Wisconsin homeowner worried about looming solar development

A tattered American flag waved in Roger Millard`s front lawn amid sprawling Walworth County farmland.

For 28 years, Millard, 67, has lived in the quaint, two-story home off North Road about 3 miles northwest of the village of Darien.

"I wanted to live in the country," Millard said. "I`m a farm boy."

Farmland surrounds Millard`s 2-acre property, and the fields have been planted in commodity crops for decades.

But he fears a planned solar farm could surround his home, turning it into an oasis in a "solar desert."

As markets for commodities soften, more local landowners are considering a different source of income: leasing their fields for solar development....

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Ken Notes: We need to sit down today with the power companies, renewable providers, and other interested parties and develop new policy for this emerging business. How will private concerns be able to sell energy on a grid maintained by larger utilities? How can we get solar on roof tops instead of fields? How can we bring AG into the mix? How do we profit from the use of our grid moving power from West to East?