Jagler: We Energies' Gale Klappa flips the switch for solar energy

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In his second stint as CEO of WEC Energy Group, Gale Klappa readily acknowledges that, relative to many other public power utilities, his company has been slow to see the light of solar energy.

However, that’s about to change in a big, bright way.

The Milwaukee-based parent company of We Energies recently announced it will close coal-burning plants in Pleasant Prairie and Green Bay in 2018.

In their place, WEC Energy Group plans to build natural gas-fired plants in Marinette, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and other sites and will invest $460 million in two new solar energy farms that will generate 350 megawatts of power in Wisconsin.

The company is considering building one of the solar farms at the site of the Point Beach nuclear plant in Two Creeks and the other in southwestern Wisconsin.

WEC Energy is negotiating with a developer that will build the farms, which will then be purchased by the utility.

The company has not decided the exact location of the solar farm in southwestern Wisconsin.

“There is, we believe, a pretty ideal site, and number two, the developer has control of the site,” Klappa said.

ARCHIVE:C-Level columns explore executive strategies

The intermittent solar energy to be generated will coincide with the company’s periods of peak demand for electricity, Klappa said.

“When the sun does shine, it’s usually in the summer and late in the afternoons. That peak demand is between 5 and 6 in the evening,” Klappa said. “These pieces have to fit together.”

The solar farms will each feature hundreds of photovoltaic panels that gather the sun’s rays and pool them into electricity on the power grid.

Remarkably, WEC Energy will need only 10 employees to monitor and maintain the two solar farms, thereby providing affordable and efficient sources of electricity, Klappa said.

“Economics are driving these decisions,” he said.

I asked Klappa to identify the three key factors fueling WEC Energy’s strategy to develop “utility-scale” solar power sources. Here they are:

“Over the past five years, utility-scale solar has increased in efficiency and prices have dropped by approximately 70% — making it a cost-effective option for our customers going forward,” Klappa said.
“Utility-scale solar produces energy at the time of year and day when our customers need it most, making it a reliable renewable-generation option in the marketplace.”
“Utility-scale solar will not only better balance our energy supply with our customer demand, but it will also help reduce power supply costs and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.”

It is worth noting that the utility’s solar investments come at a time when renewable energy exploration and development are not priorities for the Walker administration in Wisconsin or the Trump administration in Washington.

Environmental groups applauded the company’s reduced reliance on coal.

“This welcome announcement is yet another example of the inevitable shift to safer and more cost-effective clean energy, and highlights why Wisconsin needs a proactive plan to shift to clean energy and invest in the people impacted,” Elizabeth Katt Reinders of the Sierra Club office in Wisconsin said in a statement.

However, the WEC Energy solar plan is being questioned in some corners.

“A period of stagnant or falling electricity demand isn’t the time to be pushing for infrastructure, especially with We Energies’ prices as high as they are. The state needs to assess whether any new generation is needed, given the utility just finished building far more generation than its customers need,” said Tom Content, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, an independent consumer group that advocates for small business and residential utility customers.

“It’s clear that solar prices have fallen significantly, yet it’s also clear that wind power is more cost-effective than solar,” Content said. “But state regulators should take a close look at what’s being proposed. This utility has a history of not picking the most affordable option: We Energies built an overpriced biomass plant that’s still saddling its customers with extra and unneeded costs, and it’s now proposing to close Pleasant Prairie, one of the most cost-effective and efficient plants in its fleet.”

Klappa retired as CEO and became the non-executive chairman of the company on May 1, 2016. However, his successor, Allen Leverett, suffered a stroke on Oct. 12, and Klappa returned as CEO.

Klappa said he remains hopeful that Leverett, 51, will return to the post.

“Alan continues to recover. He is undergoing daily therapy. We continue to be optimistic, although we don’t have a timetable,” Klappa said.

Steve Jagler is the business editor of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. C-Level stands for high-ranking executives, typically those with “chief” in their titles. Send C-Level column ideas to him at steve.jagler@journalsentinel.com.

Gale Klappa

Title: Chairman and CEO

Company: WEC Energy Group, Milwaukee

Previous experience: Executive vice president and chief financial officer of Southern Co. in Atlanta; chief strategic officer of Southern Co.; president and CEO of Southwestern Electricity in Bristol, England.

Education: Bachelor’s degree, mass communications, cum laude, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee; honorary doctor of commercial science, UWM.

Family: Wife, Judi

Best advice ever received: “Develop the mental discipline to worry only about those things you can personally influence today.”

Favorite movie: “The Great Escape”

Favorite musical artist: “A tie: Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen and Tina Turner”

Favorite Wisconsin restaurant: Harbor House, Milwaukee

Point after: “I worked my way through college as a newscaster at WOKY in Milwaukee.”