MILWAUKEE – We Energies filed plans with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin to build five new large-scale renewable energy projects. 

A news release says the projects would add 500 megawatts (MW) of new solar power and 180 MW of wind power to the grid. That is enough energy to power about 250,000 homes.

The projects, which will be eligible for federal tax credits, also include 100 MW of new battery storage, which would be charged during the day and provide customers with “sunshine after sunset.”

SIGN UP TODAY: Get daily headlines, breaking news emails from FOX6 News

The proposed projects are the Dawn Harvest Solar Energy Center in Rock County, the Saratoga Solar Energy Center in Wood County, the Ursa Solar Park in Columbia County, the Badger Hollow Wind Farm in Iowa and Grant counties, and the Whitetail Wind Farm in Grant County.

If approved, the facilities would be jointly owned by We Energies, Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) and Madison Gas & Electric (MGE). The power produced would serve customers across the state.

Northwestern coach Tim Nollan is no stranger to a rebuild. Leading a program that hasn’t made an NCAA tournament appearance since 2010, Nollan stands on the primary steps of a daunting upward climb.

During his tenure at Grand Canyon, the Antelopes picked up just 25 victories from 2016 to 2018. This span included an 8-36 record in WAC play. Then, Nollan ushered a remarkable turnaround in his fourth season at the helm, notching 24 wins and a 13-3 WAC resume in 2019.

Regardless of conference prestige or fanfare, Nollan said sustained progress boils down to execution and focus on the fundamentals.

“The level is the level,” Nollan said. “It is what it is. Whether you’re in a mid-major, you’re in the Big Ten, you have to execute cleanly on both sides of the ball.”

Much like Nollan’s prior purple program out west, the Wildcats (3-7, 1-1 Big Ten) are in the early stages of a multi-year rebuilding process.

On-court success and wins won’t stack easily, Nollan said, especially against perennial powerhouses that have consistently occupied the conference’s upper echelon. It’s a conference in which NU hasn’t escaped with a winning record in 35 years.

“The Big Ten is the best conference in the history of women’s volleyball this year,” Nollan said. “It’s incredible to be a part of the Big Ten right now.”

With No. 7 Wisconsin venturing into Evanston Saturday night, Nollan’s squad faced an especially tall task against a foe it hasn’t beaten since 2012. 

Even with the momentum of a 3-2 conference-opening win against Maryland on Sept. 26, the ’Cats were grappling with a machine they hadn’t taken a set from in three seasons. Graduate student setter Alexa Rousseau said the ’Cats have focused on consistent improvement since the season began in August.

“Our group has talked a lot about trying to maintain our good — it doesn’t have to be perfect all the time — but when we’re playing good or great volleyball, just trying to prolong that for as long as we can,” Rousseau said. “We’re progressively trying to play our best volleyball throughout the entire game.”

Before a whiteout Welsh-Ryan Arena crowd, the Badgers (7-4, 1-1 Big Ten) made quick work of the hosts in a 3-0 victory. NU held leads on just two occasions: the first and third set’s opening points.

For Nollan, a powerhouse like Wisconsin shows his team the level of play it should strive to emulate.

“Wisconsin was a bit more polished in some of their stuff they did offensively and defensively,” Nollan said. “As I told the team in the locker room, that’s what we have to do to get into those top four or five spots in the conference. We have to be able to achieve that level of execution.”

After a two-month span without a head coach last year, the 2024 edition of the ’Cats was forged largely through work in the transfer portal. A bevy of players have stepped into elevated roles, including Rousseau, a setting specialist whom NU has leaned on heavily as a hitter.

The graduate student tied for a team-high six kills Saturday night. Junior outside hitter Buse Hazan and sophomore outside hitter Lily Wagner each contributed six kills of their own.

With plenty of newcomers and a new system in place, Nollan said he’s seen significant strides since the ’Cats opened their campaign in Las Vegas.

“We’ve gotten a lot better at understanding our defensive system,” Nollan said. “We’ve gotten ourselves in better positions. Our blockers have made really good strides. … People have grown and flourished in those roles, and (we) obviously want to continue to pour into them and help them grow and thrive even more.”

The grueling conference slate doesn’t relent for NU, which will take on No. 10 Purdue Friday in Welsh-Ryan Arena. The Boilermakers (10-3, 1-1 Big Ten) toppled No. 16 Minnesota 3-2 Saturday night and are one of six Big Ten squads ranked inside the top 25.

