- [Announcer] This program is made possible in part by the Backlund Charitable Trust, established to educate and create awareness of environmental issues.

- Welcome to our latest edition of "EcoWatch" on WTVP.

I'm Mark Welp.

This program is dedicated to bringing you the latest environmental stories impacting our area and the state of Illinois.

We're going to introduce you to people finding unique ways to make the land of Lincoln a better place for mankind and animals by protecting plants, water, soil, and crops.

Let's get started.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) This episode, we look at new controversial data center projects in Central Illinois and the environmental concerns.

We take you to the state's first community solar project built on public school property.

Plus, we examine the facts and myths surrounding the impact of solar farms on our land.

But first, since our last program in November where we discussed the surge of new data centers across the country, we learned about at least four new proposed projects right here in central Illinois.

Data centers, house computer equipment needed for our increasing use of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and streaming.

The centers can be as large as millions of square feet, and they are controversial because of concerns about environmental impact, high water and energy usage, noise pollution, loss of farmland, and more.

The Chicago area has the bulk of Illinois data centers, but developers are increasingly looking downstate where land is cheaper.

The city of Pekin sold 321 acres of land to a data center developer.

The site is between Sheridan Road and Route 98.

According to our partners at WCBU, Pekin officials say the center will employ 100 people and generate $20 million in property tax revenue annually.

The Fulton County Board has shot down a plan to build a data center and solar farm near Canton.

In January, the board voted unanimously not to rezone 32 acres of land from agricultural to industrial after a large community backlash.

14 miles southwest of Springfield, the Illinois Times reports the Sangamon County Board will consider rezoning 200-plus acres of land for a massive data center project.

The $500 million project would include six buildings covering 1.4 million square feet.

The center is estimated to generate $5 million a year in property taxes.

And in Logan County, the Illinois Times also reports the county board will vote on whether to rezone 250 acres of land near Latham for a $5 billion data center project.

The company Hut 8 says the 1 million square feet of space could generate more than $50 million a year in property tax revenue and bring in 200 permanent full-time jobs.

Last month, Hut 8 held a public forum in Lincoln where people ask questions and let their feelings be known.

One big concern is water consumption.

Some data centers use huge amounts of water to deal with the heat given off by the equipment.

But Hut 8 says, with their system, water will be delivered to the site and be recycled through the cooling system.

- According to the Environmental Energy Study Institute, large data centers can consume up to 5 million gallons of water a day, which, obviously, we are a big agricultural community.

I think that could really jeopardize our world as we know it.

I think there is a place for data, obviously, in our world, in our growing technology, but I don't think it belongs here.

- We are designing and been using this closed loop system because we think that water is also another critical asset, and more and more people are gonna be more and more sensitive.

So let's invest more money into the data center, and let's create this closed loop system where once you fill up the system with water on one go, then it works within its own ecosystem.

You're not adding water in a realtime basis, 'cause otherwise you're just constantly misting water on top of these things to cool them down.

- Opponents of data centers are also worried about their electricity bills rising, but developers say that data centers can stabilize or reduce rates because they pay for infrastructure upgrades.

Illinois recently passed a clean energy bill called the Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act, or CRGA Act.

Proponents like environmental groups say the legislation will help build battery storage, solar and wind projects, and lift the moratorium on new nuclear construction.

They also say the law will help strengthen the electrical grid, expand energy efficiency programs, and lower your utility bills.

Governor Pritzker said, quote, "This legislation takes two routes toward affordability.

First, it will accelerate clean energy projects with new grid scale batteries and other clean energy technology to increase the available electricity supply.

Second, it will require utility companies to help their consumers to lower their utility bills and access energy efficient resources.

This bill will build upon the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, positioning Illinois to keep growing our clean energy economy and creating good paying jobs in communities across the state."

End quote.

But others disagree with the plan.

The Illinois Manufacturers Association supports lifting the moratorium on nuclear facilities, but argues the CRGA act will raise utility rates in part because of Illinois's mandatory closing dates for gas and coal-fired power plants and the amount of time and money it will take to implement the CRGA Act.

The act goes into effect on June 1st.

The CRGA Act strengthens the Illinois Shines Incentive program, which supports the development of solar energy In Illinois.

one initiative under Illinois Shines, public school solar projects.

Now, Peoria County School District is the state's first public school's community solar project.

Jubilee Solar Farm is located on the campus of the Brimfield School District.

