For five years, a large solar array has been planned for the Lininger Industrial Park on the west edge of Kewanee.
But today, the tract of land just across the tracks on the Page Street blacktop is covered with weeds, not solar panels.
Kathy Albert, executive director of the Kewanee Economic Development Corp. (KEDC), told the City Council Monday that the project is still in the works.
A California company, Sunpin Solar, is developing the solar facility, and Albert said, “The Sunpin project is not dead.”
KEDC has been working for five years with the Sunpin people, city officials and others involved in the project, Albert said.
She said Sunpin has already invested around $5 million in the project, for such things as installing the connection between the Page Street location and an Ameren Illinois substation to the south, getting state approval and doing soil testing.
Albert said Sunpin is taking bids for a contractor to install the panels, which are being made by a U.S. company.
Once the development is up and running, she said, the taxable value of the Lininger site will increase from $48,000 today to more than $5 million.
That increase will mean a sizable boost in revenue for the city’s Tax Increment Financing fund, Albert said.
She said a major part of KEDC’s work involves convincing local businesses to stay here, instead of moving out. In recent years, she said, KEDC efforts have convinced Rhino Tool, Boss Companies, Moore Tire and Great Dane to stay — and even expand — in Kewanee.
It’s a challenging job, Albert said; “It’s very difficult to keep businesses in Illinois.”
