In Hallie, Wisconsin, on a former farm field that blooms annually with native flowers, solar energy is quietly benefiting the community and environment. But it took the vision of many people to get there. It took the vision of landowners Larry and Diane Marquardt, who see solar as a productive way to use their land.

It took the vision of experts like Sarah Glover, who knows which native plants will feed pollinators and shelter wildlife near solar arrays. And it took the vision of people like Cory Neeley, the first executive director of SolarShare Wisconsin Co-op, whose goal is to “help regular people participate in the clean energy economy.”

SolarShare is one of the only community-scale cooperative solar organizations in the United States. Individuals buy a $25 membership in the co-op, which allows them to purchase shares in solar projects and earn a return on these investments. Federal securities law typically requires that individual solar investors meet high thresholds for assets and income, so the SolarShare model allows everyday Wisconsinites to invest in solar energy. “SolarShare Wisconsin Co-op is democratizing solar investment in Wisconsin,” Neeley said. “It’s allowing everybody to invest in solar farms-bankers, utility workers, librarians, factory workers-anybody in the state of Wisconsin.”

The Town of Hallie in Western Wisconsin is the site of SolarShare Wisconsin Co-op’s third community-scale solar farm. Developed by OneEnergy Renewables, it serves three large energy users in the area, helping them meet their clean energy goals while also helping them to hedge against rising future energy costs.

This model depends on community participation, including the buy-in of landowners like Larry Marquardt. Marquardt’s family has owned the Harne solar project farmland since 1937. He’s an involved community volunteer who has served as board chairman for the Town of Hallie, on the Chippewa County board, and with the Chippewa Fire District. He volunteers with Meals on Wheels and the Farm Technology Days committee. He wants to invest in the land in a way that benefits his neighbors. “This is quiet energy,” he said.

Neeley agrees. “I live in rural Wisconsin, Evansville,” he said. “I know that the clean energy economy feels like something that’s happening to rural America sometimes, and I think we need to shift that by giving people an option to invest locally and participate.” He’s seen that solar investment opportunities through the co-op can act as a “light switch” that turns antagonism into a literal buy-in.

To build organizational capacity for their new model, SolarShare Wisconsin Co-op has received a $100,000 Phase I Energizing Rural Communities Prize from the U.S. Department of Energy. In September, they learned that they received a Phase II prize of $200,000, which will help build out this model in Hallie.

Part of the Phase II prize will be used to develop a curriculum teaching students how to combine solar with agriculture. SolarShare Wisconsin Co-op is working with Wisconsin’s K-12 Energy Education Program (KEEP) on a curriculum for agrivoltaics, which place crops, pasture, or beekeeping alongside solar arrays. 

“Agrivoltaics is an option that can really help solve some of our food problems, but also land access problems for folks who lack access to land,” Neeley said. “The other thing I’m really excited about with this project in Hallie is that we’re hoping to potentially open land up near our projects for local farmers that don’t have access to land.” SolarShare Wisconsin Co-op is considering a number of possibilities for community benefit at the Hallie solar farm, including a community garden.

Sarah Glover of OneEnergy Renewables designed plantings for more than 30 acres of pollinator habitat at Hallie. The solar farm is seeded with little bluestem, sideoats grama, purple prairie clover, and dozens of other grasses and forbs. “These projects are full of life, and you can hear birdsong and the buzz of bees combining with the light intermittent humming of the solar panels shifting to track the sun,” she said.

The project at Hallie provides multiple benefits-capturing energy, encouraging investment, educating the next generation, and enriching the ecosystem. Neeley sees the solar farm as benefitting more than just the natural ecosystem. “Rural economies are ecosystems,” he said. “We all depend on each other, and I really think that we need to focus on that as much as possible and really bring folks together around a clean economy that works for everybody.”