Mooseheart Child City & School

Mooseheart Child City & School partnered with ForeFront Power to complete and commence the commercial operation of the largest solar project in Kane County, Illinois. ForeFront Power installed the 2.8 megawatt ground-mounted solar field with 7,384 panels across eight acres of the 1,000-acre Mooseheart campus. The solar field will deliver power to the Mooseheart Child City and School, a residential childcare facility dedicated to youth in need, and is expected to save the non-profit millions of dollars in energy costs over the next 25 years.

“Since we are a non-profit organization funded through the generosity of donors, every dollar counts. We are very pleased to partner with ForeFront Power in this opportunity to demonstrate strong fiscal stewardship, and with the money saved over the next 25 years of the solar project’s life, we’ll be able to reinvest those dollars into other programs in order to better serve our youth,” said executive director of Mooseheart, Gary Urwiler. “We understand that clean air and a healthy environment are linked to a child’s potential for success, so it aligns squarely within our mission to offset 114 million pounds of carbon emissions with this energy project, directly contributing to cleaner air and a better overall environment for the young children and teens we serve every day.”

The Mooseheart solar project was successfully funded and developed with support from the Illinois Adjustable Block Program created by the Future Energy Jobs Act which aims to create new clean energy jobs and generate new clean electricity for the state. The project ended up creating more than 44 jobs during the construction and operation phases.

“The Mooseheart solar project is a testament to the job-creation engine that solar energy has become in our state over the past few years as a result of the Future Energy Jobs Act.” said Rep. Keith Wheeler of Illinois’ 50th district. “The Mooseheart organization is a treasure in the Fox Valley for a long list of reasons, and their leadership of building one of the largest solar projects in our local area is just the latest example of why.”

Mooseheart’s solar project is a single ground-mounted project that sits on their 1,000-acre campus located 38 miles west of Chicago. Progressive Energy Group of Aurora, Ill., helped Mooseheart Child City and School source this clean electricity deal and oversaw the endeavor from inception to completion. SolAmerica served as ForeFront Power’s engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) partner on the Mooseheart project.

CustomerKane CountySegmentPublic SectorTypeGround MountCapacity2,803 kWYear2021LocationMooseheart, Illinois