Cook County Completes Solar Installation at Skokie Courthouse
Recently, Cook County in Illinois celebrated the end of a solar installation at its courthouse in Skokie. This week, county authorities and solar provider Ameresco cut the ribbon.
Toni Preckwinkle, head of the Cook County Board of Commissioners, stated,
“We set big goals to fight climate change, and we are reaching them.”
“These solar panels let us make clean energy on-site, cut down on pollution, lower our operating costs, and get closer to our goal of powering all County buildings with 100% renewable electricity.”
Expanding Solar Portfolio Across County Facilities
Two of the county’s courthouses, Skokie and Markham, were among the first places to have solar panels once the Clean Energy Plan came out in 2020. There are 17 more solar projects in the works. When they are done, they should raise the amount of renewable energy used in the county to around 32% of all the power used in its buildings. The county found 14.2 MW of prospective solar power on government-owned land.
The roof and parking area of the Skokie courthouse can hold 1.3 MW of power. The Markham courthouse features an 806-kW array.
In addition to the electricity it generates on-site, the Skokie solar project also gets rebates and other incentives that help it save even more money. In addition to expanding solar power, Cook County is still putting money into making buildings more energy efficient. This includes upgrading lighting, boilers, cooling systems, and building control systems to cut down on energy usage and emissions even further.
Progress Toward Clean Energy Goals
The solar panels help Cook County reach the goals set out in its Clean Energy Plan. These goals include cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, making the county’s facilities carbon neutral by 2050, and using 100% renewable electricity in all county-owned and operated buildings by 2030. Cook County has already gone over its intermediate emissions reduction target, with a 52.7% decrease thus far. This achievement earned the county a 2025 National Association of Counties (NACo) Achievement Award.
