Suburban Chicago schools to build wind farm in rural Illinois and reap the financial rewards

Three suburban Chicago school districts are turning to a rural county 140 miles southwest of the city in hopes of balancing their budgets for years to come. "Empowered by recent legislation, Keeneyville School District 20, Carpentersville's Community Unit School District 300 and Prospect Heights School District 23 have joined together to build a 13-turbine wind farm that would sell energy to defray their own electrical bills," Robert Channick reports for The Chicago Tribune. The farm, to be built in Stark County, could bring in "$3 million in annual revenues for some 30 years — the expected life of the wind turbines."

The wind consortium is believed to be the nation's first scholastic wind farm, though several rural districts have on-site turbines to help supply electricity. "In 2007, Illinois adopted a net metering law requiring utilities to credit customers with renewable electricity generators for excess energy, further opening the door for other school districts, community colleges and municipalities to own and operate wind turbines to reduce costs," Channick writes, but urban districts said "installing the structures with their enormous blades proved impractical." A 2009 bill would have allowed urban districts to use offsite turbines to take advantage of the credit, but it was defeated after utilities objected to the plan.

The new legislation "in essence turns the schools into taxable energy wholesalers," Channick writes. The Stark County wind farm is expected to generate 65,000 megawatt hours annually, enough energy for about 5,000 homes, though the power purchase contract has yet to be negotiated. District 300, the third largest district in the state, which cut 114 teachers and $9 million from the budget, would get 80 percent of the revenue as it plans to invest the most money in the project. If the plan works it could catch on at other schools across the country. "It's totally unique, and the legislation that enables that project to work is also very unique," Kevin Borgia, executive director of the nonprofit Illinois Wind Energy Association, told Channick. "We really hope it does come together because it could be a big benefit for schools in Illinois and nationwide." (Read more)