R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press A transmission switchyard built by ATC and completed in March 2025 is so far the most noticeable piece of the Renegade Solar Project going into farming communities in Delta and Marquette counties. The yard and substation are in St. Nicholas, while farms will be utilized in three townships. Construction will peak this summer.

ST. NICHOLAS –The Renegade Solar Project, underway in the sparse St. Nicholas area near the borders of Maple Ridge, Baldwin and Ewing Townships, is expected to be at peak construction this summer between June and August. They are aiming to bring on about 200 individuals from local labor unions; some hiring has begun.

The project was met with contention from some locals. It took some time to reach agreements with the counties (Delta and Marquette) and townships before deals and work could begin. Still, there are those who are unhappy to see a big power station rise in their quiet rural community, while others are for it.

One plot of land was purchased from a local farmer for a station under the power line, but the property on which solar panels will be installed is still owned by farmers who are earning money by renting the space to the energy company.

Upper Michigan Energy Resources, a subsidiary of WEC Energy Group out of Milwaukee, will own the project once it is complete. Invenergy, the Chicago-based company that began the project, is overseeing construction until then and will remain onboard as the operations and maintenance contractor when it’s ready to run.

Barton Malow, a construction company from Southfield downstate, has been brought on as the general contractor. Right now, they have about 40 people on the job, but expect to hire around 200 to work on construction this spring and summer.

“We are doing construction work right now, offloading some material, doing a little bit of dirt work and some electrical work, too, right now,” said Bryan Kolman, construction manager for Barton Malow. “We’re waiting for the frost laws to be lifted.”

They are recruiting workers from Michigan unions — including Carpenters and Millwrights Local 1510 and Operating Engineers 324 — and intend to employ local people when possible.

“I would feel very comfortable to say that 90, 95% of the employees on site, if not more, will be from the state of Michigan,” Kolman said.

After a few years of research, planning, and nailing down logistics, a lot of prep work took place last year. ATC, which owns, builds and maintains the energy grid in the area, built a switchyard next to where the substation will go. It will interconnect the solar power generation to the grid.

“Large sites like this take time to prepare for construction,” said WEC Energy spokesperson Brendan Conway. “We have installed driveways and access roads, done grading as necessary, installed fence posts, and began putting fencing up. Also, our dedicated vegetation management team has seeded the site. Major next steps include installing steel piles and underground cables. We will then add the racking equipment and attach the solar panels. Once that’s complete, we’ll begin testing to ensure that everything is safe and secure.”

Activation is expected for next year.

The roughly 200 workers brought on will just be for the construction phase, which Kolman said will peak between June and August this year and probably wrap by November.

This spring — by early May — the solar panels, manufactured in Ohio, are expected to arrive. The producer is Nextracker, headquartered in California, which has for the past several years been boosting domestic production with facilities around the U.S.

As might be expected, technology to harness solar energy has advanced in recent years. The specific type of panels that will be installed on the various non-contiguous plots around St. Nicholas pivot to follow the sun, and they’re “terrain-following,” meaning that their design is suited to uneven ground, eliminating the need for extensive site grading, keeping more of the soil intact.

Though it may seem logical to assume that such advanced equipment would be utilized on ground not good for much else, one local man upset about the project said that the project is taking some of the best farmland in the area and wasting space around it.

“There’s only so much ground that can be farmed in the U.P.,” said Scott Hanson. “They went in and took the very best ground in our area.”

It’s one of several grievances he has with the Renegade Solar Project, which he believes was approved and pushed forward due to some dishonesty from its proponents.

“One of the people that was pushing it said, ‘there’s no evidence that your property values are going to drop.’ Well, they did,” said Hanson, who owns property across from where the substation is going in. “When I got my tax review papers from the township, their assessment here a couple months ago, my property value actually dropped. People’s values are dropping.”

He pointed out that many of the people in the area are third- and fourth-generation farmers whose neighborhood is now affected by the most dramatic change since their families immigrated to the country.

“The thing about St. Nicholas is, this is a community that came here … most of the people are still there from the original settlers (who) came over 100 years ago from Belgium and settled St. Nicholas,” Hanson said.

He and others who expressed opposition at county and township meetings ultimately lost out. There’s no turning back on the Renegade Solar Project.

A positive side effect that some residents are looking forward to is road improvements. That item was a term in negotiations between the energy companies and the townships.

However, not everything is ironed out yet. During the last meeting of the Ewing Township Board, division of grant money awarded by the state to three townships involved in the solar project had yet to be figured out, as did detail about gravel for the roads.

If work follows the projected track, the Renegade Solar Project should go online in 2026. Once it is operational as expected, only “a handful of full-time employees” will be needed.

The leases with the landowners will expire after 25 years.

“If at the end of the lease agreement the lease is not extended, then the panels and all the equipment will be removed and the land will be restored and returned to the landowner to use as they choose,” Conway said.