University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Grainger College of Engineering
Illinois Center for Transportation

Illinois turning up the power for solar energy

10/26/2021 McCall Macomber

Illinois aims to get 25 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025 in agreement with its renewable energy portfolio standard.

One way to meet this goal? Solar panels.

Here to help are Illinois Center for Transportation and Illinois Department of Transportation in their joint project, “R27-207: Technical and Financial Feasibility Study for Installation of Solar Panels at IDOT-owned Facilities.”

Christopher Schmidt, IDOT’s air quality manager, leads the effort with Todd Rusk and Brian Deal, associate director and director, respectively, of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Smart Energy Design Assistance Center.

“(IDOT) is one of the largest landowners in the state of Illinois,” Schmidt said. “IDOT is committed to using this land to best serve the motoring public of Illinois and begin to make Illinois a leader in renewable energy.”

Solar energy prices in Illinois have declined 43 percent in the last five years, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. As prices continue to fall, more and more people are looking toward solar energy. Over the next five years, the amount of solar energy installed in Illinois is expected to grow by more than 1,700 percent.
Solar energy prices in Illinois have declined 43 percent in the last five years, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association. As prices continue to fall, more and more people are looking toward solar energy. Over the next five years, the amount of solar energy installed in Illinois is expected to grow by more than 1,700 percent.

To help IDOT prepare for a greener future, the team assess the possibility of obtaining and installing solar panels on lands and buildings owned by the agency.

They seek to answer two key questions: how much solar energy is needed based on electricity consumption and where can solar panels be placed?

To study the potential impacts of solar panels, they explore three purchasing methods to procure solar projects as well as create financial models.

“(We) learned that the larger the project, the lower the cost for installation and the more potential for the largest generation of electricity,” Schmidt said. “Larger sites and even collaboration with other state agencies would produce the ‘biggest bang for our buck.’”

To determine which areas of land would be best for solar panels, researchers screened potential installation sites and met with key stakeholders.

Areas such as rest stops or offices are ideal for solar panel installation because they don’t hinder traffic flow or interfere with roadway maintenance.

Key to the effort is a mapping tool developed by the research team to help IDOT easily identify potential sites for solar panels.

The solar panel mapping tool developed in the ICT-IDOT project. Blue and red dots indicate promising and poor areas, respectively, for solar panel installation. Users can zoom in on the locations to obtain more data about the potential site.
The solar panel mapping tool developed in the ICT-IDOT project. Blue and red dots indicate promising and poor areas, respectively, for solar panel installation. Users can zoom in on the locations to obtain more data about the potential site.

The tool screens more than 1,000 sites and combines hundreds of data points to allow users to quickly scan possible suitable installation areas.

“We have preliminary information for each of those sites indicating the size of the site, whether it is potentially suitable or not suitable (for solar sites), and then the size of system that could be accommodated and the energy production that might be expected from a system on that site,” Rusk said.

All in all, the researchers are optimistic about what the future has in store for solar energy in Illinois.

“IDOT, like any other state agency, is here to serve the people of Illinois,” Schmidt said. “The ability to install these (solar) arrays and offset our carbon footprint seems like a no-brainer.”

If employed in the near future, IDOT could become one of the largest producers of renewable energy in the state of Illinois,” he added. “You just can’t pass that opportunity up!”