5,400 solar panels were installed on nine acres of unused land on the campus perimeter.

This is how the partnership works.

The school district doesn't pay for the design, build, operation, or maintenance of the farm.

School district buildings will use electricity generated by the panels, which is estimated to save the district more than $20,000 a year.

The district will also receive $14,000 a year in lease revenue for 25 years.

Trajectory, the company that developed Jubilee Solar, is also giving the district $60,000.

The other benefit is for the 200 members in and around Brimfield who subscribe to the community project.

Nexamp, the owner and operator of Jubilee Solar, says residents and businesses can save up to 15% on their Ameren energy bills.

Plus, the project is expected to generate ongoing tax revenue.

Superintendent Chad Jones says saving money in a small school district is important.

- Energy costs are going up.

I mean everybody knows that.

And so it's been estimated that we would receive about $20,000 annually as an estimate for what we receive on our power bills.

And so, extra revenue or savings can go right into our operating budget and it can provide more revenue or other places where we can put our money to serve our students and student outcomes.

- [Mark] Superintendent Jones says, "Eventually, owner Nexamp wants to help Brimfield students learn more about how solar works using the Jubilee Solar Farm."

- It's cool being part of something new.

And I don't know if it's meant for every school district.

Every district run is run a little bit different, but I think for us here in Brimfield, it's gonna be a positive experience for our community and our students.

- But not everyone is on board with solar farms.

The concerns we see on social media seem to fall into three categories.

Aesthetics.

Some people think the farms are ugly and ruin what they consider beautiful landscapes.

Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

More serious concerns involve land use.

Farmland is attractive to builders because it's flat and already clear, but some people worry about the loss of agricultural land, and that it'll be permanent and detrimental to our food supply.

Clearing an area, installing the panels, and then building a fence could displace or destroy wildlife habitats.

And finally, land impact.

There are concerns that chemicals in the solar panels could leach out and ruin the soil.

And with the construction of the farms, soil could be ruined and there could be erosion.

We're gonna look at a few of those concerns during this program.

First, where to build new solar and wind farms?

The Nature Conservancy in Illinois is working on a plan to transition degraded lands into energy producing centers.

Nature Conservancy Illinois Climate And Energy Associate Larissa Armstrong tells us about mining the sun.

Now, it sounds like with the "Mining the Sun" report, the Nature Conservancy is doing a few things.

One, using land that may not have a lot of uses for something that some people don't wanna see on farmland or maybe in their backyards.

We're talking about solar farms.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the "Mining the Sun" report?

- Sure.

"Mining the Sun" really encourages building solar projects on brownfields or degraded lands, former industrialized sites, abandoned mine lands, things like that.

Prioritizing building in those areas before we build renewable energy projects on prime agricultural land or in places that have a lot of natural benefits, nature spaces, things like that.

So "Mining the Sun" is really designed to kind of encourage building and degraded lands before we're using up more beneficial lands.

- And are there any challenges to choosing these sites?

Like you said, abandoned mines, landfills, things like that?

- Sure, I think some of the challenges are costs, right?

So figuring out, sometimes having to do remediation on those sites to get them ready for that type of development can cost a little bit more upfront than say just putting some solar down on a green field somewhere.

It also depends on who owns the land and whether or not they're interested in working with solar companies to lease the land.

The benefit there is that that land, if it is leased by a solar company, then is going to generate income for the land owner.

And then really just if communities are interested in these types of projects, the folks that work for municipalities or counties, whatever, might not actually have the time or resources to pursue these types of projects or the technical expertise, which would be where organizations like the Nature Conservancy could come in and lend a hand to help guide people through the process.

- Yeah, tell us a little bit more about how the Nature Conservancy could potentially help in these projects.

- Sure, so we really want to try to be subject matter experts for communities.

So this could be anything from hosting informational sessions in communities for community members to help them understand the benefits of these types of projects, working with municipalities to basically see there are barriers to these types of projects being built, and how we might fill in some of those gaps.

Could be anything from us creating communication between developers and communities or even helping to draft sort of template requests for proposals that communities can use to try to pursue these types of projects.

- Are there any projects you can tell us about that are going on right now in Illinois or around the country regarding this?

- Sure.

So the Nature Conservancy has a pilot project in Kentucky called Starfire Mine Project.

It's gonna be around an 800 megawatt facility.

It's in partnership with Rivian Motors to basically help them generate clean energy that they can use to offset their energy use at their various plants.

