(The Center Square) – Some state legislators are aiming to allow for more battery storage in Illinois to capture and store solar and wind energy, but others are pushing back saying coal is more reliable.
State Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, filed Senate Bill 2497 to allow for 15 gigawatt battery storage facilities to store wind and solar energy across the state.
“Illinois energy demands will outpace our supply as early as 2030,” Cunningham said during a news conference at the capitol. “Battery storage is needed to reduce that probability and the expense.”
Cunningham said it wasn’t premature for the state to pass a law aiming to close most coal-fired power plants by 2030 and all of them by 2045.
Separately, state Rep. Dave Severin, R-Benton, said there is a need for more battery storage, but coal is vital.
“You get rid of that footprint today, you just turned your lights off, you just turned your power off, you turned your heat off, so this is so premature,” Severin told The Center Square. “And the other things is coal has never been cleaner than it is today.”
Cunningham couldn’t put a dollar amount on what the taxpayer-funded subsidies would be for such a project.
“So there’s a small upfront cost, but that has a price suppression effect in the long range,” Cunningham said.
Severin, who is the ranking member on the House Energy and Environment Committee, said all the alternative energy proposals seem to rely on subsidies.
“And that’s the thing, all of these different things that are these initiatives that are being pushed, it’s with subsidies,” he said. “The subsidies go away, then where are we at?”
Severin said he lives in a “black and white” world where costs must be known and not just have theories or ideas.
SB 2497 remains in the Senate Assignments Committee. House Bill 3758, from state Rep. Marcus Evans, Jr., D-Chicago, remains in the House Rules Committee.