In Illinois, Will County officials have signed off on Earthrise Energy’s Pride of the Prairie proposal, a planned 600-megawatt solar development that, if built as proposed, would cover 11.9 square miles — about the size of Chicago O’Hare International Airport — and support roughly 1,000 jobs.
What happened?
By approving a special-use permit, the Will County Board cleared an important local hurdle for Pride of the Prairie, which is one of the Midwest’s largest solar projects by acreage.
According to Solar Builder, Earthrise plans to connect the project through existing interconnection at its Lincoln Generating Facility, an approach that could bring additional power to the grid more quickly as electricity demand rises in Illinois.
“Illinois is among the fastest-growing electricity markets in the Midwest, and projects like Pride of the Prairie are critical to meeting demand reliably and quickly,” Earthrise Energy CEO Jeff Hunter said, per Solar Builder…