Illinois

Energy developer, owner and operator Arevon Energy has started construction of a $200-million solar farm in Illinois. The 124-MW Big Muddy Solar installation in Jackson County is the company’s first utility-scale solar project in that state.

A Virginia-based renewable energy group has expanded its operating and construction portfolio to more than 3 GW of generation capacity. Charlottesville-headquartered Apex Clean Energy on July 29 announced that four utility-scale wind and storage projects, with more than 625 MW of capacity in total, have entered commercial operation in Illinois, Maine, and Texas. Apex on […]

Toyota Boshoku America (TBA), Onyx Renewables, and key project partners gathered on May 28 for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the completion of a 5.7-MW solar project that will fulfill 85% of electricity needs at TBA’s Illinois plant with clean, affordable energy.

Energy major Invenergy and telecom company Verizon are moving forward with power purchase agreements (PPAs) involving 640 MW of solar energy from projects across four states. The deals announced Feb. 19 mean that Verizon now has procured more than 1 GW of power from Invenergy, the Chicago, Illinois-based renewable energy group considered the largest privately […]

Technology giant Microsoft is buying nearly 400 MW of power from three new utility-scale solar projects in Illinois and Texas. EDP Renewables North America (EDPR NA) on Feb. 10 said the installations have come online with long-term virtual power purchase agreements (PPAs), through which Microsoft will take 389 MW of electricity and renewable energy credits. […]

A leading U.S. coal producer is partnering with a major developer of renewable energy projects to put solar energy and battery storage installations on reclaimed mine lands in Illinois and Indiana. Peabody Energy, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, and RWE on Nov. 21 announced a collaboration that will “invest in the rural parts of the […]

Nuclear power plants are still being dismantled, and the business of decommissioning remains strong, but the need for more baseload power and emissions-free generation has some companies ready to restart idled

BayWa r.e. Americas has signed an aggregated virtual power purchase agreement (VPPA) with several groups for a renewable energy project in Illinois that is designed to support decarbonization efforts in the region. The deal announced September 26 includes Sustainability Roundtable (SR) Inc.’s Net Zero Consortium for Buyers (NZCB), along with Akamai Technologies, Teradyne, and Wayfair […]

U.S. renewable energy major RWE announced the signing of two long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) that will supply electricity to social media company Meta. The deal is for clean energy from two solar farms with combined generation capacity of 374 MW. The solar facilities are RWE’s 274-MW County Run Solar project in Illinois, and the […]

Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) said the company’s new 1.2-GW Three Rivers Energy Center in Illinois has entered commercial operation. The natural gas-fired facility, built in collaboration with GE Vernova’s Gas Power business, features two generating blocks, each with a GE 7HA.02 gas turbine, an STF-A650 steam turbine, a W84 generator, and GE’s integrated Mark* Vle […]

CHICAGO, Illinois (March 21, 2023) – S&C Electric Company, a leader in smart and resilient electrical grid solutions, today announced the expansion of its U.S. manufacturing footprint with a 275,000-square-foot facility in Palatine, Illinois, approximately 25 miles from S&C’s 47-acre Chicago headquarters and manufacturing campus in Rogers Park. The company employs 3,500 team members globally […]

JOLIET, Ill. (Feb. 2, 2023) — ComEd and Summit Ridge Energy (SRE) today announced the opening of the 75th community solar development in ComEd’s service territory. The 2.495 megawatt (MW) Speedway Solar project 10 miles south of Joliet, Ill., will provide more than 350 ComEd customers with access to the benefits of solar energy and […]

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio, October 3, 2022 – Solar FlexRack announced that it has supplied its FlexTrack Solar Trackers for a 42 megawatt (MW) portfolio of community solar projects in Illinois, to Summit Ridge Energy, a leading owner-operator of community solar assets. All fourteen projects are part of Illinois Shines, a state-administered program that creates incentives for […]

Two Eastern Generation natural gas power plants in northeastern Illinois have been acquired by Earthrise Energy, an emerging independent power producer and “public benefit corporation” that has now amassed a 1.7-GW natural gas fleet in Illinois. Earthrise on Sept. 6 said it acquired the 328-MW Crete (Figure 1) and 656-MW Lincoln Generating Facility from Eastern […]

FRAMINGHAM, MA AND DANVILLE, IL – AUGUST 31, 2022 – Ameresco, Inc., (NYSE: AMRC), a leading cleantech integrator specializing in energy efficiency and renewable energy, and Inovateus Solar, a top U.S. solar engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company, today announced the completion of their “brightfield” solar project in Danville, Illinois, which was built on a […]

