Lee County is going to be home to one of the largest solar projects in the United States, with the first portion of construction set to begin in 2027.

The 1.56 gigawatt project, known as Steward Creek Solar, has been in the works for several years and will cover a total of about 9,500 acres in Alto and Willow Creek townships. On Feb. 2, renewable energy company TerraForm Power announced it had acquired the project from its original developer, achieved a major milestone needed for the project to move forward and released a construction timeline, according to a news release from TerraForm.

“For several years that project has been waiting on an interconnection agreement from the grid operator, and they have that now. That was a really crucial piece in the project moving forward,” Lee County Industrial Development Association President Tom Demmer told Shaw Local.

TerraForm signed that agreement with Commonwealth Edison and PJM Interconnection, which allows it to connect the first 600 megawatts of the project to the electrical grid, according to the news release.

The project will be developed in two phases near the Interstate 39 corridor, with each expected to generate approximately 1.3 terawatt hours of energy annually once operational. Construction of the first phase is expected to begin in 2027 and be operational in 2029. Construction of phase two is expected to begin in 2028 and be operational in 2030.

The original developer, Hexagon Energy, based in Virginia, applied for a special use permit from the Lee County Board in 2020.

“Steward Creek is a flagship project for Hexagon, and we sought a partner with the expertise and capability to bring one of the country’s largest solar projects to successful completion,” Hexagon Chief Executive Officer Matt Hanztmon said in the release.

Demmer said the project has received county board approval on the special use permits and that he expects the next steps from the county side of it will be to issue building permits.

Lee County Zoning Administrator Alice Henkel did not immediately respond to Shaw Local’s request for comment on what the next steps will be.

“I think that these projects moving forward is kind of more of an illustration of the overall need for more electricity,” Demmer said. “There’s just a real demand in the market for more power from whatever source is generating it” so “projects that are already this far down the line are really valuable today.”

He explained that a lot of things “are using power that didn’t 10 years ago” such as data centers and electric vehicles, Demmer said.

For Lee County, “because this is one of the biggest projects in the country...we’re going to see a huge number of people coming into the region during those construction phases,” Demmer said, adding that he expects places such as hotels, gas stations and restaurants to be busy.

Another solar project appears to be on somewhat of the same timeline as Steward Creek, Demmer said.

That project, known as South Dixon Solar, is planned to generate 500 megawatts and cover about 3,838 acres of leased property in South Dixon Township, county records show.

If that goes through, “we could have more solar activity happening here than almost anywhere in the country in 2027, 2028,” Demmer said.