Brownfield & Retired Power Plant Sites in Illinois
68 catalogued brownfield and retired-generation sites in Illinois, listed by former capacity. Each carries an existing utility-scale grid interconnection that a new datacenter load may be able to re-use.
At a glance
What kinds of former sites are in Illinois?
By former use, the list includes 27 natural gas, 17 oil, 15 coal, 4 landfill, 1 Superfund, 1 hydroelectric and 3 other categories. Recorded retirement dates run from January 1950 to December 2024, with 28 retirements in 2015 or later. 61 of 66 sites with a measured distance sit within 2 miles of a transmission substation.
How does Illinois compare with other states?
Illinois ranks 7th of 50 states and DC by number of brownfield and retired-generation sites, out of 2,085 nationally. By recorded capacity (15,999 MW) it ranks 3rd, against 289,280 MW across all states. The state also has 3,641 scored datacenter candidate sites, 33 of them classed as brownfield sites, averaging 53.6 on the 0–100 DC Readiness scale.
Where in Illinois are these sites?
- Cook County · 9
- Will County · 5
- Madison County · 4
- Ogle County · 4
- Lake County · 3
- DuPage County · 3
- Randolph County · 2
- Sangamon County · 2
- LaSalle County · 2
- Pike County · 2
- Champaign County · 2
- Clinton County · 2
- Grundy County · 1
- Montgomery County · 1
- Mason County · 1
- Jackson County · 1
- Jasper County · 1
- Putnam County · 1
- Vermilion County · 1
- Williamson County · 1
- Winnebago County · 1
- Fayette County · 1
- Peoria County · 1
- Lasalle County · 1
All brownfield and retired plant sites in Illinois
| Site | Former use | Capacity | Retired | County |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Collins | gas | 2,650 MW | 2004-10-01 | Grundy |
| Joliet 29 | gas | 1,320 MW | 2023-09-01 | Will |
| Will County | coal | 1,269 MW | 2022-06-01 | Will |
| Coffeen | coal | 1,005 MW | 2019-11-01 | Montgomery |
| Crawford | coal | 805 MW | 2012-08-01 | Cook |
| Waukegan | coal | 803 MW | 2022-06-01 | Lake |
| Havana | coal | 718 MW | 2019-11-01 | Mason |
| Wood River | coal | 650 MW | 2016-05-01 | Madison |
| Grand Tower Energy Center LLC | gas | 641 MW | 2024-04-01 | Jackson |
| Baldwin Energy Complex | coal | 635 MW | 2020-08-01 | Randolph |
| Newton | coal | 617 MW | 2016-09-01 | Jasper |
| Venice | oil | 512 MW | 2011-09-01 | Madison |
| Joliet 9 | gas | 508 MW | 2023-06-01 | Will |
| Southeast Chicago Energy Project | gas | 407 MW | 2024-03-01 | Cook |
| Zion Energy Center | gas | 398 MW | — | Lake |
| Dallman | coal | 388 MW | 2024-03-01 | Sangamon |
| Fisk Street | coal | 374 MW | 2012-08-01 | Cook |
| Hennepin Power Station | coal | 306 MW | 2019-11-01 | Putnam |
| Electric Junction | gas | 304 MW | 2004-12-01 | DuPage |
| Calumet | gas | 278 MW | 2004-12-01 | Cook |
| Vermilion | coal | 197 MW | 2011-11-01 | Vermilion |
| Marion | coal | 173 MW | 2020-11-01 | Williamson |
| Bloom | oil | 152 MW | 2003-01-01 | Cook |
| Sabrooke | oil | 150 MW | 2004-12-01 | Winnebago |
| Lombard | oil | 133 MW | 2004-12-01 | DuPage |
| Stallings | gas | 95 MW | 2013-01-01 | Madison |
| Lakeside | coal | 75 MW | 2009-10-01 | Sangamon |
| Freedom Power Project | gas | 71 MW | 2024-05-01 | Fayette |
| Oglesby | gas | 70 MW | 2013-01-01 | LaSalle |
| Archer Daniels Midland Peoria | gas | 46 MW | 2017-12-01 | Peoria |
| Depue/New Jersey Zince/Mobil Chemical Corp. | superfund | 26 MW | — | — |
| Pearl Station | coal | 22 MW | 2012-06-01 | Pike |
| City of Peru Water Street Generating Sta | oil | 19 MW | 2011-12-01 | Lasalle |
| Orchard Hills Renewable Energy Station | gas | 16 MW | 2022-03-01 | Ogle |
| Lockport Powerhouse | hydro | 16 MW | 1950-01-01 | Will |
| Rantoul | oil | 16 MW | 2017-03-01 | Champaign |
| Belleville Landfill Project | landfill | 13 MW | — | — |
| South Main Street | gas | 12 MW | 2003-08-01 | Ogle |
| Exelon City Solar | brownfield | 10 MW | — | — |
