Dutch solar firm pitches $300 million factory and 500 jobs at Waukegan Superfund site

Solarg, a Netherlands-based solar-panel manufacturer, and Lake County Partners asked the Lake County Financial and Administrative Committee on Aug. 7 to continue exploring a proposal to build a $300 million factory and headquarters on the Johns Manville Superfund site in Waukegan that company representatives said would create more than 500 permanent “green energy” jobs and more than 1,000 construction jobs during the first phase.

The company’s U.S. chief executive, Derek Vandevoerst, described Solarg’s panels as lighter than traditional modules, made without glass or aluminum and built from polymers and recycled feedstocks. “We guarantee that at the end of the lifetime, we pay our customers money to take the panels back,” Vandevoerst said, describing a take‑back recycling program the company has in place in Europe.

County and city officials said the site — part of the former Johns Manville industrial complex — includes roughly 110 acres cleared for redevelopment, 125 acres capped for contamination where building foundations are not permitted, and a 40‑acre borrow‑pit pond that could support floating solar arrays. Tom Miller, speaking for the City of Waukegan and Mayor Sam Cunningham, told the committee the city has committed $150,000 in TIF funds for site preparation and described the proposal as a competitive, national site-selection effort.

Why it matters: company executives and local leaders said the project would reuse a blighted industrial site, bring investment to an environmental‑justice…