Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Illinois Turns Reclaimed Coal Mine Into Two Community Solar Farms

The completed Minonk arrays total 9.8 MW, rely on Illinois Shines brownfield incentives, reserve capacity for low‑income subscribers, use DERMS for real‑time grid control, and draw institutional offtake that stabilizes project finances.

Overview

  • Developers Nexamp and TurningPoint Energy finished and commissioned two community solar projects on the reclaimed Minonk coal‑mine site in mid‑June, sending up to 9.8 megawatts into ComEd’s grid.
  • The arrays cover about 40 acres and use nearly 17,000 panels, with Nexamp reporting the modules were manufactured in the U.S., a company claim that the coverage notes but does not independently verify.
  • More than 650 subscribers have enrolled in the two projects, with roughly 450 residential customers on one array and about 200 low‑income households on the other to expand access to bill credits.
  • Rush University Medical Center and the College of DuPage together take about 40% of the projects’ output, providing steady institutional offtake that helps secure project economics.
  • The sites are certified brownfields under the Illinois Shines program to prioritize previously disturbed land and are among the first on ComEd’s system to deploy Distributed Energy Resource Management Systems, software that gives the utility real‑time visibility and control of distributed solar generation.