New Solar Project Reduces County’s Carbon Footprint

County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson and County Executive David Crowley. Photo taken Sept. 19, 2025 by Graham Kilmer.

Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley and County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson inspected the county government’s newest and largest solar array Friday morning.

On the roof of the new Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Building, 1230 W. Cherry St., 86 solar panels were recently installed. The array will generate approximately 11.5% of the Coggs Center’s annual electricity, according to Andrew Holmstrom of Arch Solar, which installed the panels.

Crowley and Nicholson toured the new array, a result of legislation pushed by Nicholson. They were joined by Sup. Anne O’Connor, who has championed climate-related policy on the board.

Funding for the solar array, which cost approximately $165,000, was included in the development budget for the $42 million human services building. It will save taxpayers some money in energy costs, roughly $9,000 annually, according to a quick rooftop calculation Friday morning. The project is also eligible for as much as $28,000 in federal support from the Inflation Reduction Act passed under former President Joe Biden. However, the real savings will be in the greenhouse gases not emitted into the atmosphere.

The energy produced by the panels each year is equivalent to driving 100,000 miles in a passenger car, running five homes for a year, or burning 41,000 pounds of coal. That amount of coal, when burned, translates to 37.2 metric tons of carbon dioxide, because emissions from coal actually weigh more than the fuel itself. When coal is burned, the carbon bonds with oxygen in the air — each carbon atom bonding with two oxygen atoms — adding additional mass and creating carbon dioxide.

“It’s a pretty big impact,” Holmstrom said. “Definitely making a dent here in Milwaukee County.”

In 2023, as the county was developing its new human services building, Nicholson pushed to have the building powered by solar energy systems. The chairwoman authored a resolution, along with Sup. Priscilla E. Coggs-Jones, requested the administration study the feasibility of solar energy at the Coggs Center.

Initially, the report suggested that the county would need an extensive array, with panels on the rooftop and in the parking lot. It was estimated such a project would cost as much as $3.3 million.

Nicholson also authored the resolution that led to the creation of a long-term plan for the county to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Crowley signed off on the plan earlier this year. The new solar array will help the county reach some of its renewable energy targets in the plan, said Grant Helle, director of the Office of Sustainability. In part due to all the real estate the county has divested, the government has already significantly reduced its carbon emissions since 2005, the baseline year for measuring emissions set by the Paris Climate Accords.

“As a steward of taxpayer dollars at the county, I know that investing in solar and other green infrastructure actually helps to invest back into services that people rely on,” Nicholson said.

The chairwoman said she plans to continue pushing green and renewable energy investments at the county level. She noted the county could vehicle replacements in its sizeable fleet to begin chipping away at its carbon emissions during the upcoming budget process.

Crowley said the county will continue to evaluate new infrastructure projects for the potential to add renewable energy systems. It is currently in the middle of planning a massive courthouse project that could cost as much as $490 million. The county also has a budgeting tool that evaluates projects for their potential to reduce carbon emissions, O’Connor noted.

“We believe that climate change is real,” Crowley said. “We know that it’s real.”

Partnership with state and federal governments is key to making more investments in renewable energy projects, such as the one at the Coggs building, Crowley said. Partnership, at least at the federal level, will be difficult to find going forward.

President Donald Trump‘s administration takes a different view of climate change and energy policy. The president, who has called global warming a “hoax,” has sought to strip and reshape regulations on greenhouse gas emissions. His massive spending bill passed earlier this year cut subsidies for solar and wind projects, and his administration has revoked permits for renewable energy projects and added new rules making it more difficult to build them.

“It is unfortunate that we’re stopping investments at the federal level into projects like this,” Crowley said.

Milwaukee County has a limited ability to make major investments. A structural budget deficit makes it difficult to fund annual operations. The government is facing a $46.7 million budget deficit in 2026. It also has an estimated $1 billion in infrastructure needs over the next five years and not nearly enough funding, forcing policymakers to make difficult decisions about what the county will and won’t pay to fix or maintain.

Still, the county executive said he thinks local and state governments need to continue pressing ahead on investment in renewables and emission reductions, “and let that bubble up to the federal level to make sure they understand that this is an important issue.”

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