More cities are looking to green projects to fight climate change. Chicago is now powering all its municipal buildings with 100% renewable energy and the city helped finance a major solar farm. Sponsor Message
AILSA CHANG, HOST: In effort to fight climate change, cities across the country are working to go green – think solar panels, trees, electric buses. Well, the country’s third-largest city just took a major step. At the start of the year, Chicago began sourcing all of the electricity in its municipal buildings from 100% renewable energy. Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco, of member station WBEZ and the environmental newsroom Grist, has this story.JUANPABLO RAMIREZ-FRANCO, BYLINE: It’s a cold, windy morning in downtown Chicago, and Angela Tovar crosses a busy LaSalle Street.ANGELA TOVAR: We have police stations. We have fire stations. We have libraries. We have buildings that provide city services.RAMIREZ-FRANCO: She’s the head of the city’s department of environment, and she’s listing off buildings that are or will soon be powered by renewable energy.TOVAR: There’s all types of buildings, in terms of size and in terms of function, scattered throughout the city.RAMIREZ-FRANCO: And this one’s City Hall.TOVAR: This one’s City Hall.RAMIREZ-FRANCO: Stepping inside Chicago’s massive City Hall, it’s bustling. All around us, a flurry of busy people are rushing in and out of elevators. Now, those elevators, the lights, the Wi-Fi, the computers, everything in City Hall traces its electricity back to primarily solar energy. The same goes for over 400 municipal buildings across town.TOVAR: This year, the city is transitioning to 100% renewable energy.RAMIREZ-FRANCO: City officials say the move will cut Chicago’s carbon footprint by approximately 290,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. Using the Environmental Protection Agency’s emission calculator, Tovar estimates that’s the equivalent of taking 62,000 cars off the road.Of course, the city is still connected to the regional grid, which in northern Illinois, relies heavily on nuclear power. Still, Chicago will effectively be paying for the renewable energy equivalent to what it uses every day. The city struck an agreement in 2022 to curb the city’s carbon emissions, not just by purchasing renewable energy, but by leveraging the city’s buying power to help finance new renewable energy projects.MATTHEW POPKIN: It’s the largest municipal deal that’s truly bringing on new renewable energy onto the grid versus contracting for existing renewable energy.RAMIREZ-FRANCO: That’s Matthew Popkin with RMI, a think tank focused on decarbonization. He provided the technical assistance to help the city finalize the agreement. Here’s how it works. Electric customers in Illinois get to choose exactly who they buy their electricity from. And when the customer is as big as Chicago, they have room to negotiate.The city decided it didn’t want to just rely on existing solar power and wanted