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Logan County Board
New battery storage facility rumored near proposed data center
[January 16, 2026]
On Thursday, January 15th, the
Logan County Board held their monthly Workshop meeting in the
second-floor courtroom of the Logan County Courthouse at 6:00 p.m.
Of the twelve members of the board, eight were in attendance. These
present members were Vice Chairman Dale Nelson, Lance Conahan,
Michael DeRoss, Kevin Knauer, Joseph Kuhlman, Bob Sanders, Kathy
Schmidt, and Gil Turner. Absent members were Chairman JR Glenn,
Hannah Fitzpatrick, Keenan Leesman, and Jim Wessbecher. Also present
at the meeting were Administrative Assistant Madelyn Hinton, Zoning
and Economic Development Officer Al Green, and Thomas Titus with the
Logan County Farm Bureau. For a breakdown of other items discussed
in this meeting, please read LDN’s other article on this meeting.
After the previous committee reports, Zoning and Economic
Development was up. As DeRoss is the chairman of this committee, he
presented the items again. The first two items were nearly
identical. Green explained that the two solar projects that had
previously been approved but were sent back for some minor changes
were coming back around for approval. These solar projects, referred
to as Stovepipe and Red Bird, had been sent back because of an issue
in the decommissioning plan about salvage. The companies were going
to subtract what they expected to make in salvage at the end of the
project from the bonds they would give the county for
decommissioning. The county did not like this, as they were unsure
that the numbers provided for salvage would still be accurate by the
time the project was ready to be decommissioned. This being the
case, the county wanted the entire amount in the bond, with no
mention of salvage prices. Both projects have now complied and are
looking for approval. It was not stated where these projects would
be located.
DeRoss had one more motion for penalties for companies that operate
energy projects, like solar and wind farms, should they break the
county’s ordinance. He stated that the Zoning Board of Appeals had
unanimously approved this, and that it was reviewed and signed off
by Hauge.
The Safety and Finance committees did not have any items to bring
forward, and so Nelson moved the board on to announcements. It was
here that Green dropped several bombs on new projects that are
rumored to be coming to the county. He stated that he has gotten
wind of a 900 acre solar farm that is supposedly looking to be built
near Chestnut. While it is just a rumor at this time, Green stated
that, from what he has heard, it is a “strong rumor.”
Green stated that he has also
gotten wind of a battery storage facility that is being proposed to
be built right next to the proposed Hut 8 data center near Latham.
For those who do not know, a battery storage facility is where
excess power, often from solar or wind farms, is housed in
rechargeable batteries, which are most often lithium-ion batteries.
According to Green, this facility would be about 100 acres large and
would hold 200 megawatts (MW) of power.
[to top of second column] |
The Peregrine Energy Storage Project is situated in San Diego’s
Barrio Logan community. | Arevon Energy
Green then pulled out his phone,
showing the board and everyone in attendance a photo he had found of
a 200 MW battery storage facility in San Diego, California. Green
showed this photo, which is from an Interesting Engineering article
and pictured above, to give everyone an idea of what this proposed
battery storage facility could look like. “If the people in that
area are upset about a landscaped data center,” Green said, “wait
until they see this.”
Green also mentioned that Hut 8, the company behind the proposed
data center, is not a fan of this battery storage facility.
According to Green, they have tried to purchase the land that the
facility is looking to be built on to buy them out.
In addition to this, new
legislation was just passed last week in Senate Bill 25 that could
keep the County Board from voting against either the battery storage
facility or the data center. According the Green, this legislation,
which goes into effect on June 1st, 2026, will require County Boards
to approve all data centers and battery storage facilities so long
as they meet the requirements of the county ordinance, which will
need to be modified to comply with state law within 90 days of that
June 1st date. This is much like the current law on wind and solar
farms, as counties can be sued for voting against these projects if
the companies have met all of the requirements.
The county has recently set up an email for concerned citizens to
email the county board about concerns relating to the proposed data
center. The email, datacenter@logancountyil.gov, will allow you to
speak to your local board representative on the matter. Hut 8 can
also be emailed directly about the issue at logancountydatacenter@hut8.com.
There are also other resources relating to the data center, as well
as other board matters on the board’s
website.
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