WPS sister company invests heavily in solar electricity

From a blog post by Tom Content on JSonline:

Wisconsin-based Integrys Energy Services will invest $90 million in new solar power projects around the country under an agreement through a partnership with Duke Energy of North Carolina and Smart Energy Capital of New York.

Under the partnership, Duke and Integrys said they will each invest $90 million over the next two years in distributed solar projects, which will be operated and maintained by the two energy companies.

Smart Energy Capital, a finance and investment company focused exclusively on the North American solar electric industry, will develop the projects and arrange financing under the partnership.

Integrys has been actively pursuing solar projects since 2008.

“We have invested more than $65 million in 20 different distributed generation solar projects across the U.S. with a combined capacity of more than 10 megawatts,” said Joel Jansen, managing director at Integrys Energy Services, in a statement.

Duke and Integrys said they believe most growth in the solar market over the next several years will involve commercial-scale applications on building roofs and ground-mounted systems. . . .

Integrys Energy Services is based south of Green Bay and is a national energy company that markets natural gas as well as electricity in states like Illinois that have opened up their power markets to competition. It is a sister company of Wisconsin Public Service Corp., the electric and natural gas utility serving northeastern Wisconsin.