Summit Ridge Solar has 2 solar arrays under construction on the northwest corner of Marine.

A solar array from Summit Ridge Solar is under construction on about 35 acres leased from William Drake near Marine.

For the Intelligencer

dr William Drake, owner of Grandview Farm just west of Marine, has leased 40 acres of his land for two solar arrays near the Marine Heritage Park and Lake.

The arrays flank the Madison County Transit Heritage Trail.

Drake said the effort started four or five years ago with 11 to 15 proposed solar array projects between Highland and Edwardsville. Opposition from neighbors, elected officials or others killed all but three of the projects, Drake said.

The surviving projects are two near his farm and a third on Highland Road in Highland. Drake said he has already received complaints from people who say they don’t want to look at the arrays while they are in the park or on the trail. Each array covers 17 acres and costs $10 million to build, Drake said.

Mark Raeder, a principal with Summit Ridge Energy in Arlington, Virginia, is the project lead for the array. Summit Ridge leases the land from Drake, takes care of the permitting process, oversees system construction and is the long-term owner/operator, he said.

“There are two, three-megawatt DC systems,” Raeder said, noting each will generate enough electricity to power about 600 homes, based on average residential consumption in Marine.

“These are community solar systems,” he said, enabling Summit Ridge to sell power to Ameren Illinois customers using monetary credits that appear on customers’ utility bills.

Raeder said Summit Ridge is one of the largest community solar owners/operators in Illinois with about 50 projects around the state now in use and at least 25 more are planned or under construction.

Grandview Farm was founded in 1979 with 310 acres at the northeast corner of Illinois 143 and 4. The farm currently comprises 8,550 acres within 11 Illinois townships. The Grandview Farm RLLP is autonomous. It owns its own licensed fertilizer storage facility and anhydrous ammonia facility. It dries, stores, transports and markets all of the grain grown on the acreage. All of the farmed land is grid-tiled. It also has kept its original small 20 cow-calf-finish operation that produces Star Primo Angus Beef.

Drake said he believes that, if state legislators force the Lively Grove coal-fired power plant in Marissa to close by 2035, it will be much harder to get power in the downstate area. Solar may be the only solution, he said. He also speculated that eminent domain may come into play.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times the Lively Grove plant, which opened in 2012, has customers and co-owners that number around 200 and include a footprint that runs from Missouri to Virginia.

The Natural Resources Defense Council in Illinois says the plant contributes a large part of power-sector emissions in Illinois, 12.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide in 2019, or the ninth-most in the nation that year. Lively Grove has become a speed bump on the way to the state meeting its key climate goals. An energy bill in Springfield last year focused on subsidy expansion for nuclear power plants and more money for renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.