Lee County, Illinois
Reliable & Clean Electricity
Connected, Reliable, Clean
Lee County is well-served by high-capacity transmission lines and has a diverse pool of energy generation assets, including natural gas, wind, solar, and hydroelectric. Local users can be confident in efficient delivery by ComEd and Rochelle Municipal Utilities, and can meet corporate green energy and carbon reduction goals through Lee County's wide-scale deployment of zero carbon generation projects.
Wind
Lee County is home to 276 wind turbines, with a total nameplate capacity of 646 MW -- starting in 2003 with Illinois' first utility-scale wind development, the 63-turbine Mendota Hills Wind Farm, to Lee County's newest 73-turbine Shady Oaks project which went online in 2023.
Solar
Utility-scale and community solar projects in development throughout Lee County currently cover more than 15,000 acres, and have more than 1,800 MW of total capacity, including an 11,000-acre/1,200MW project near Steward and Lee, and a 3,800-acre/500MW project in South Dixon Township.
Hydroelectric
Eagle Creek Renewable Energy operates a 3 MW hydroelectric generating station on the Rock River in Dixon. The facility is equipped with five IP Morris vertical turbines. The facility produces an average of 14,995 megawatt-hours per year. It was originally built in 1925 and has undergone regular refurbishment since.
Lee County Generating Station
Rockland Capital owns a 640 MW natural gas power plant with 8 General Electric, 7EA combustion turbines. Black-start capabilities consist of 3 2005-vintage, 1.4 MW Caterpillar emergency diesel generators, installed for powering auxiliaries and the switchyard for isolation or switching in the event of an emergency.
Nelson Energy Center
Invenergy and AMP Capitol Investors own a 584 MW combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power plant, with GE Power supplying 2 7F.04 gas turbines and 2 A10 steam turbines. The power generated from the project is sold to WPPI Energy under a power purchase agreement for a period of 20 years. The contracted capacity is 91.1MW.
Sauk Valley Hydrogen
The Sauk Valley clean hydrogen pilot project is located on five acres of land near the Nelson Energy Center. Invenergy will power the hydrogen facility with clean energy, using our expertise in co-locating clean energy technologies to pair the site with Sauk Valley’s nearby solar array. The clean hydrogen facility is expected to generate up to 40 tons of clean hydrogen annually, with the capacity for 400 kilograms of hydrogen to be stored on site. Invenergy expects to ship most of the surplus hydrogen offsite to be used for other purposes.