Alliant Energy hopes to build a new roughly $730 million wind farm in Columbia County that will provide enough electricity to power about 100,000 homes annually.

The utility, through a limited liability company, filed an application with the Public Service Commission to build the project in late December. Alliant also plans to seek commission approval to acquire the project from the LLC and construct the facility.

The Columbia Wind project would be a 277-megawatt wind farm with more than 40 wind turbines. More than 300 landowners have signed lease agreements for the project.

According to the utility, the project has been in development for nearly five years. 

Justin Foss, the Columbia Wind project manager and manager of resource development for Alliant Energy, said the project will use “the next generation of wind turbines,” which are taller and larger. 

If a project of this scale were built a decade ago, he said it would require two or three times as many turbines.

“A project like this, because it has these larger wind turbines that are able to grab more wind, is much more spread out,” he said. “When you look around the countryside, instead of seeing just a dense forest of wind turbines, you’ll see one (or) two in an area (that’s) much more spread out.”

While the project has a more than $700 million price tag, Foss said the wind farm still represents a “huge savings” for customers because the utility won’t have to pay volatile fuel costs for the power it produces.

“We expect that savings to be upwards of $463 million over the next 35 years,” he said.

Alliant estimates the Columbia Wind project will generate more than $100 million in tax revenue for Columbia County. 

Meanwhile, Foss said the lease payments will help rural land owners “diversify their income streams.” Alliant also anticipates the project will generate 100 to 150 construction jobs. Foss says those will likely be union jobs. 

But the project has already faced some community pushback. Last August, residents in the town of Columbus expressed concerns about the project related to health, safety and local control. 

Foss said Alliant has since worked to educate the public about the project and receive feedback through community presentations.

“We’ve heard from several other townships that are asking now for additional presentations, and we’re working to make sure that we reach out to them and make ourselves available to answer all of their questions,” he said. “We’ve presented at some of the townships. Part of what we work through is, it’s a change, and we recognize that sometimes change comes with uncertainty.”

Amy Barrilleaux, a spokesperson for the nonprofit Clean Wisconsin, welcomed the project, calling wind and solar the “two cheapest ways to produce energy in this state.” 

“You’re not paying to truck in coal or to pipe in liquefied natural gas,” she said. “You’re not dealing with the dangers of that. You pretty much have a free energy source there turning those turbines.”

But Alliant does have plans to invest in natural gas. In 2024, the utility announced that it hoped to convert its coal-burning power plant in Sheboygan County into a natural gas plant in 2028. 

And last year, Alliant filed an application with the Public Service Commission to build a liquified natural gas storage facility near its gas-fired Riverside Energy Center in Rock County. 

Environmental groups have been critical of natural gas infrastructure because natural gas contributes to climate change and has been linked to negative health effects.

“Alliant Energy is doing the right thing by looking at wind and understanding how important it is to invest in that clean wind energy,” Barrilleaux said. “But (it) cannot continue to also invest in fuels of the past that are actively hurting people and are more expensive.”

Foss said making sure the utility continues to provide reliable electricity so customers have energy when they need it is its number one job.

“We know that we can’t power Wisconsin with one single resource, or one single type of resource that really exposes everyone to risk if something were to happen,” he said. “We believe in a diverse energy mix.”

Alliant hopes to receive a decision from the Public Service Commission early next year and to bring the wind farm into service by the end of 2028.