And then in Illinois, while these are not specifically Nature Conservancy projects, they're still modeling the "Mining the Sun" principles.

There's a solar project on the closed landfill in Urbana that is part of the Illinois Solar for All program.

It's a five-megawatts system that generates energy and then the low to moderate income residents in the area subscribed to it and see significant savings on their energy bills.

Similar project was just a finished construction in Waukegan, which is about a nine-megawatt project on a super fund site that really was not designed to have anything else there, but they're putting this there so they're really making good use of some lands that otherwise wasn't really good for much of anything else.

Closer to home, McLean County where I live also just approved a 134-acre solar project on the closed landfill in McLean County.

And then I believe that in Peoria, I saw a little news clip that, in July, the Peoria City Council approved an option to lease for the landfill in Peoria that is shared between, I think, Peoria City and the county.

That doesn't mean anything is happening there yet, but it gives the option for a solar developer to pursue a project on that site.

- Again, these don't happen overnight.

It takes quite a lot of planning and building of course.

But do you think as these do start to come online, and people actually see them in action, that you think more people, more municipalities are gonna be interested in doing this?

I really do think so.

Illinois has a lot of really great renewable energy legislation and we're seeing a lot of renewable energy development across the state.

But I do think that once communities know that this type of project is an option for them, I think that communities are going to be interested in pursuing these types of projects before pursuing projects that are gonna use up prime natural spaces and agricultural land.

Obviously, you need a lot of land to build larger scale solar arrays, and most of the large swaths of land are downstate.

And we have a lot of corn and soy here, and that's a really important part of our economy.

So we wanna make sure that we're respecting those spaces.

It's not going to be impossible to avoid building in those spaces, but we can try to prioritize building integrated lands first so that we're using up lands that's not really good for much else before we use up any other kinds.

I would just like to reiterate that Illinois has a really great opportunity right now.

We have more than 200,000 acres of former strip mines and thousands of other former industrialized sites across the state that could host clean energy without touching prime farmland or green space.

And the Nature Conservancy's "Mining the Sun" report shows that when we prioritize these already impacted land, and communities are helping shape how those projects move forward, that we're creating renewable energy projects that are more beneficial for communities and for nature.

- Philip Krein, is an electrical and computer engineering professor at the University of Illinois.

We recently talked about some of the facts, myths, and misinformation surrounding solar panels.

Professor Krein, some people are worried about the contents of solar panels.

Can you tell us what the solar panels are made up of?

- Sure.

A solar panel that you would put on your home or typical one that's used in a commercial setting will have an actual silicon solar cell ultimately made of sand, refined, pure silicon.

And then the metalization, the conductors on top of it that'll be mounted on a plastic backing, and then there's a glass front piece and some aluminum framing to wrap the whole thing up.

I actually have a little mock-up we did over here.

So there's a typical silicon cell and you can see the metal contacts, the vertical ones there, and a piece of glass in the front and a piece of plastic behind to hold it together.

- And some people are worried that there's hazardous chemicals in there.

I've heard people say things like, "oh, there's heavy metals in there.

Like lead and, and cadmium."

Are those things in there and?

and if they are in there, are they in large amounts?

- Al almost all of the commercial solar panels are made of silicon.

Now, there are some other technologies that, that use a, a different materials, but they're actually pretty unusual these days and almost everybody has gone to lead free solder heavy on the tin and the silver.

So, minimal hazardous material, less than you would have in a laptop computer or or anything like that.

- Let's talk a little bit about how these companies protect their investment.

They obviously don't want the solar panels to break, but we have seen them break.

I mean, how easily can they break, and is it a big deal if they do break?

- Sure.

Well, the glass in the front is there for protection.

It has to be as clear as possible, and all the manufacturers use what's called a low iron glass that's as transparent as they can make it.

And it's not completely impervious.

I mean, it's not thin stuff.

Here in central Illinois, it's gotta be able to take a certain amount of hail damage without breaking.

I did see a panel on a friend of mine's house with a hole just about the size of a golf ball.

He lives next to a driving range.

So they're not completely impervious to being broken, but they stand up to most of the weather we can hit them with here in the region.

- Sure, and when these solar farms are built, sometimes they're built on farmland, and people have concerns that maybe once that is built on the farmland, that it, quote unquote, ruins the farmland.

Can you tell us a little bit about the building process and what that does to the soil?

