Mayor Lightfoot announces plan to switch city facilities to 100% renewable energy by 2025
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Mayor Lori Lightfoot plans to switch the city's municipal buildings to 100% renewable energy in the next few years.
The mayor's office announced an agreement with electric utility Constellation to purchase renewable power for all city facilities and operations by 2025, with their initial five-year energy supply agreement starting in January 2023.
"The 2022 climate action plan deepens our city's longstanding commitment to climate action, and sets a goal of reducing emissions in Chicago by 62% by 2040," Lightfoot said.
Beginning in 2025, the city will begin partially powering large facilities such as the airports, Harold Washington Library Center, and Jardine Water Purification Plant with solar power generated from Swift Current Energy solar farms in Sangamon and Morgan counties in downstate Illinois.
That solar farm project is expected to create hundreds of jobs, and be one of the largest solar projects in Illinois to date.
The city also will purchase renewable energy credits from other sources for its remaining power uses, such as small- and medium-sized buildings and street lights.
