DeKalb panel reviews proposal for 38-acre solar farm on city’s northwest side

DeKALB – A Colorado-based energy company this week sought to make its case for gaining clearance from a DeKalb panel to install a 5-megawatt solar farm on 38 acres at the southwest corner of Illinois Route 38 and John Huber Parkway near the city’s northwest side.

Michael Larkin, development manager for PureSky Energy, approached members of the DeKalb Planning and Zoning Commission Monday, requesting a review of the company’s concept plan.

“Our company, we develop, own and operate,” Larkin said. “We take pride in being a longterm asset to the community. We don’t have a develop-and-flip model.”

PureSky Energy is considering converting what is now recognized as an open field and is designated for agriculture use into a 5-megawatt solar farm west of Northern Illinois University.

It is all part of a larger company plan to have the city give consideration to annexation, rezoning approve development plan requests at a later date. No vote was taken.

Chairman Max Maxwell asked how many residences the solar farm would be capable of serving.

Larkin said anywhere between 4,000 and 5,000 residences could benefit from the company’s project, if brought online.

PureSky Energy has been in the business of installing solar farms since 2018, with some of its latest projects starting construction in late summer in McHenry and McClean counties.

Maxwell questioned how long it may take to decommission a solar farm once it’s been installed should city leaders find that opposition to the proposal were to grow.

The petitioner’s proposal comes with a decommission plan included, city documents show.

Larkin said the process of decommissioning the solar farm would only take a couple weeks should it ever need to be taken down.

“It’s a pretty low impact development,” Larkin said. “Once it’s decommissioned and ripped out of the ground, I mean the soil should be fertile and have laid fallow there for what 20 to 40 years, whatever the operation is. So it can easily go back into farmland if that is the intention.”

Typically, the operating life of a PureSky Energy solar farm ranges between 20 and 40 years, project leaders said.

The city is not the only agency to have reviewed the petitioner’s plan. So too has the DeKalb County Highway Department, which is calling for the right-of-way at the northeast and southeast corners of the site to be reserved for the future extension of John Huber Parkway south of Route 38.

City Planner Dan Olson said city staff wanted to provide the petitioner with an opportunity to get some feedback on whether to approach the City Council or the County Board about the company’s request.

“I think the county is pushing particular projects that are contiguous to the city to come to the city, and the county I know all the counties in Illinois have standard setbacks throughout the whole state for those. You probably can’t make it more strict,” Olson said.

Under best-case scenario, Larkin said PureSky Energy would look to obtain a building permit by spring 2025 and anticipate the solar farm’s development to be completed by fall 2025.