Article Summary: A developer planning a 260-megawatt solar facility near Beecher has offered the village a $100,000 community benefit donation in exchange for a resolution of non-objection for the project. The board is now considering the offer and what local capital project the funds could support, with completing sidewalks for the Safe Routes to School program emerging as an early suggestion.

Plum Valley Solar Project Key Points:

• Project Scope: Earthrise Energy is proposing Plum Valley Solar, a 260-megawatt, utility-scale solar facility in unincorporated Will County, near the village boundaries of Beecher and Crete.

• Community Benefit Agreement: The company has offered the Village of Beecher a $100,000 donation for a community capital project if the board passes a resolution of non-objection for the facility.

• Proposed Use of Funds: Trustee Jessica Smith suggested using the potential funds to complete unfinished sidewalks for the Safe Routes to School program, a project for which the village has previously sought grant funding unsuccessfully.

• Project Timeline: Earthrise expects to begin the 18-to-20-month construction process in mid-2026, with the facility potentially becoming operational in the first quarter of 2028.

BEECHER, IL – The Village of Beecher Board on Tuesday, October 14, 2025, heard a proposal for a major solar energy project planned for nearby unincorporated Will County that includes a significant financial incentive for the village.

Ryan Duny, a senior development associate with Earthrise Energy, presented plans for the Plum Valley Solar project, a 260-megawatt facility that will connect to the company’s existing natural gas peaker plant in Crete. While the project lies outside Beecher’s corporate limits, its proximity—within 1.5 miles—makes the village a key stakeholder, according to the company.

As part of its community outreach, Earthrise Energy is offering Beecher a $100,000 donation through a Community Benefit Agreement (CBA). The payment is contingent on the village board passing a resolution of “no objection” to the project as the company prepares to submit its special use permit applications to Will County.

“This is not asking you to endorse the solar facility, but asking for basically a neutral position on it,” Duny explained. He added that the donation is intended to support “a meaningful capital project that is of interest to the village residents.”

Trustee Jessica Smith immediately proposed a potential use for the funds: completing the sidewalks for the Safe Routes to School program. “We’ve never been able to fill in all those sidewalks,” Smith said, noting the village had unsuccessfully applied for multiple grants for the project in the past. “People are coming and stopping at the sidewalk and walking in the streets… I don’t even know how much it would cost or how much of it we could do, but something.”

The idea was met with initial agreement as a visible project that residents would use daily. The board decided to table a formal decision on the agreement to allow more time to consider the best use for the potential funds. The payout of the donation would likely occur in early 2028 when the facility is projected to begin operations.

Duny detailed that Plum Valley Solar is projected to generate approximately $2.6 million in new tax revenue in its first year for various local taxing bodies. He highlighted that Beecher School District 200-U would receive about $400,000 and Crete-Monee School District would see around $1.5 million. Fire districts are also expected to be major beneficiaries.

The project will be built entirely with union labor, following an agreement with the area’s trade unions.

In response to questions from Trustee Joe Tieri about construction traffic, Duny stated that road use agreements are currently being negotiated with township road commissioners and that a definitive traffic plan is still in development. The project’s footprint is primarily north and west of the village, with its easternmost parcels running along the CSX railway line near Eagle Lake Road.

Earthrise Energy, which operates as a public benefit limited liability corporation, owns and operates five natural gas power plants in Illinois, including two in Will County. Duny explained the company’s “surplus interconnection strategy,” which involves building solar projects adjacent to its gas plants to use their existing, underutilized connections to the high-capacity transmission grid. This allows the company to bring solar facilities online much faster than typical projects, which can wait four to five years in a utility queue.

The company plans to submit its special use permit applications to Will County and the Village of Crete shortly, with hopes of starting construction by July or August of 2026.