Illinois could see energy shortages as early as twenty-thirty.
Now Democrats are working on a plan to prevent that by building more energy storage.
Capitol News Illinois reports the legislation could incentivize companies to build batteries to store solar and wind energy.
This would store extra power to use when the sun isn’t shining, or the wind isn’t blowing.
Senator Bill Cunningham says action needs to be taken now before it’s too late.
“We produce right now in Illinois about a hundred and thirty percent of the energy we use. So, we export energy. But that’s going to change. Because of the demand, because of data centers, because of quantum, because of new industrial development. So, we have to look forward.”
Republicans warned their colleagues that closing coal plants would lead to energy shortages when they passed a law to move to one hundred percent clean energy by twenty-fifty.
But sponsors of the bill say Illinois can’t go backwards and clean energy is the future.
