Installations of roof-mounted solar systems and solar “farms” are on the increase in Peoria County, thanks to state and federal incentives and a recent influx of local solar providers.
Peoria County’s Planning and Zoning office has now approved 37 special use permits for solar farms, or Commercial Solar Energy Facilities (CSEFs), since drafting solar ordinances in 2017. For residential solar, application numbers began inching up in Peoria County around 2020, with applications received soaring to 131 per year by 2022. In 2023, 270 applications for roof-mounted solar were received by the Peoria County office. The office is on pace to match or eclipse its 2023 application total this year.
“A lot of that is driven by State of Illinois energy credits and incentives for installing solar, and also by rising energy costs,” said Taylor Armbruster, planner for Peoria County Planning and Zoning. Armbruster noted that with the large demand increase for solar systems in Peoria County, the local solar provider market has also blossomed.
“We’re seeing a number of solar supply companies applying for permits. We’ve worked with at least ten solar companies to provide solar to houses,” said Armsbruster, who, along with Planning and Zoning Assistant Director Andrew Braun, spoke to around 65 Peoria County Farm Bureau members on February 28 about the county’s solar application process and regulations, including a new Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) ordinance.
Applying for solar in Peoria County
Several steps must be taken in order to gain the county’s approval for the installation of solar systems, but the process can be simplified by working alongside a solar contractor during the approval process, according to Armbruster.
“Usually (homeowners) are going to work with a solar contractor, because we do require engineer-stamped plans to issue a solar permit. The contractor is going to apply for the building permits to install solar on the house. We need to know the roof, the ground and the foundation are going to be able to withstand the weight of (solar) panels as part of the application, she said.
“They’ll also submit an electrical application so that we know that all of the components of the electrical panels will match up and work with the system. Once we issue the permit, the solar company will install the panels and we will go out and inspect the system, then Ameren will come out and get the system hooked up.”
Peoria County’s solar ordinance, available through the Planning and Zoning office in the Peoria County Courthouse, Room 301, includes sections establishing guidelines for roof and ground-mounted solar energy equipment, CSEFs, minimum conditions for special use permit issuances and building permits, maintenance and operation, and decommissioning plans. The county’s new BESS ordinance regulating battery storage was adopted to proactively respond to an expected flurry of permit requests, Armbruster said.
“Battery Energy Storage Systems are a facility where a number of batteries are set up to collect electricity. We’ve gotten a lot of inquiries about setting those systems up. We don’t have any in Peoria County right now, but are receiving inquiries about developing those facilities. That’s why we adopted our BESS ordinance, so that we have language in place when people start applying for those systems,” Armbruster said.
As with the solar market in general, the market for BESS products is capitalizing on a significant opportunity for expansion. More than $5 billion was invested in BESS during 2022 worldwide, almost a threefold increase from the previous year. Analysts expect the global BESS market to reach between $120 billion and $150 billion by 2030, or more than double its size today.
“We expect utility-scale BESS, which already accounts for the bulk of new annual capacity, to grow around 29 percent per year for the rest of this decade,” announced international consulting firm McKinsey and Company.
Solar expansion benefits county tax base, schools
Peoria County stands to benefit from increased solar usage through an increase to its tax base, largely collected from CSEFs. The increased tax assessment is placed only upon the acreage of farmland devoted to CSEFs, while farmland is taxed at a lesser rate. The disparity in revenue received from “solar” compared to “farm” properties during 2022 illustrates the value of solar farms to the county tax base, and, in turn, local school districts.
For example, taxes collected on CSEF land in West Hallock Township paid to the Princeville School District in 2022 totaled $8,497.75, while farmland contributed just $595.21 to the district. Similarly, solar farms located in Hollis Township generated $8,487.54 for Illinois Bluffs CUSD, with farm taxation bringing in only $643.59 to the school district.
“The school districts get the most amounts from these taxes, which are a benefit to the countywide tax base courtesy of solar farms,” said Armbruster, adding that the installation of residential solar systems does not add to a property’s assessed tax valuation by the county.
Farmers look to solar as crop prices fall
The CSEF industry is becoming a big business in rural America, buoyed by a $370 billion federal investment in clean energy projects through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. A Bloomberg news article reported last week that “farmers are increasingly embracing solar as a buffer against volatile crop prices and rising expenses. Their incomes are heading for a 26 percent slide this year, the biggest drop since 2006, as cash receipts for corn, soy and sugar cane are expected to drop by double-digit percentages.
“The shift is a big part of the renewables push in the US. American Farmland Trust estimates that 83 percent of expected future solar development will take place on agricultural soil. The movement is certain to get a kick from President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which has helped accelerate the clean energy boom through tax incentives for solar developers.”
Census of Agriculture data shows that the number of farms with solar systems increased by nearly 30 percent between 2017 and 2022, while the number of wind turbines owned by farmers rose more modestly, by 2.6 percent. Wind turbines placed on leased land by outside firms rose by just 2 percent. The solar panel increase of 30 percent equates to “more than 116,000 farms (that) had solar panels in 2022,” AgWeb.com reported.
“Due to improved solar technology over the last few decades, energy generated with solar panels is deemed to be the cheapest source of energy of any kind (renewable or fossil-based) at $0.06 to $0.08 per kilowatt-hour, even when taking into account its intermittent availability, by the International Energy Agency,” according to AgWeb. “Because renewable energy can be costly to set up, some farmers are leasing their land to developers, who typically cover
installation expenses and own the generated electricity. Others have installed their own panels, selling the energy back to the grid to offset the costs of powering their farm.”
More than half of large U.S. farmers say they have been offered at least $1,000 an acre during discussions about installing solar panels in lieu of planting crops on their farmland, according to a recent Purdue University poll. This indicates that bids have increased rapidly in value since 2021, when the most common offer was less than $750 an acre for solar installations.
Solar on the grow in urban areas, as well
On March 6, Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) launched $8.5 million in funding for the Community Solar Energy Sovereignty Grant Program. The program is part of a larger strategy to equitably grow the clean energy workforce in Illinois through the landmark Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA).
“The program supports community-based organizations and technical service providers in low-income and historically disadvantaged communities to plan, develop and execute community solar projects. Grantees will be selected through a competitive Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) process,” according to an Illinois e-News release.
The goal of the grant program is “to provide upfront seed capital funding to overcome barriers to project development caused by lack of capital in historically disadvantaged communities. The program prioritizes funding for community solar projects that are located in and provide community benefits to environmental justice or Restore Reinvest Renew (R3) communities. Environmental justice and R3 communities are areas where residents have historically been excluded from economic opportunities, including opportunities in the energy sector, and areas that experience high levels of pollution,” the news release stated, in part. Peoria, West Peoria, Pekin and South Pekin are considered R3 communities and eligible for funding under the state’s new Community Solar Energy Sovereignty Grant Program.
“Illinois is leading the fight against climate change and putting environmental justice front and center, said Governor JB Pritzker of the new grant program. “With this latest investment of $8.5 million to support solar energy projects in marginalized communities, we’ll create well-paying jobs and build healthier communities.”
