Largest Solar Project in Illinois Ramps Up

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Swift Current Energy (Boston, Massachusetts) has provided updates on its 592.8-megawatt (MW) Double Black Diamond Solar Plant in central Illinois, which is the largest solar-power project in the state.

Site preparation for the $520 million Double Black Diamond solar project is underway, and commercial operation is expected by fall 2024. Swift Current will own and operate the facility. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Project Database can click here for the project report.

Swift Current announced last week it has contracted McCarthy Building Companies (St. Louis, Missouri) to perform design, procurement, construction, and commissioning of the project, which sits on the Morgan-Sangamon county line in central Illinois.

Swift Current also announced it has selected two technology providers for the project: First Solar Incorporated (NASDAQ:FSLR) (Tempe, Arizona) will provide 1.6 million solar modules (solar panels), and NEXTracker (NASDAQ:NXT) (Fremont, California) will provide solar trackers, which rotate the modules to follow the sun's movement and feature "gains over 25-30% compared to fixed-tilt applications," according to the press release.

In August of last year, the City of Chicago announced it plans to partially source the city's "large energy uses" from Swift Current's Double Black Diamond plant via a power purchase agreement (PPA) with electricity retailer Constellation Energy Corporation (Baltimore, Maryland)--who has agreed to purchase a portion of the solar generation from the new plant; the city's end-users would include the Chicago O'Hare International Airport, Midway International Airport, water-purification plants and other large facilities.

Also last year, State Farm Insurance (Bloomington, Indiana) agreed to purchase 50 MW from Double Black Diamond to power eight of its corporate facilities, and PPG (NYSE:PPG) (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), a global supplier of paints, coatings and special materials, agreed to purchase 1.5 MW.

According to Swift Current Energy, Double Black Diamond is the largest solar project in Illinois. As of fourth-quarter 2022, according to data from the Solar Energy Industries Association, the state ranked 15th in the nation in terms of solar generation (2,036 MW).

Industrial Info is tracking about $1.2 billion worth of active solar-power projects in Illinois that Industrial Info's researchers believe have a medium-to-high likelihood (70% or more) of moving forward as planned, including Double Black Diamond. Subscribers to the GMI database can click here for a full list of project reports.

This includes two projects that are underway and expected to wrap up in August: BayWa AG's (Munich, Germany) $300 million Prairie Solar facility in Sidney, which is set for 150 MW of solar generation, and Nordex SE's (Rostock, Germany) 100-MW $150 million High Point Solar Farm in Lena. Subscribers can see reports on the Prairie and High Point solar projects.

Subscribers to the GMI database can click here for a full list of detailed reports for projects mentioned in this article, and click here for a full list of plant profiles.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 Trillion (USD).