Scott Lauber
President and Chief Executive Officer at WEC Energy Group
Good afternoon everyone and thank you for joining us today as we review our results for calendar year 2024. Here with me are Shaw Liu, our Chief Financial Officer, and Bess Stracha, Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations.
As you saw from our news release this morning, we reported full year 2024 adjusted earnings of $4.88 a share. I am pleased to report that we delivered another year of solid results on virtually every meaningful measure from customer satisfaction to financial performance to steady execution of our capital plan.
In just a few minutes, Shaul will provide more details on our financial results and outlook for 2025 earnings. Recall that in early December we provided our guidance in the range of $5.17 to $5.27 a share. We continue to target a 6 and a half to 7% long term compound annual growth rate. We have a robust capital plan driven by strong economic growth in our region. The Wisconsin unemployment rate stands at 3%, continuing a long running trend below the national average. And as we discussed, there have been many exciting developments along the I94 corridor between Milwaukee and Chicago.
In December, less than a year after Eli Lilly acquired a facility in Pleasant Prairie, the pharmaceutical company announced plans for a $3 billion expansion. Eli Lilly predicts the expansion will add 750 highly skilled jobs in addition to 2,000 construction jobs. To complete the project.
Microsoft is making good progress on its large data center complex in southeast Wisconsin. Work continues on the first phase of the project. Microsoft took a short pause on construction to evaluate the technical design of the second area. That pause was lifted and work has resumed. Microsoft is still reviewing designs for the third area. Microsoft reports that the potential design changes have not affected plans to invest $3.3 billion in the project by the end of 2026, and we do not anticipate these changes will impact our capital plan or demand growth projections over the next five years. In fact, Microsoft purchased an additional 240 acres of land just last week for another data center development. We're delighted that Microsoft continues to expand its commitment to the Milwaukee region.
Also in January, Cloverleaf announced plans to develop approximately 1700 acres in Port Washington, just north of Milwaukee for another large data center campus. Cloverleaf projects that construction could start this fall. In the initial announcement, Cloverleaf expects the load to be 1 GW. This development is in the very early stages, but all this load is incremental to our current plan. So we're off to a strong start to the year with great economic prospects.
To serve a growing economy. Of course, we need to continue investing in our generation facility and infrastructure. Our $28 billion five year capital plan, which we update in Echo October, is the largest in our history. A balanced generation mix is a significant focus for our electric utilities in the renewable area. Over the next five years, we have 4,300 megawatts planned for our expected investment of $9.1 billion. We ramped up 2024 by bringing the Paris Solar park into service with an investment of approximately $319 million. It has added 180 megawatts of solar capacity for our Wisconsin utility customers.
Next up on our schedule, we expect the 225 megawatt Darien Solar park to go into service later this year. Natural gas also continues to be a critical resource for reliable service. We expect the Wisconsin Commission to make rulings on several major project filings throughout the year. That includes 1,200 megawatts of efficient natural gas generation as well as 33 mile lateral and 2 bcf of liquefied natural gas storage.
Turning to our WEC infrastructure business, the Delilah 1 and Maple Flats solar project went online at the end of last year. Between those two facilities, we invested approximately $890 million or 90% ownership of 550 megawatts of capacity and we expect to close on the Hardin 3 project during the first quarter. We plan to invest approximately $407 million for 90% ownership interest of the project, which has a total capacity of 250megawatts. As a reminder, this project fulfills our five year planned investment at WEC infrastructure Regarding transmission. As you saw, in January, Miso announced capital investments on tranche 2.1. We expect ATC to be assigned approximately $2 billion of that tranche with an additional opportunity through the right of first refusal or competitive bid of up to 1.5 to $1.8 billion. As you know, we own 60% of ATC overall. We have a lot of confidence in our ability to execute on our capital plan and continue our growth trajectory.
Now, turning to the regulatory front, I am pleased to report that we currently have no planned or active rate cases. As you know, the Wisconsin Commission finalized their written orders for test year 2025 and 2026. Consistent with prior disclosures, the Commission maintained a 53% financial equity layer and a 9.8% return on equity for our Wisconsin utilities in Illinois. We remain actively engaged in two proceedings of note. One of these is evaluating the future of natural gas in Illinois. Currently, it's scheduled to extend into 2026. The other, a review of our safety modernization program, is close to its conclusion. We made our final oral arguments before the Commerce Commission last week and expect a decision this quarter.
Next up, Shaw will provide you more details on our financials.
