Milwaukee County’s health and human services building now has 86 solar panels

Raindrops from the previous night scattered across freshly installed solar panels atop the Marcia P. Coggs Health and Human Services Building in Milwaukee, but the sun shone brightly as county officials walked through them on the morning of Sept. 19

The solar panels are designed to withstand Wisconsin’s elements, from pouring rain to stacking snow, Andrew Holmstrom of Arch Solar, the company contracted to install the panels, said during a roof tour of the solar panels for media and county officials.

The 50-kilowatt solar panels were installed as part of a recently completed $32 million relocation and redevelopment project funded by American Rescue Plan Act dollars. Located in the King Park neighborhood on West Cherry Street, the building houses the county’s Department of Health & Human Services and provides a new home for the community food center, NourishMKE.

The building opened in June, but the solar panels are expected to be fully operational in early October 2025, Grant Helle, director of the county’s Office of Sustainability, said. The 86 double-sided, glass cells are expected to reduce the building’s emissions and utility costs, offsetting around 11.5% of the facility’s energy consumption. That’s enough to power five homes and save the county $9,146 per year, he said.

Helle said the office is “relatively confident” that the county will receive around $27,000 in tax credits from the federal government through the Inflation Reduction Act to offset the cost of the new panels. The county would apply for that in April of 2026. The overall cost of the solar panels was not immediately available.

With the Trump administration’s crackdown on wind and solar projects, Helle said he could not speak to the future of those tax credits, which will sunset for residential installations at the end of the year and in 2027 for commercial installations. But if they continue to be available, he said the county would seek to leverage them for future projects.

At the walkthrough, County Board Chair Marcelia Nicholson implored the federal government to recognize the importance of funding projects that move the needle toward renewable energy and away from worsening climate disasters across the country.

Long-term savings from solar and other green infrastructure will help free up money for the county to invest in other services that people rely on, she said.

Nicholson and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley both played a large role in laying the groundwork for the new panels.

In mid-2024, the County Board passed a resolution, sponsored by Nicholson asking the Department of Administrative Services to explore opportunities for on-site solar generation at the building.

In April, Crowley signed onto the county’s $441 million Climate Action 2050 plan that aims to reach net-zero carbon emissions across the county’s operations by 2050. The plan outlines ways the county can reduce emissions over the next 25 years with energy-efficient equipment, upgrades to renewable energy generation and alternative transportation fuel.

A key milestone goal established in the plan is for the county to source 7.5% of its energy consumption from renewable options. As a result, the county is assessing the feasibility of adding solar panels to other buildings.

“We want to make sure that not only we’re making this investment, we want to encourage and inspire others to do the same,” Crowley said.

Nicholson, Crowley and Supervisor Anne O’Connor, who also attended the event, all expressed gratitude toward county staff and each other for what it took to get the panels approved and installed, as well as efforts to make progress on the climate action plan.

Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @levensc13.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee County’s health and human services building goes solar