Farmers Weekly Review

By Nick Reiher

Residents of Reed and Custer townships who attended the February 20 Will County Board meeting were prepared to give their two cents and more in opposition of a proposed 3,590-acre solar farm.

They already had to wait since the board’s September, and then November 2024 meetings, as county officials hoped representatives of AEUG Will Solar, LLC could work out some of the issues with residents.

But Land Use Committee Chair Frankie Pretzel, R-New Lenox, began the Land Use Public Hearing at the February meeting by announcing AEUG Will Solar had pulled the plans … for now. No explanation was given.

Since then, Will County Board Speaker Joe Van Duyne, D-Wilmington, requested and received a letter from a company official explaining they pulled the project slated for the area south of Smiley Road and east of Essex Road because estimates received only in December were coming in too costly.

In his letter to Van Duyne, who also represents the project area on the board, Brian Dunneback, Director of Business Development AEUG Will Solar LLC, said as with any large-scale electricity generator (over 20 watt capacity), this project had to go through an application and multi-phase study process to gain approval to connect into the electrical grid.

“These studies determine how much electric power an applicant can bring onto the grid, as well as any infrastructural upgrades the developer must undertake to support the proposed generation,” Dunneback said in the letter.

They received the study results in late December 2024, he said, which showed the costs of interconnection to the grid had risen by 40 percent. Those costs included the costs of building the substation, as well as to upgrade the grid required from the added generation.

“The study results also indicated that based on ComEd’s current assumptions, the length of time for the utility to build interconnection facilities could be up to 5 years” Dunneback said in the letter.

“Because of the significant change in cost and schedule estimates for the grid upgrades identified from the Phase II results … AEUG Will Solar, LLC has made the decision to withdraw the project from its current interconnection study cycle to re-evaluate options for interconnecting to the grid.

“The Will County Solar project was slated to deliver significant tax benefits, high-quality jobs, and clean energy for 30 years. We also are appreciative of our 26 participating landowners’ efforts and time they have invested in the project so far and their desire to see this project go forward.

“Therefore, it is our sincere hope that we will be able to eventually bring these benefits to the people of Will County, Illinois.”

To that end, Dunneback said AEUG Will Solar, LLC intends to resubmit the project for review in a future queue assessment cycle following the review of alternative interconnection options.

“AEUG Will Solar, LLC intends to continue coordination with the Will County Land Use Office and Will County Board on the development of this project during this time and intends to continue efforts to explore options and address concerns raised by the public as well as County Board Members.”

Those concerns included the sheer size of the solar farm. Pretzel had suggested the company and residents address soil and water testing to make sure there would be no leakage of toxic materials into local wells, as well as rectifying the situation where the solar farm would be 250 feet from a landowner’s property, instead of the required 1,000 feet.

Former Will County Farm Bureau Manager Mark Schneidewind said at the time the applicants had agreed to have a farm specialist review tile work and sediment control work, as well as review seedings of perennials and management of the site until the growth has become a solid stand for ground cover minus the weeds.

“We see the need to provide a reinforced silt fencing in the high concentration areas of flow and we have discussed the need to contact upstream and downstream landowners about drainage and concerns they have with the development possibly affecting their farming operation,” Schneidewind wrote in a letter to county Land Use officials.

To read Dunneback’s full letter to Van Duyne, go to https://www.willcountyboard.com/news/solar­farm-update.

Nick Reiher is editor of Farmers Weekly Review.