Lllionis Solar Farm

The project's developer scaled down plans due to a lack of funding; Underscoring the challenges Midwest states face in bringing solar online The difficulty experienced by even Wanxiang, a company known in the business world for having deep pockets may illustrate just how tough solar
But while the federal stimulus package pumped billions into renewable energy, that money has largely been allocated already, leaving entrepreneurs like Walters scrambling to patch together start-up funding. Like other states, he said, Illinois is at low ebb in available funding.
Located on the banks of the Rock River about 80 miles northwest of Chicago, Rockford is like many small Midwestern cities. A generation ago, it was a blue-collar powerhouse filled with machine shops and factories. Today, many of those workplaces have vanished, taking away thousands of jobs. The city now looks to green industries for help.
In April 2010, Rockford got a boost when Wanxiang, an Elgin, Ill.-based subsidiary of one of China's largest privately owned companies, opened a 40,000 square-foot solar panel factory. And in August 2010, Gov. Quinn announced with great fanfare that the state was giving Wanxiang a $4 million grant to kick-start the development of a 62-megawatt solar farm at the city's airport.
The Wanxiang proposal was an appealing vision. If fulfilled, Wanxiang would provide the city of 152,000 with power for 10,000 homes. The only other major solar farm proposed for the state was a 10-megawatt facility in Chicago owned by Exelon Corp., the parent company of ComEd, a public utility in northern Illinois.