TOWN OF HARTLAND — When AES sought to build a 75MWac solar facility on about 550 buildable acres and 1,000 total acres in the Town of Hartland, community pushback brought the town board to implement a one-year moratorium, giving them time to draft an ordinance to regulate renewable energy land use in the township.

The Hartland Town Board underwent three special meetings to go over a drafted ordinance, and the plan is to run it by legal counsel before bringing a final draft to the table for a public hearing.

“We’ve worked on it pretty hard. We hope we’ve got something that helps our township and guides our township,” Chair Kurt Nelson said. “It’s not going to stop, if that’s what you’re looking for. This won’t stop them from putting it in. It’s just to hopefully protect the town from any problems that arise and not getting stuck with decommissioning it ourselves. I’m reasonably sure we wouldn’t have the power to [completely stop the project’s implementation].”

Nelson said they are not receiving communication from AES currently, but the board asked for a year to construct an ordinance and that is what they can control at the present moment. Nelson advised residents who want to completely block the project to reach out to state and national representatives who hold more power.

The draft ordinance includes precautions for decommissioning, roads, water, setbacks 500 feet from non-participant residences and 200 feet from non-participant property lines with a natural buffer of trees and vegetation, maintenance of an escrow balance, production reporting, domestic manufacturing and much more. Small solar units like panels on a residential roof would not be considered part of the ordinance, as it defines commercial or utility scale generation.

“If they fail to produce any power, just basically turned off the switch and walk away, after six months they have to put their decommissioning into effect and take everything out,” Board Supervisor Mark Girdeen said.

The township would be paid by the project based on a percentage of the production. An approved company would pay the State of Wisconsin, and the state would then pay back the township. Hartland board supervisors mentioned if AES were to produce at the levels they have proposed, the township would make over $100,000 per year. The county is also paid by the project.

One resident asked at a Jan. 29 meeting to increase the required production reporting from annually to quarterly. The board took that suggestion up to get a better grasp on the ebbs and flows of production and the amount they can budget.

There would be preliminary well testing for all wells within a mile of a site, fire training and no allowance for the business to be self-insured in case of bankruptcy. Another addition requested by the public that was taken up is wildlife protections to insure habitats and movement patterns are not disrupted to the point where the animals leave the area or are harmed. Costs of the analyses it takes to be in compliance with the ordinance would come out of the business’ pockets.

Ordinance violations would result in fines between $500 and $5,000 depending on the violation and the history of violations.

The board is expected to select a lawyer at the February board meeting, and will return with a final draft for public hearing after receiving feedback.