Abstract

Industrial Corridor Solar Planning Assistance in Chicago, IL
Track: Renewable Energy
Authors: Keith Searles

As part of the Chicago Sustainable Industries Strategy, the Chicago Department of Housing and Economic Development assembled a team to perform an energy and economic feasibility study to determine how the City's supply of industrial buildings and associated property could become sites for solar power systems. GIS was used to visualize energy usage at the block-level, and then aggregate the data to Chicago's industrial corridors. The eight industrial corridors with the highest energy usage were intersected with the City's building footprints, and building clusters were identified that could be used to support, generate, and share electricity. The study found these building clusters present a tremendous opportunity for creating district-scale solar power, with over 125M square feet of rooftop area. Using a conservative assumption allowing for 10% of the available roof area to be covered in large-scale solar power installations would lead to job creation, cost savings, and greenhouse gas reductions.