Lee County resident Doug Tarvestad expresses his opposition to the Prairie Brome Solar project, planned to be built south of Rochelle, at a county zoning hearing May 27, 2026. (Payton Felix)
The Lee County Board has approved a special-use permit for a 180-megawatt solar project to be developed on 1,816 acres of land in Alto and Reynolds townships.
The project, known as Prairie Brome Solar and approved by the board June 25, is the smallest of three solar projects in the works in Lee County within the next two years.
The largest, at 1.56 gigawatts, is known as Steward Creek Solar and is expected to cover about 9,500 acres in Alto and Willow Creek townships. Construction is expected to begin in 2027.
Next up is a 500-megawatt project known as South Dixon Solar that’s planned to cover about 3,838 acres of leased property in South Dixon Township, county records show.
[ Lee County solar project moving forward, will be one of the largest in the nation at 1.56 gigawatts ]
“We could have more solar activity happening here than almost anywhere in the country in 2027, 2028,” Lee County Industrial Development Association President Tom Demmer previously told Shaw Local.
“These projects moving forward is kind of more of an illustration of the overall need for more electricity. There’s just a real demand in the market for more power from whatever source is generating it,” Demmer said.
Prairie Brome Solar is being developed by the North Carolina-based company Geenex and will be located on land currently zoned as agricultural between Route 251 and Steward Road, north of Perry Road. Developers said they anticipate construction to begin in 2028, take about 18 months to two years to complete and that it will be taken down after 40 years. The project’s energy output will be interconnected to the existing transmission infrastructure in Lee County.
Prairie Brome Solar Director of Development Adam Czamanske (left) and Geenex Vice President of Development Donny de Castro (right) listen as residents living near a solar project south of Rochelle express their opposition at a Lee County zoning hearing on May 27, 2026. (Payton Felix)
At the zoning hearing May 27, residents from near the project’s planned footprint spoke in opposition, while local labor union representatives and Sauk Valley Community College’s recently retired president, Dave Hellmich, expressed their support by highlighting the positive impact it would have on the local economy.
“The economic impact of a project like this is quite significant,” Prairie Brome Solar Director of Development Adam Czamanske said.
The project will sit near the Lee-Ogle Enterprise Zone, and Czamanske said they’ve already had several commercial developers reach out regarding its proximity to that area.
Czamanske said they had a third party complete an economic impact analysis and “we see quite a bit of money coming into Lee County and the village of Steward area.”
That analysis estimated that $48.1 million would be spent locally and $22 million paid in local wages during construction of the project. Annually, it’s estimated that $3.3 million would be spent locally, $224,000 paid in wages and $25.2 million in property tax revenue.
Hellmich, when expressing his support, also spoke about how the company has gotten involved with community organizations in the past two years, such as becoming a member of Discover Dixon and donating to SVCC’s earned tuition program.
“Their willingness to invest locally and build genuine relationships speaks volumes about the type of partner they are,” Hellmich said.
Prairie Brome Solar opened a local office at 101 W. First St. in Dixon and started a community grant program that provides funding for organizations that serve Lee County, said Anne-Marie Williams, the project’s director of external affairs.
The project also includes an initiative that provides all Steward residents and those surrounding the project’s boundaries a $50 electric bill credit for the first five years of the operation of the project, Williams said.
“That is a way that we can ensure that the people that live the closest to the project share in its value,” Williams said.
Residents in opposition to the project cited several reasons why they were against it, such as damage to the area’s rural character, diminished property values and increased property taxes, electric bills, noise and traffic.
“It’s heartbreaking to watch prime farmland and one of the best agricultural regions in the country become more profitable to lease to solar companies than to actually farm,” resident Jen Tarvestad said.
Tarvestad said that it reflects “the impossible position they’ve been put in” by large companies, rising costs and shrinking profits.
Czamanske said that one of the big reasons why developers chose this area for the project is because of interested landowners who want “to keep the family farm in the family for generations to come.”
A unique aspect of this project is that many of those landowners will be living on the project’s footprint, Czamanske said.
The economic impact analysis estimated that $2.2 million would be paid annually to landowners for rent of their property, Czamanske said.
“We don’t benefit. The landowner benefits,” resident Doug Tarvestad said. “I’m just very sad. You work really hard, you try to do the right things, and then you get this humming box out in front of your yard.”
The project includes setbacks from property lines, roads and occupied buildings. There will also be an 8-foot fence around it that uses a prairie pollinator mix to cover the fencing, Czamanske said.
Jen said she also was concerned about decommissioning and what would happen if the project were sold to another company.
“It is very common that we see these projects change hands. It is not anything that would surprise us here at the county, but we do make sure that we have our safeguards in place to make sure we are protected should something go wrong in the future,” Lee County Zoning Administrator Alice Henkel said.
Prairie Brome Solar will have a surety bond in place with the county to cover the cost of decommissioning and restoration before construction begins. The permit and all its conditions will remain with the project even if it is bought by another company, Henkel said.
Another concern for residents was the impact on an active bald eagle’s nest along Steward Creek within the project’s area.
Bald eagles are federally protected, so developers plan to implement a 660-foot buffer around the nest as recommended by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They are not listed as a protected species in Illinois, Czamanske said.
Czamanske said there will be no construction within that buffer zone during the breeding season from Dec. 31 through July 31, but it can continue outside the buffer during that time.
“My concern is that the construction noise will be detrimental to the ongoing breeding of the pair of eagles in that nest,” said Kathy Ester, owner of land near the project.
Based on the May 27 hearing, Lee County Zoning Hearing Officer Brian Brim recommended that the County Board approve the permit with two conditions: that the permit runs with the land, expires after decommissioning, and the permit holder must reapply at the 40-year mark, county records show.
The board approved the permit with another condition recommended by Brim regarding set fines and ultimate revocation for any permit violations. The first violation is a $10,000 fine, the second is $25,000 and the third is $50,000. The permit would be revoked if the fine is not paid within 30 days, county records show.
Payton Felix reports on local news in the Sauk Valley for the Shaw Local News Network. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago in May of 2023.

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