23-05-2025
‘Bring Your Own New Clean Energy': a proposed fix for Illinois' power grid shortcomings draws criticism from manufacturers
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (NEXSTAR) — Illinois has a growing energy problem. There are a few reasons for why that is — coal and natural gas plants are closing, and regional grid operators are acting too slowly in connecting new wind and solar projects to the larger grid, but above all else, the state is using more energy than it ever has.
Data centers, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing projects all are utilizing more energy than state lawmakers say they could have imagined when they passed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act.
'When we negotiated the bill, no one talked about data centers. We had heard of them, but no one ever saw them becoming an issue,' Senator Bill Cunningham said. 'They've become a gigantic issue.'
Environmentalists want the state to require any new project looking to set up shop in Illinois that needs over 25 megawatts of energy will have to supply their own clean energy.
'I think the whole country is going to face this the demands of data centers,' Jen Walling with the Illinois Environmental Council said. 'You know, nothing is free. We're paying for it somehow. So that is a way that we need to address that by bringing cheap renewable energy.'
They even have a name for the idea.
'We're looking at 'bring your own new clean energy,' Walling said. 'We have our anagram of B.Y.O.N.C.E'
Businesses say the idea will have a very different economic impact than the global sensation its named after.
'If you're going to add significant cost to the state of Illinois in energy, you're going to see less economic development and less large projects coming to the state of Illinois,' President and CEO of the Illinois Manufacturers Association Mark Denzler said.
Illinois would be the only state with this policy, according to Denzler, and he says it would put the state at a huge disadvantage,
'Illinois is competing, for example, against Wisconsin and Michigan and Ohio. And they can assure that company that they can hook up to the grid and they can start constructing within a few months versus Illinois. It might take a couple of years to build this new project and get hooked up,' Denzler said.
Other ideas included in the draft energy package included a partial lift of the nuclear moratorium. The ban on new nuclear construction was first put in place in the 1970's. New nuclear energy is seen as a long term play for more energy production. Illinois already has one of the biggest nuclear fleets as part of it's power grid.
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