| Pittsfield | oil | 9 MW | 2011-12-01 | Pike |
| City of Peru Plank Road Generating Station | oil | 8 MW | 2011-04-01 | LaSalle |
| ITT Cogen Facility | gas | 7 MW | 2024-12-01 | Cook |
| Zion Landfill Gas to Energy Facility | gas | 7 MW | 2021-01-01 | Lake |
| Solar Star Urbana Landfill Community Solar Farm | landfill | 5 MW | — | — |
| Prairie View IL | gas | 5 MW | 2022-07-01 | Will |
| Archer Daniels Midland Taylorville | gas | 5 MW | 2003-01-01 | Christian |
| 1515 S Caron Road | gas | 4 MW | 2022-03-01 | Ogle |
| Highland | oil | 4 MW | 2023-03-01 | Madison |
| Bunge Oil | gas | 4 MW | 2017-06-01 | Kankakee |
| Greene Valley Gas Recovery | gas | 3 MW | 2010-02-01 | DuPage |
| MPEA Energy Center | gas | 3 MW | 2016-01-01 | Cook |
| Lake Gas Recovery | gas | 3 MW | 2008-10-01 | Cook |
| Carlyle | oil | 3 MW | 2017-08-01 | Clinton |
| Galesburg | gas | 3 MW | 2012-01-01 | Knox |
| CID Gas Recovery | gas | 3 MW | 2011-04-01 | Cook |
| University of Illinois Abbott Power Plt | gas | 3 MW | 2003-12-01 | Champaign |
| Carmi | oil | 3 MW | 2019-12-01 | White |
| General Motors Solar | landfill | 3 MW | — | — |
| Rockford Community Solar | landfill | 3 MW | — | — |
| Breese | oil | 2 MW | 2003-01-01 | Clinton |
| Geneva Generation Facility | oil | 2 MW | 2011-11-01 | Kane |
| American Bottoms Solar Project | power_plant | 2 MW | — | — |
| Fuyao Glass Illinois Inc. | oil | 1 MW | 2005-12-01 | Macon |
| Marshall (IL) | oil | 1 MW | 2006-02-01 | Clark |
| Sullivan (IL) | oil | 1 MW | 2023-09-01 | Moultrie |
| North Ninth Street | gas | 1 MW | 2002-10-01 | Ogle |
| Red Bud | oil | 1 MW | 2001-10-01 | Randolph |
| Gobnob Wind Turbine Project | mine | 1 MW | — | — |
Frequently asked questions
How many retired power plants are in Illinois?
GridCensus lists 60 retired power plant sites in Illinois from EIA-860 retirement records. 59 have a recorded retirement date, 28 of them in 2015 or later.
What is the largest retired power plant or brownfield site in Illinois?
Collins in Morris is the largest by recorded capacity, at 2,650.1 MW. It is followed by Joliet 29 (1,320 MW) and Will County (1,268.8 MW).
Which power plant in Illinois retired most recently?
ITT Cogen Facility has the latest recorded retirement date in the state, December 2024, with 7.4 MW of capacity.
Which county in Illinois has the most brownfield and retired plant sites?
Cook County has the most, with 9, followed by Will County with 5.
How many EPA brownfield sites in Illinois have completed cleanup?
8 of the 8 EPA-tracked sites listed for Illinois are recorded as cleanup complete.
Looking for a specific record? The directory lists every brownfield site, A to Z.
More on Illinois, and states with similar counts
- Datacenter candidate sites in Illinois· 3,641 sites
- Electric substations in Illinois· 209 named
- Brownfield candidate sites nationwide
- Brownfield sites by state
- Brownfield sites in Florida· 90 sites
- Brownfield sites in Iowa· 62 sites
- Brownfield sites in Texas· 110 sites
- Brownfield sites in Minnesota· 60 sites
About this data
Source: EIA-860 retired generating units and EPA RE-Powering America's Land contaminated-site records, as published March 6, 2026. See the methodology for how records are matched, cleaned and scored.
Cite as: GridCensus, “Brownfield and retired power plant sites in Illinois”, https://gridcensus.com/brownfield-sites/illinois (data as of March 6, 2026).
Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.
Go deeper than the public screen
Every site and score for brownfield sites in Illinois is free to browse. Pro adds Watchtower on 25 sites, alerts when new candidate sites, datacenters or interconnection-queue requests appear in your markets, score and capacity history, and CSV export. Enterprise adds team seats, weekly data files for all 147,272 sites, the REST API and an MCP server for AI tools.