Lee County fails to approve extension for Eldena solar farm project

DIXON – The Lee County Board recently failed to approve an extension for the almost 1,300-acre Eldena Solar project.

Eldena Solar LLC, which is being developed by Minnesota-based Geronimo Energy LLC, requested a three-year extension for its special use permit that allows for a 175-megawatt solar farm in South Dixon and Nachusa townships, near the corner of Eldena and Nachusa roads on about 1,288 acres.

The utility-grade project would generate energy to power about 30,000 homes per year.

The special use permit, approved by the County Board on Sept. 17, 2020, requires the project to be complete or substantially underway within three years.

“We need to understand what improvements would need to be made in order to make the project happen.”

—  Amber Miller, representative of Eldena Solar LLC

Project representative Amber Miller and attorney Courtney Kennedy spoke to Lee County committees earlier this month requesting an extension to Sept. 17, 2025, following delays with PJM Connection on the regional transmission grid.

“We believe that the delays are related to PJM and ComEd in the facilities study that needs to be commissioned,” Kennedy said.

There are 2,700 projects in the PJM interconnection queue, and it might be as long as March 2025 before a facilities study can be done for the project, Miller and Kennedy said.

The study would show what would need to be done to facilitate the project and if any major changes would need to be done.

“We can’t really do anything until we know for sure what the facility study says,” Miller said. “We need to understand what improvements would need to be made in order to make the project happen.”

The company investment in the project includes interconnection deposits of $776,000 as well as another $65,000 planned this year, about $160,000 in wetland and environmental studies, real estate payments of $118,500, construction equipment totaling $349,000, and $94,000 in county permit fees, Kennedy said.

According to previous project testimony, the $180 million project would generate around $15.5 million in property taxes across 20 years.

During the board’s June meeting, board member Mike Zeman made a motion to give the project a two-year extension rather than for three years.

The motion failed in a tie vote of 8-8-2 with board Chairman Bob Olson and member Mike Book abstaining. Those who voted against it were members Tim Bivins, Ron Gascoigne, Keane Hudson, Lirim Mimini, Michael Pearson, Chris Robertson, Angie Shippert and Katie White.