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Galesburg solar farm to power 700 homes
Galesburg is embracing another renewable energy source, the sun. The ribbon was cut on Blue Grama Solar, which is 17 acres of clean energy producers. It's expected to produce 4.7 megawatts of power from eight thousand panels. It's to keep up with a bigger need for power.
'What we're seeing in Illinois and across the country is both rising demand, we're seeing data centers and AI for the first time in frankly decades, raise the demand for electricity in a real way,' said Josh Bushinsky, Co-founder for Trajectory Energy Partners, a local developer for the project. 'At the same time, and because of that, electricity prices are going up.'
The solar farm is the state's first community-driven, community first from the Illinois Shines Program, which is a state effort to develop renewable energy production. It's by the community, for the community.
'The community was brought in and local labor was used,' said Jess Collingsworth, the central policy director for Nexamp, the provider for the electricity produced by the farm. 'The community was brought in for the conversations and development of where it would be.'
The mayor believes it'll help beyond producing energy.
'When you buy your power that's produced locally, your money's staying locally,' said Mayor Peter Schwartzman. 'The positive feedbacks are significant and you'll see the improvements in the downtown, see improvements in people staying in hotels. You'll see we're light on tax dollars to do many of the improvements that people wanna see.'
Two other solar projects in the Galesburg area are in the works.
'This is just the tip of the iceberg,' said Schwartzman.
Those interested can opt into the solar farm here.
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