Utility working to meet requirements of a state law
Beginning in July, Commonwealth Edison Co. customers will receive more power from the sun, thanks to a solar project under way in LaSalle County.
The 23-megawatt project by Chicago-based Invenergy LLC, using technology from General Electric Co.'s renewable arm, will be the largest solar project in the Midwest. But the 4,000 homes powered represent a small footprint when compared with ComEd's 3.8 million customers.
Under state law, utilities must receive one-half of 1 percent of their power from solar by 2012, with that total doubling each year (tripling between 2012 and 2013) until it reaches 6 percent in 2015.
The state has not reached its 2012 goal, said Arlene Juracek, head of the Illinois Power Agency, which procures electricity for state utilities. She said that though some businesses and homes receive power from solar panels on roofs, the Invenergy project will be the only utility-scale project in the state flowing power to ComEd customers.
"It's an important first jump in meeting the solar goals that are in the act for the state," she said.
Michael Polsky, Invenergy's president and chief executive, said the company lined up financing for the project after scoring a first-of-its-kind 20-year contract from the Illinois Power Agency to sell power that the panels will produce to ComEd customers. Renewable energy developers have long said that long-term contracts are necessary to finance wind and solar farms.
The company was the only solar project to win a contract in December 2010 in a competitive bidding process managed by the Illinois Power Agency to help the state reach its renewable energy goals.
"Renewable plants don't just happen," said Polsky. "There has to be a demand."
He would not disclose the cost of the project but said it is in the "tens of millions" of dollars. The thin film solar panels and inverters are expected to fill 160 acres next to Invenergy's Grand Ridge wind farm, where 140 of GE's 1.5-megawatt wind turbines produce 210 megawatts of power. Exelon Corp.'s LaSalle nuclear power plant also is nearby.
The solar project represents a new era for GE, which until now has spent the vast majority of its roughly $6 billion energy portfolio on wind.
Vic Abate, vice president of GE's renewable energy business, said the solar side had been mostly related to researching and developing ways to bring down the cost of solar technology.
"We're just now at the point where we can scale it," he said.
He said the cost of the technology has dropped over the last six to seven years by nearly a third, to about $3 per watt.
"Our view is that number is going to under $2 a watt, and we're working on technologies to do that," he said.
GE this month announced plans to invest $600 million to build the country's largest solar panel factory in Aurora, Colo.. The plant will make enough panels each year to power 80,000 homes, GE said.
By Julie Wernau, Chicago Tribune reporter
jwernau@tribune.com