Peoria County OKs Ameren's pilot solar-and-battery site under Illinois climate law

The Peoria County Board on May 13 approved a special-use permit for Ameren Illinois’ Peoria Energy Center, a pilot commercial solar generating facility paired with on-site battery storage, finding the proposal meets county setbacks and the Unified Development Ordinance requirements.

The permit clears a roughly 2.5-megawatt AC solar array with a 1.5-megawatt lithium-iron-phosphate battery on a site inside the 474 loop west of Pottstown Road and east of Pritchard Road. The project is being developed under Senate Bill 2408, the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, which allows Ameren to own pilot solar generating facilities in Illinois with per-facility construction expenditures capped in statute and with the law’s workforce-equity requirements for pilot projects.

Ameren project manager Patrick Dahlman told the board the Peoria Energy Center was chosen in part because the site lies inside equity-eligible and environmental-justice designations and in an R3 (reinvest-renew-restore) area. "This project will support the state of Illinois' renewable energy goals,"…