PONTIAC, ILLINOIS – August 30, 2022: Leading independent power producer Soltage today announced its completion of the construction and commissioning of a 2.7 MW community solar project in Pontiac, Illinois. The project is built on land owned by the City of Pontiac and its energy sales are managed by Chicago-based MC Squared Energy Services. The […]

Chicago’s public buildings could all be powered by renewable energy under a plan announced by Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Aug. 8. The mayor, along with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, on Monday said the city has an agreement with Chicago utility Constellation Energy, along with Massachusetts-based Swift Current Energy, a renewable energy developer. The two spoke […]

Environmental officials in Illinois have signed off on construction of a 1,100-MW natural gas-fired power plant sited near Springfield, the state capital. EmberClear, an energy company with offices in Houston, Texas, and Moosic, Pennsylvania, is behind the $1 billion project, which will be located near Pawnee in Sangamon County. The Lincoln Land Energy Center will […]

An energy storage project based on Compressed Natural Gas Energy Storage (CNGES) technology is being studied at the Abbott Power Plant in Illinois. This article presents an overview of CNGES technology

The Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility in California, already the largest utility-scale battery storage development in the world, is adding more capacity. Vistra, the Texas-based energy company that lists Luminant, TXU Energy, and Dynegy among its subsidiaries, on Jan. 24 said it would further expand Moss Landing, adding a new 350-MW/1,400-MWh battery energy storage system […]

BELLEVILLE, IL (December 15, 2021) – The AES Corporation (NYSE: AES), a global leader in greener, smarter energy, today unveiled a new 55-acre, 13-megawatt solar field located in Belleville, Illinois. The solar facility will generate enough electricity to power more than 2,000 homes. AES constructed the solar field on the site of a closed landfill […]

Recent reports from groups analyzing U.S. power generation note how states near the nation’s largest shale plays are expected to bring significant new natural gas-fired generation online over the next few years, despite concerns about recent market volatility that sent gas prices to their highest levels in more than a decade. With a long-term outlook […]

A software company that helps businesses with their decarbonization efforts is acquiring a competitor focused on supporting businesses in their engagement with utilities. Uplight, a technology partner for energy providers, on Oct. 27 announced it is acquiring Agentis, which provides digital energy analytics for non-residential power consumers, primarily focused on energy efficiency. The companies on […]

The Illinois Senate has approved an overhaul of the state’s energy policy with an eye toward a carbon-free future, with a key part of the package keeping the Byron nuclear power plant operating just hours before Exelon, the parent of Commonwealth Edison (ComEd), said it would begin shutting down the facility. Senators voted 37-17 on […]

Exelon Generation has filed plans to decommission its Dresden and Byron nuclear power plants in Illinois, citing a lack of action from state lawmakers on clean energy legislation that would help save the facilities. The nation’s largest operator of nuclear power plants on July 28 said it has submitted its plans to the Nuclear Regulatory […]

Extreme weather forces Boldt to build wind towers at night (APPLETON, Wis.) July 27, 2021 – Most construction crews build on urban or suburban sites and transport equipment on existing roads, but in the world of wind farms, extreme conditions are the norm. For the Boldt Company, neither wind nor weather, nor dark of night […]

CHICAGO, May 19, 2021 — ADM (NYSE: ADM) and the University of Illinois announced today the successful completion of the Illinois Basin – Decatur Project (IBDP), a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project designed to evaluate and test the technology at commercial scale. This is one of two CCS projects located adjacent to ADM’s corn […]

8 Rivers Capital, inventor of a novel supercritical carbon dioxide (CO2) cycle, plans to begin operating a 280-MW NET Power natural gas–fired plant within the Southern Ute Indian Reservation in southwest Colorado by 2025. The company on April 15 also said it will team with agricultural and processing firm Archer-Daniels-Midlands Co. (ADM) to locate a […]

Bleeding financially from underperforming and legally burdened coal generation in downstate Illinois and elsewhere, Vistra, the nation’s largest competitive generator, has renewed its call for passage of the Illinois Coal to Solar and Energy Storage Act, a bill that could help keep 2.2 GW of existing at-risk capacity online through 2025 while the state expands […]

Vistra has announced seven new renewable energy projects that will add about 1,000 MW of solar and energy storage to the company’s generation fleet. The company also said it would retire its coal-fired power plants in Illinois and Ohio as part of an effort to reduce carbon emissions as it established new long-term emissions reduction […]