Dane County Celebrates Earth Day by Announcing Plans to Install Solar Array at Verona Landfill
April 22, 2024
Ariana Vruwink, 608-267-8823
County Executive
This Earth Day, County Executive Joe Parisi announced that Dane County will issue a request for proposals (RFP) to identify a partner to develop the Verona Landfill into a solar energy site that will serve power to multiple facilities on the Badger Prairie Campus in Verona, including Badger Prairie Health Care Center, Badger Prairie Needs Network, and Consolidated Food Services. The landfill also has potential to serve as a community solar site for Dane County residents, pending final project scoping.
“It makes sense to host a solar array at the Verona Landfill,” said County Executive Joe Parisi. “The site isn’t suitable for most activities but it has served us well—first as a landfill, then generating electricity from landfill gas, and now it will be a good location for additional solar. Ideally, this solar will power our facilities and host community solar that expands Dane County residents’ access to clean power.”
The Verona Landfill operated as a landfill from 1977 to 1986. Dane County began generating electricity from the methane emitted at the landfill in 1995. At the time, experts thought the landfill could provide electricity for about 30 years. Now, almost 40 years after the generators were first installed, the landfill continues to generate electricity. But the amount of methane at the landfill is in decline, and will likely reduce below usable quantities in the next decade. This has prompted Dane County officials to identify another use for the site.
The Verona Landfill Solar Project is a final milestone in Parisi’s tenure as County Executive. Under Parisi’s leadership, Dane County became the first county in the state and fourth in the nation to reach the milestone of offsetting 100% of the electricity used at all county facilities with clean, renewable energy. Dane County currently hosts solar on 17 county facilities and also hosts two larger solar field partnerships, one with MGE at the Dane County Regional Airport and the other with Alliant Energy and SunVest, known as Yahara Solar.
Parisi’s environmental leadership has repeatedly earned local and national recognition. Earlier this month, Dane County was the first county in the nation to earn SolSmart Platinum designation for its efforts to promote solar energy. In 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recognized Dane County with a Green Power Leadership Award for its use of green power, creative collaboration, and commitment to expanding access to green power to diverse, historically underserved, rural and urban communities and neighborhoods. More locally, RENEW Wisconsin named Dane County the Renewable Pioneer of the Year in 2021. And in 2024, Dane County’s Yahara Solar project was recognized as part of RENEW Wisconsin’s 2023 Clean Energy Honor Roll.