- Sure, virtually, all the construction in our area, certainly involving solar, but also any significant structures, anything like that, the first step with the contractor is to come in and actually remove the top soil, take it off and either use it in another place where it can be productive or store it actually for use elsewhere.

I know when we do construction on campus, the top soil is always put into a pile in the south campus for reuse later.

So the top soil would come off.

The concrete structure that holds the panels, which... it's not like a parking lot, Relatively limited use of that would go in and then the panels are mounted in that way.

So it's relatively easy to sort of deconstruct that at the end of life, take that back out, and then of course bring the topsoil back in and restore the property to its original use.

- Yeah.

I was gonna ask you.

After, let's say a farmer has a 20, 30-year lease, and that comes up, and they decide they wanna go back to farming, they can take out the solar farm and the soil's not ruined per se, is it?

- No, certainly not.

Again, the top soil would've to be brought back in, but that's a typical process in our region.

And no question that anybody who wants to do that.

You want the deconstruction terms in that contract up front so that there's no surprises at the end when you wanna go back to farming about who's responsible and who's paying to come in and actually take those things out and get 'em recycled properly.

- So you've been studying solar a lot in your long career there at the U of I. Where do you see the future of solar going, whether it's residential or the so-called solar farms that we're seeing in central Illinois?

- Well, I think a couple things.

Number one, we are at the point where solar energy and wind energy are actually the lowest cost resources.

And indeed right now in Illinois, they're the highest-growing capacity element as we build up, try to build up more energy supply and remove some of the older, more expensive plants.

And I don't see that going anywhere.

There's continuing advancements that are continuing to bring prices down so it will be the low-cost energy resource.

Now, personally, I'm not a fan of converting farmland over to solar panels.

When we're at the point where the economics say that the land is better to produce energy than it is to produce food, there's an issue there.

We have seen some, so solar foldable tech combine kinds of things where people can do vegetable farming and other things under the panels, and that's an interesting concept.

Personally, I'd like to see parking lots and rooftops being kind of the first point as we try to add more and more panels while not taking away our very valuable farmland.

- On past episodes of "EcoWatch," we've told you about household hazardous waste collection events and facilities where you can responsibly dispose of paint.

Well now you don't have to drive a long way or wait for sporadic events.

A new paint recycling program is underway in Illinois.

PaintCare is a nonprofit organization created by paint companies to help consumers manage leftover paint responsibly.

Funding comes from a fee applied to the price of paint sold in Illinois The PaintCare fee is not tax or deposit, and there's no charge for dropping off paint at a PaintCare drop off site.

Products accepted include interior and exterior latex and oil-based paints, stains, primers, and more.

Containers that are leaking empty or without the original printed manufacturer's label are not accepted at drop off sites.

For more information on what you can and cannot drop off and a list of 300 locations in Illinois, you can go to paintcare.org/il.

Most of their drop-off locations are paint and hardware stores.

To date, PaintCare has collected an estimated 87 million gallons of paint in 10 states and Washington, DC.

Every five years, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources releases an updated list of endangered and threatened species.

The latest list isn't cause for celebration.

The list now stands at 513 species.

That's an increase from 483 species in 2020.

Plants still account for about two thirds of species on the list.

Additions to the list include 21 insects, 12 plants, four fish, and a crayfish.

One area of concern is that 12 of the insects are bees, which are pollinators.

And three fourths of the world's flowering plants and about 35% of the world's food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce.

Removed from the list are four plants, two snakes, and two insects.

The snakes were removed because they're no longer found in Illinois.

Finally, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources is partnering with a nonprofit to help ensure our state parks are protected and preserved.

The IDNR and the Illinois Conservation Foundation have launched a new endowment.

All contributions to the Illinois State Parks Endowment are permanently restricted to support Illinois State Parks and cannot be redirected or swept at any time.

According to the IDNR, quote, "The effort comes at a time when national parks are facing decreased funding, reduced staffing, and long-term uncertainty with proposals to sell off public land.

In Illinois, state parks remain free to enter and continue to see investments in staffing, access, and infrastructure.

The endowment will help protect these commitments to access equity and long-term stewardship for generations to come."

End quote.

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources manages 309 state parks and recreational sites.

Illinois is only one of a handful of states that offer free entry.

Thanks for joining us for "EcoWatch."

If you'd like to watch again, share with a friend or watch past episodes, just look for us at wtvp.org.

I'm Mark Welp.

We'll see you again soon.

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