Cheq Bay Renewables
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization working to make renewable energy more accessible in Ashland and Bayfield counties
About us
Key Initiatives

Recent News

July 27, 2021:  State Treasurer, Sarah Godlewski visited the Washburn's solar array at their waste water treatment plant.  The visit highlighted that the project was funded by the Board of Commissions of Public Lands of which Sarah is the chair.  Read press release here.

July 21, 2021:  An encouraging piece of legislation will be introduced in the Wisconsin legislature, initially sponsored by two republicans, promoting state-wide community solar.  Learn more here.  CBR has encouraged our local representatives to co-sponsor and support this legislation.

May 12, 2021:  New Microgrid Is a Symbol of Resilience for Bad River Band | Department of Energy

April 1, 2021:  WI Office of Energy Innovation awards two area renewable energy projects.  Bayfield County and Red Cliff are recipients.  Read more here.

Legacy Solar Co-op recently announced the launch of its Northwoods Solar Group Buy, in collaboration with Carlson Electric.  Read the full press release here.

Bayfield County announces Save to Give Challenge.  This unique program, run by Focus on Energy, gives any Xcel customer in Bayfield County the opportunity to save energy on their electric bill and earn credits that are turned into cash to be donated to select area non-profits.  Cheq Bay Renewables is one of those selected non-profits and our work could benefit from your participation.  You can pre-register and find out more here.

RENEW WI announces  EV for Good grant program.  RENEW Wisconsin, a Madison-based renewable energy advocacy organization, has announced the start of a new grant program titled EVs for Good. The program will foster the expansion of electric vehicles (EVs) among mission-based nonprofits throughout Wisconsin.  Read the press release here.

The Value of Solar:  (Feb., 2021)
Michigan Tech professor Joshua Pearce has released a new paper quantifying the value of solar put onto the grid by distributed resources like participants in our solar group buys.  Here is an easy to read news article by Michigan Tech News and if you are into the technical paper, you can find it here.  Bottom line:  solar generators have been under compensated for years!

Cheq Bay Renewables completes research paper on net metering in Wisconsin's electric cooperatives.  Read the report here.

The BRICK and New Day Advocacy Center's Solar Installations are complete.  Read the full press release here about the two new community based projects.

Visit the News page for additional articles.

Upcoming Events & Calendar

July 22, Thursday, 1:00-2:30pm - Webinar - "Bad River Band Microgrid: Solar + Storage as a Tool for Tribal Energy Sovereignty and Resilience"  Hosted by the Clean Energy Group.  

If you missed the July 22 webinar, you can hear the recording here.

Featured Examples

The Town of Bayfield has a new solar PV installation.  Part of Cheq Bay Renewables 2019 Group Buy with installation in the summer of 2020, the array is now up thanks to community volunteers who erected the RTI (Ready-to-Install) system developed by Next Energy Solution.  Final electrical connection was completed by Jolma Electric.  Check out photos on Cheq Bay Renewables' Facebook Page.
On February 29th, 2020 Governor Evers visited Bayfield and thanked Bayfield County for its work in achieving 100% carbon-free electricity.  Here is a short video clip as he references Bayfield County's Proclamation.  The County has also received a Certificate of Commendation from the Governor's office.
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Bayfield County's Board of Supervisors unanimously passed Resolution 2020-11 committing to 100% carbon-free electricity for all county infrastructure on February 25, 2020.  See CBR's presentation to the Board here.
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Cheq Bay Renewables, Madison Solar Consulting, and Robert Drevlow assisted Drummond School District with an energy efficiency and solar PV assessment:
​School Energy and Demand Reduction Opportunity Assessment and
Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Site Assessment.   

Read more on the Drummond School District Initiative page.
Roy Settgas of Washburn's Ready-to-Install solar array was part of our 2019 Solar Group Buy and was featured on our 2019 Solar Tour.  Watch Roy install his array here.
Wild Hollow Farm was one of the installations from CBR's 2018 Solar Group Buy.  Read their profile here showing the financial details of this 32 panel 8.64 kW RTI installation