Solar farm could turn polluted land to boon for East St. Louis electric bills

East St. Louis wants to turn a polluted property once owned by the aluminum company Alcoa into a community solar project that could save residents money on their electric bills.

Under this model, residents would pay a $50 yearly subscription fee to receive credits on their electric bills, said City Manager Robert Betts.

Betts said the 15-megawatt solar farm will supply free energy to about 2,000 low-income residents who pay a $50 yearly subscription fee. Another 1,000 higher-income residents can expect to save up to half off their bills.

Any leftover energy would go to power city buildings and possibly new businesses.

Construction is expected to start this month and be completed next year. Betts said the city is still waiting for Ameren Illinois to approve the interconnection agreement.

East St. Louis proposed the project about 20 years ago when he first became city manager.

“We tried it way back then, thinking that the process for the cleanup would only take a few years, no more than five, but it’s taken 20-some years to get this done,” he said.

Now Betts is again city manager and picking up where he left off.

“What can we do to pass some savings on to the citizens, which are low income and struggling to make these monthly utility payments?” he said. “So that’s what really drove me to make sure that we start this project back up.”

Many people in East St. Louis live on fixed incomes, Betts said. According to the U.S. census, 32% of residents are in poverty — three times the national average. Twenty-three percent are seniors.

The city worked with Renewable Energy Evolution to develop the project through the Biden administration’s Solar for All program.

President Donald Trump’s administration clawed back some of that money, but company founder and CEO Brian Maillet said Illinois was able to get that funding into state accounts quickly.

“Illinois got a lion’s share of that money from the federal government because they already had this program in place, so you know the state of Illinois is the place to be right now for solar,” he said.

Maillet said his company will pay the city upfront to lease the land for the project — which should result in more than a million dollars in revenue to East St. Louis. The city would take ownership of the solar farm within seven years.

East St. Louis residents will also have to make up 30% of the workforce under the company’s contract.

“We’re going to be training folks, reeducating them and getting them ready for the green energy economy that’s happening right now,” Maillet said.

Because toxic heavy metals and radioactive material are buried just a few feet underground at the former Alcoa site, a solar farm is one of the only safe uses of the land.

Betts said the solar farm is one of many projects the city is taking on to revitalize East St. Louis — including expanding Gateway Arch National Park to the other side of the river.

“We’re building housing developments throughout the city. We’re improving our infrastructure, so this is a good time to be a city manager in East St. Louis,” Betts said.