Channel surfing may soon be a solar-powered activity in Chicago.
Comcast is planning to plug into a massive Grundy County solar project under development to power its operations in the Chicago region and beyond beginning in 2025.
The cable giant announced a 15-year agreement with Constellation Energy Thursday to use power generated by the Blue Sky Solar Project, a solar facility being built on 2,700 acres near Morris, about 60 miles southwest of Chicago.
The Blue Sky project is expected to supply Comcast with 250 megawatts of solar electricity — enough to power its operations in the Chicago area and several mid-Atlantic markets — as Comcast seeks to become carbon neutral by 2035.
“We’re really excited that clean energy produced right here in Illinois is going to power such a large portion of Comcast’s operations and help us reduce our carbon footprint,” Comcast spokesman Jack Segal said.
Scout Clean Energy, a Colorado-based renewable energy developer, acquired the Blue Sky project in December, with plans to invest $400 million to build out what it called “one of the largest solar projects” in Illinois.
The project is expected to create up to 400 construction jobs, 20 permanent jobs and generate $36.3 million in tax revenue, according to the developer.
Blue Sky received unanimous approval for a special use permit with Grundy County under its solar ordinance in December 2020.
“From the addition of hundreds of construction jobs and significant capital investment, to being positioned as a viable location for major clean energy projects, Blue Sky and Comcast will have a major impact on the local economy,” Nancy Norton, president & CEO of the Grundy Economic Development Council, said in a news release.
Blue Sky is expected to begin commercial operation by December 2024. Constellation has agreed to purchase project-specific renewable energy certificates equal to 250 megawatts of Blue Sky’s total 300-megawatt output to supply electricity to Comcast.
A renewable energy certificate represents one megawatt-hour of electricity generated and delivered to the power grid from a renewable source such as solar or wind.
Chicago-based Exelon, the parent of ComEd, spun off Constellation, its former power generation subsidiary, into a stand-alone company last month.
Illinois has become something of a hotbed for solar projects in recent years, with renewable energy developers staking out turf on the rural fringes of the Chicago area to build dozens of solar farms to feed the electric grids of Commonwealth Edison and other utilities.
The state’s solar energy boom is driven in large part by legislation requiring Illinois utilities to get 40% of their retail power from renewable sources such as solar and wind by 2030.
