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    Comcast acquiring majority of 300-MW Blue Sky Solar farm output under development in Illinois

    April 1, 2022
    Comcast’s 15-year power purchase agreement sets aside 250 MW of solar capacity to offset and reduce carbon emissions. The 250 MW would account for about 12 percent of Comcast’s overall U.S. operations.
    Image credit Scout Energy
    Scout Energy Blue S Ky 62472d1e81052

    Entertainment giant Comcast is paying generation utility Constellation in a long-term deal to help fund construction of a 300-MW solar project in Illinois.

    The Blue Sky Solar Project is being developed by Scout Clean Energy. Comcast’s 15-year power purchase agreement sets aside 250 MW of solar capacity to offset and reduce carbon emissions from its Chicago area operations.

    The 250 MW would account for about 12 percent of Comcast’s overall U.S. energy use. Philadelphia-based Comcast owns internet services, cable networks and broadcast companies such as NBC, CNBC, USA Network SyFy, among many others.

    The mass media conglomerate hopes to be carbon neutral by 2035.

    “This marks the first of many major green investments that are already underway or on the immediate horizon which demonstrate our commitment to sustainable, responsible business.” said Peter Kiriacoulacos, Executive Vice President and Chief Procurement Officer at Comcast.

    Comcast’s renewable energy strategy will prioritize securing green tariffs, direct power purchase agreements (PPAs), and virtual PPAs through contracts that bring new renewable capacity to the grid. It will also include building onsite renewable energy capacity and supplementing electricity needs with purchases from existing clean energy projects or renewable energy certificates (RECs).

    Earlier this year,  Scout Clean Energy announced it had acquired the utility-scale Blue Sky Solar project from the RES Group. It is predicted to provide 585,000 MWh of carbon-free, renewable electricity.

    Blue Sky Solar, once it’s operational, will discharge solar power into the PJM Interconnection. Scout Energy expects to employ about 400 construction jobs and 20 long-term posts once it’s completed and operational by December 2024.

    The project is being located on agricultural cropland in Gundy County, Ill. The total 300-MW capacity could offset 900,000 tons of carbon dioxide compared to conventional power generation, according to the company website.

    Scout Energy also is developing utility-scale solar and wind projects in Texas, South Dakota, California, Washington, Indiana and Illinois.

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    (Rod Walton, senior editor for EnergyTech, is a 14-year veteran of covering the energy industry both as a newspaper and trade journalist. He can be reached at [email protected]).

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    About the Author

    Rod Walton, EnergyTech Managing Editor | Senior Editor

    For EnergyTech editorial inquiries, please contact Managing Editor Rod Walton at [email protected].

    Rod Walton has spent 15 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist. He formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    Walton earned his Bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Oklahoma. His career stops include the Moore American, Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, Wagoner Tribune and Tulsa World. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids. The C&I sectors together account for close to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.

    He was named Managing Editor for Microgrid Knowledge and EnergyTech starting July 1, 2023

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

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