we use in our operations to a kilowatt of renewable electricity that goes onto the local electric grid.
Dane County is the first county in Wisconsin to be 100% renewable offset and the 4th county in the U.S.
The pie-chart above describes the renewable electricity sources that power Dane County operations in 2024. Most of the renewable electricity comes from two projects we did in partnership with local utilities; 50% comes from the Yahara Solar Project we did in partnership with Alliant Energy and 35% percent came from the Dane County Regional Airport's solar array, which is a partnership with MGE. Another 13% of the renewable electricity represents the renewables that are part of the utility grid--we are excited to see this percentage grow over time! Many county facilities have rooftop solar installed, which makes up two percent of our energy sources.
The announcement of the Yahara Solar Project in 2020 marked an important victory for Dane County. It put us on track to offset all of of our County facilities with 100% renewable energy by 2025, which was a goal set in 2017 by County Executive Joe Parisi. At the time, most local governments were setting their renewable goals to be met by 2030 or 2040, yet we completed ours in 2023 - two years ahead of schedule!
However, we are not finished yet. The County continues to electrify more of its facilities and fleets, which increases our electric consumption. That means we need to continue to monitor our renewable electricity offsets to ensure that they cover all of our electric usage annually. Dane County was the first to achieve 100% renewable offsets and we plan to stay 100%.
Every year Dane County reports its total electric consumption along with the total renewable electricity from our rooftop solar and other partnerships to the U.S. EPA Green Power Partnership program. This program tracks renewable electricity use across a variety of public and private entities--from Fortune 500 companies to local governments like Dane County. The EPA publishes a profile for each participant that details their renewable electricity usage.
As part of the program the EPA publishes rankings of the communities using the most renewable electricity and in 2024 Dane County made the Top 30 Local Governments Page.
Once it was clear that the County would achieve 100% renewable offset electricity, the County Executive set a new goal that County facilities, fleet and land operations be carbon neutral by 2030. You can learn more about our progress on that goal via the link below.
In 2021, Dane County was recognized by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as being a leader in Green Power. Green Power, as defined by the EPA , is renewable electricity efforts that go above and beyond what is otherwise required by mandate or requirement. In other words, green power is surplus to regulation.
Dane County’s Yahara Solar project was recognized as part of RENEW Wisconsin’s 2023 Clean Energy Honor Roll at the 13th annual RENEW Energy Policy Summit “Unleashing the Power of Wisconsin’s Clean Energy Potential” on February 1, 2024.