“We want to build this program to build and compete for Big Ten championships,” Nollan said. “At the end of the year, I think the Big Ten can send 12 to 13 teams to the NCAA tournament. Our program goal here, certainly we want to be there every single year.”

Email: [email protected]

X: @jakeepste1n

Related Stories:

— Volleyball: Northwestern loses to No. 7 Wisconsin in straight sets

— Volleyball: Northwestern defeats Maryland in Big Ten opener

— Volleyball: Northwestern sweeps Northern Illinois to finish nonconference play

LOS ANGELES – It was just another Tuesday practice in the middle of Red Mountain’s season, and wide receivers coach Diego Hernandez had no possibility to prepare for the show Ja’Kobi Lane unfolded before his very eyes.

He ran a simple out route, Hernandez remembered, his spindly limbs arriving to his destination before his quarterback could deliver. The ball arrived late, as Lane was already creeping towards the sidelines. So the kid threw his hands behind his back, toe-tapped to stay inbounds, and pinned the toss in his mitts.

“I was like, ‘Dude, that’s – human beings shouldn’t be allowed to do that kind of stuff,’” Hernandez remembered.

They have seen it coming, from Lane’s earliest days in Mesa, Arizona, a community waiting for the greatness to bloom within his towering frame and beating heart. He was the center of attention, at all times, because there was no way to ignore a 6-foot-4 kid who’d walk around campus bumping music from his headphones and dancing with cheerleaders and asking teachers for candy. And his coaches, throughout time, have tried to figure out how to steer Lane straight, a special talent coming with a complex package.

And for two years at USC, flashes of greatness have come interspersed with growing pains, the program curating a delicate ecosystem for Lane to both feel prioritized and challenged in his maturity.

“He’s the next Megatron,” Lane’s high school coach Kyle Enders told the Southern California News Group earlier in the fall, comparing Lane to NFL star Calvin Johnson, “if he wants to be.”

He made that leap Saturday in USC’s win over Wisconsin, preparation and personality and potential fusing together in an emphatic explosion. In another concerningly slow start for USC’s offense, as seemingly everything that could go wrong did in every facet of the game, Lane strapped up his behemoth of a right-arm brace and went to work in a star-making third-quarter drive.

Down 21-10, with some momentum deep in Wisconsin territory after a muffed punt recovered by long snapper Hank Pepper, quarterback Miller Moss – who’s become both an off-field friend and on-field mentor – found Lane for a first down on a third-and-7. A few plays later, on a third-and-15, Moss rolled right and Lane drifted with him to the sideline, waving an outstretched left hand.

Moss fired, and with incredible mind-body awareness, Lane planted both his feet in a deep lunge inbounds before catching and toppling out-of-bounds with a first down.

“He stepped up,” head coach Lincoln Riley said postgame, “and made some big-time plays.”

He simply looked unguardable, stretching himself both horizontally and vertically, going up high for a go-get-it fade ball in the end zone on that same drive. He played with toughness, when USC desperately needed it, hauling in one second-quarter ball over the middle and immediately thumped so hard his helmet flew off.

Immediately, Lane pointed in a signal for a first-down, beaming from ear-to-ear.

“These things are always, there’s a little bit of a grind to it, obviously,” Riley said, earlier in the fall. “A lot of time, all that, involved. When you got people that are high-energy people that everybody enjoys being around, they affect the mood of the group, the energy level of the group so much.”

He gave USC a jolt, on each of his 10 catches Saturday, racking up the first 100-yard game of the season by any Trojan receiver. And even as a host of issues have plagued USC’s young receiving corps this season, and continued on Saturday – drops, missed blocks, poor clock awareness – they followed in Lane’s wake in much-needed second-half playmaking.

Fellow vertical target Duce Robinson caught just two of his five targets, but made them count, with a 32-yard grab late in the third quarter followed by a touchdown snag three plays later. Burner Zachariah Branch struggled mightily to start, muffing a punt and taking a poor route on a one-on-one ball that was intercepted, but made a couple big second-half plays in the flat and finished with 44 yards.

“We’ve made strides in being mature, becoming more football smart,” Lane said postgame. “Knowing where to be, when, why we’re in these spots.”

And USC, now, may have found it top target in a crowded room, their next Megatron finding his breakout moment when his program desperately needed it.

Originally Published: September 29, 2024 at 2:03 p.m.