Powered up: Kendall County leaders celebrate solar field activation on county government campus

Thousands of solar panels make up a farm used to power the Kendall County Jail, Health Department and Courthouse.

Kendall County governmental officials gathered on a slightly cloudy afternoon, April 17, to celebrate the completion of an approximate seven acre solar farm constructed on a formerly vacant parcel on the county government campus off Veterans Parkway (Route 34) in Yorkville.

The solar farm with its 5,500 solar panels will generate electricity to help power the adjacent county jail, courthouse and health department buildings.

The county board approved the installation of the facility in March 2018. Under terms of a 25 year-agreement with the county, the solar field is owned, operated and maintained by GRNE Solar of Palatine. GRNE Solar was awarded the project through a bidding process hosted by Progressive Energy Solutions, project developer and the county.

Progressive Business Solutions Founder Chris Childress said that power generated by the farm will save Kendall County and its taxpayers at least $160,000 a year in energy costs or $4 million over the full term of the agreement.

“This is our future,” Childress said.

While no taxpayer dollars were used to fund the cost of the facility, every customer of ComEd who pays their bills, pays into a fund for renewable energy - a fund used to help construct the farm, he noted.

About 60% of the energy needed to power the three county buildings will come from the field, Childress said.


“This is exactly the kind of project we wanted to see here in Kendall County, County Board Chairman Scott Gryder said.

“It’s fiscally responsible, environmentally sustainable, and is something that is going to save the taxpayers almost $4 million over the life of the lease (agreement),” he said.

“The future is in alternative energies and sources, so for us to be able to have the savings here at this campus...is really neat,” Gryder added.

Progressive Business Solutions’ website monitors the total energy produced by the farm since it was activated in December. A Live Solar Field Production Map tracks the current amount of energy produced by the farm at any point in the day, while a separate metric tracks the total amount of energy produced per day in kilowatts per hour (kWh).

By about 2 p.m., April 17, the farm had produced about 7,500 kWh - about the amount of energy needed by one household for an entire year, according to the website.

As of April 16, the farm had produced 870, 381 kWh. The website also tracks the environmental impact of the farm, including the number of acres of forests saved in the United States, and the number of cell phones that could be charged by the energy produced by the farm.