Privacy Policy
North Wind Renewable Energy Cooperative (Northwind Solar)
578 Allen Street, Amherst, WI 54406 · (715) 630-6451 · info@northwindre.com
Effective date: September 1, 2026
Northwind Solar respects your privacy. This policy explains what information we collect when you visit www.northwindre.com or contact us, how we use it, and the choices you have. We wrote it to be readable rather than exhaustive. If anything is unclear, call or email us and a real person will answer.
Who we are
North Wind Renewable Energy Cooperative is a worker-owned solar design and installation cooperative based in Amherst, Wisconsin, serving homes, farms, nonprofits, and businesses in Central Wisconsin. We operate this website and are responsible for the information collected through it.
Information you give us
When you fill out a form on our site — a request for an estimate, a service request, a newsletter signup, a referral, or a job application — we collect what you enter. Depending on the form, that may include:
- Your name, email address, and phone number
- Your street address, city, and postal code (so we can evaluate your property for solar)
- Whether your project is residential, commercial, or nonprofit
- Your message or notes to us
- Utility bill information or documents you choose to upload, so we can review your historical electricity usage when preparing an estimate
- For job applications, your résumé and any information you include with it
- For referrals, the name and contact details of the person you're referring — please only refer people who have said they're happy to hear from us
We use this information to do what you asked: respond to your request, prepare an estimate, schedule service, send the newsletter, process a referral, or consider your application. We may also use it to follow up with you about your project and to keep our records of past customers and enquiries.
Information collected automatically
Like most websites, ours uses cookies and similar technologies. When you first visit, a banner lets you choose "Necessary only" or "Enable all." Necessary cookies keep the site working. Everything below only runs if you enable it.
HubSpot. Our website, forms, and customer database run on HubSpot. HubSpot's tracking code records pages you visit, how you arrived at our site, and — if you've submitted a form — connects that browsing activity to your contact record so we can understand what you're interested in and avoid asking you the same questions twice.
Google Analytics 4. Tells us how many people visit, which pages they read, and roughly where they're located. We use it to understand what content is useful. Google's privacy policy is at policies.google.com/privacy.
Google Ads. When we run search advertising, Google's tag lets us see whether an ad click led to an estimate request, so we know which ads are worth paying for. You can adjust ad personalization at adssettings.google.com.
Meta Pixel (Facebook and Instagram). Lets us measure whether our Facebook and Instagram ads reach people who then visit the site, and may be used to show our ads to people who have visited. You can manage this in your Facebook ad preferences.
LinkedIn Insight Tag. Similar measurement for LinkedIn. Manage at linkedin.com/psettings/advertising.
None of these tools give us your name or contact details unless you provide them to us yourself through a form. They work with identifiers and aggregate data.
How we share information
We don't sell your personal information, and we don't rent or trade our contact lists.
We share information only with:
- Service providers that run our operations — HubSpot (website and customer database), Google (analytics and advertising), Meta and LinkedIn (advertising measurement), and our email and document tools. They process data on our behalf under their own privacy terms.
- Your utility or permitting authority, but only once you've become a customer and only what's required to interconnect and permit your system.
- Financing or incentive partners, only if you ask us to help you apply for financing or an incentive, and only what the application requires.
- Law enforcement or regulators if we're legally required to.
Your choices
- Cookies and tracking. Choose "Necessary only" on the cookie banner, or change your choice any time via the cookie settings link in the site footer. You can also clear or block cookies in your browser.
- Marketing email. Every newsletter and marketing email has an unsubscribe link. You can also email us to be removed.
- Your information. You can ask us what personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it. Email info@northwindre.com or call (715) 630-6451. We'll respond within 30 days. We may need to keep some information for warranty, tax, or legal reasons — if so, we'll tell you.
- Do Not Track. Our site doesn't currently respond to browser Do Not Track signals; the cookie banner is the control we offer instead.
How long we keep information
We keep form submissions and contact records for as long as we need them to respond to you, serve you as a customer, honor warranties, and maintain business records. If you've never become a customer and ask us to delete your information, we will.
Security
We use HubSpot's hosting and security controls, HTTPS on every page, and limit access to customer information to the cooperative members who need it. No system is perfectly secure, and we can't guarantee against every possible breach, but we take reasonable care.
Children
Our site and services are for adults making decisions about their homes and businesses. We don't knowingly collect information from anyone under 18.
Links to other sites
We link to partners, associations, and resources. Their privacy practices are their own; this policy covers only our site.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy in a meaningful way, we'll update the effective date at the top and, if the change affects how we use information you've already given us, we'll tell you.
Contact
North Wind Renewable Energy Cooperative
578 Allen Street, Amherst, WI 54406
(715) 630-6451 · info@northwindre.com