MADISON — State officials broke ground Wednesday on the $54 million first phase of the Wisconsin Energy Institute on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
The institute will house centers of research into biofuels and other forms of renewable energy, including the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, which is financed with a $125 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The first phase of the institute will be built with $50 million in state money and $4 million in private gifts and grants. The second phase will require another $50 million in private money - no state money would be used - and would bring the total space in the institute to 200,000 square feet.
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