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Approximately 700,000 MWh of electricity is needed to power Chicago’s more than 400 municipal buildings each year. As of January 1, all of our fire departments, including 98 fire stations, two international airports and the two largest water treatment plants on Earth, are running on renewable energy thanks to Illinois’ newest and largest solar power plant.
The move is expected to reduce carbon emissions from the country’s third-largest city by about 290,000 tons annually. This is equivalent to taking 62,000 cars off the road. local decarbonization Efforts like Chicago’s are increasingly important as President-elect Donald Trump pledges to reduce federal support for climate action. As the outgoing Biden administration doubles its international commitments to get America’s emissions to net zero by 2050, cities, states and private sector players across the country will have to pick up the slack.
Chicago is one of several U.S. cities that is leveraging its bulk purchasing power to spur the development of new carbon-free energy.
“This is a plan that will force the city to take action on climate and leverage its purchasing power to create new opportunities for Chicagoans and the state,” said Angela Tovar, Chicago’s Chief Sustainability Officer. “There are opportunities everywhere.”
It took nearly a decade for Chicago to transition to renewable energy. The goal of powering the city from purely carbon-free energy sources was first established by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel in 2017. His successor, Mayor Lori Lightfoot, signed a 2022 deal with power provider Constellation to purchase the city’s energy from carbon-free sources. Developer Swift Current Energy will start in 2025.
Swift Current has begun construction on a 3,800-acre, 593-megawatt solar farm in central Illinois as part of the same five-year, $422 million contract. Spanning two counties in central Illinois Double Black Diamond Solar Project It is currently the largest solar power facility east of the Mississippi River. The plant can produce enough electricity to power more than 100,000 homes, according to Caroline Mann, Swift Current’s founding vice president.
Chicago alone has agreed to purchase about half of the installation’s total production. This will cover approximately 70% of the electricity needs of city buildings. City officials plan to cover the remaining 30% through purchasing renewable energy credits.
“This is not a bug in our plan, it’s actually a feature,” said Jared Policicchio, vice president of sustainability. He added that he hopes the city’s demand for 100% renewable energy will encourage additional clean energy development locally, albeit on a much smaller scale, creating a new source of power that the city can purchase directly instead of in credit. “Our goal over the next few years is to get to the point where we don’t buy renewable energy credits.”
More than 700 other U.S. cities and towns have signed similar purchase agreements since 2015, according to one organization. 2022 study From the World Resources Institute. just one city, houstonhas signed larger renewable energy contracts than Chicago, according to Matthew Popkin, U.S. Cities and Communities Program Manager at the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit whose research focuses on decarbonization. But he added that no deal has added as much new renewable power to the grid as Chicago.
“One of Chicago’s goals was ‘additionality’ – bringing new resources to the market and to the grid,” Popkin said.
Chicago also secured an annual commitment of $400,000 from Constellation and Swift Current for clean energy workforce training, including training through: chicago women tradesIt is a non-profit organization that aims to increase the number of women in the union construction and manufacturing sectors.
The economic benefits extend beyond city limits. According to Swift Current, approx. 100 million dollars New tax revenues are expected to flow to Sangamon and Morgan counties, where the Double Black Diamond Solar site is located, during the project’s operation period.
“Cities and other local governments don’t value their ability to shape markets as well as support their residents,” Popkin said. “Chicago is demonstrating firsthand how cities can lead by example, implement ambitious goals amid evolving state and federal policy changes, and leverage their purchasing power to support a more equitable renewable energy future.”
Many cities have set two renewable energy goals, said Alex Dane, senior manager at the World Resource Institute for Clean Energy Innovation and Partnerships for the American Energy Program. One is for local government operations, and the second is a goal for the entire community. Dane said that community-side goals start to seem less lofty when cities decarbonize assets they directly control, even if the latter is “a little harder to reach and a little behind the schedule.”
In fact, Chicago’s new milestone is the first step in a broader goal to power every building in the city with renewable energy by 2035. They say that would make Chicago the largest city in the United States to do so. sierra club.
Dane said it will become increasingly important for cities, towns and states to pursue their own efforts to reduce emissions, build green economies and meet local climate goals. He said moves like Chicago’s prove they are capable no matter what happens at the federal level.
“It is important to note that the actions taken by states, cities and counties are a sustainable path for the next administration. [it] It has to happen,” Dane said. “The juice is still worth the squeeze.”
