In a recent report, scientist-led nonprofit group Climate Central analyzed each state’s public and private spending on clean energy. It found that Wisconsin spent $6 billion on renewables, with most of the money — $3.8 billion — going towards solar power.
Wisconsin ranks 33rd among states in terms of how much it has spent on clean energy technologies in the last few years. In total, the nation spent nearly $248 billion in 2023, triple what it spent in 2018.
Using data from the Clean Investment Monitor, a joint project of Rhodium Group and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research, the group reviewed the nation’s spending on clean energy dating back to 2018.
Of the $3.8 billion Wisconsin spent, most of it went to large-scale solar projects, including solar arrays in Grant, Wood and Waushara counties put up by Alliant Energy’s Wisconsin subsidiary, Wisconsin Power and Light Company. Approximately $500 million comes from households and businesses putting up solar panels, according to Charlotte McClintock, a senior analyst at Rhodium Group who is leading the development of the Clean Investment Monitor.
Wisconsin has a goal of producing 100% carbon-free electricity by 2050. “If we are really serious about moving quickly in that direction, I think we do need some more requirements,” Chandler told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Wisconsin is an outlier among its neighbors in the upper Midwest, most of whom invested the most in EVs, including Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. Wisconsin is picking up the pace; the state passed a law earlier this year that made funding for EV charging infrastructure a possibility.
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