January 14, 2025
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Woodstock North considering whether to drop solar farm

By Claire O'Brien
The solar farm at Huntley High School on Friday, June 30, 2023. Multiple solar farms across McHenry County are being presented to the McHenry County Board creating concerns of watershed, farmland and pollinator issues.

The solar farm at Huntley High School on Friday, June 30, 2023. A solar farm project at Woodstock North High School might get shelved. (Gregory Shaver/Gregory Shaver Shaw Media )

Woodstock School District 200 officials are considering whether to pull the plug on a proposed solar farm at Woodstock North High School.

The project is on hold waiting for direction from the school board, district spokesman Kevin Lyons said Monday.

ComEd told the school district it would have to scale back the proposed solar farm, and the school board last month ultimately rejected a change order that would have downsized the farm and roughly halved the cost of the project. Officials anticipated with the assistance of tax credits and rebates, District 200 would break even on the smaller project.

The solar farm has been divided into a smaller section and a larger section; the smaller section has been approved by the utility company while the larger section has been denied, according to district documents.

The school district’s contractor, Althoff Industries, worked with architects and electrical engineers to develop a second smaller farm; ComEd is reviewing those plans, according to district records.

District 200 Superintendent Mike Moan is giving the school board four possible options for the solar farm, according to district documents. The school board can:

  • Move ahead with the smaller, approved farm. District records indicate this farm is 590 kilowatt-hours.
  • Accept last month’s change order and build the more scaled back farm. It would be 953 kWh if ComEd approves the second part.
  • Cancel the contract and try to go out to bid again. It would be the third time the project has gone to bid.
  • Cancel the contract and end the project.

The school district has taken on expenses related to the solar farm that it would have to eat if the project doesn’t come to fruition, according to district records. It’s not clear how much the district has spent so far.

Those costs could be included in calculations for credits under the first two scenarios, according to district documents.

Officials first approved the solar farm in December 2023. After the original contractor came back with a massive price increase, the school board voted in January 2024 to cancel that contract and go to bid again.

In April 2024, the school board awarded a contract for the farm to Althoff Industries. The total contract cost for the 2,050 kilowatt-hour farm was $4.3 million plus another roughly $195,000 for 10 years of maintenance and support and an extended warranty, according to district records.

The change order on the table would allow for a 953 kilowatt-hour farm at a cost of about $2.5 million.

The school board will be deciding the farm’s fate Tuesday evening. The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Woodstock High School.

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