Freedom Power Project

Brownfield

St. Elmo, Fayette, Illinois · Southwestern Electric Coop Inc - (IL)

Legacy capacity
71
MW

Freedom Power Project is a natural gas plant in St. Elmo, Fayette, Illinois, retired 2024-05-01. Retired generation sites are among the most attractive datacenter redevelopment targets: the existing interconnection was sized for roughly 71 MW of generation, so the grid hookup, transmission rights, and often cooling-water access are already in place — collapsing the speed-to-power timeline versus a greenfield build.

Former use & capacity

Former usenatural gas plant
Site typeretired_plant
Existing capacity71 MW
Retirement date2024-05-01
EIA plant ID#7842

Grid hookup & remediation

Nearest substation8.7 mi
OperatorSouthwestern Electric Coop Inc - (IL)
Operator address2516 N. 2125 St., St. Elmo, IL, 62458
Why this site is datacenter-attractive: a natural gas plant of this scale leaves behind a high-capacity grid interconnection that a new load can re-use, frequently shaving years off the interconnection queue. Retired-plant sites also tend to be already zoned for heavy industrial use with established road, rail, and water infrastructure.

Nearby datacenter candidate sites

Scored candidate sites near Freedom Power Project, ranked by DC Readiness.

Candidate sites near Freedom Power Project
SiteTypeStateCountyVoltageCapacityQueue waitScore
PANASubstation-AdjacentILChristian County345 kV600 MW4.6 yrs69.8
NEOGASubstation-AdjacentILCumberland County345 kV600 MW4.6 yrs68.6
HOLLAND STATIONSubstation-AdjacentILShelby County345 kV600 MW4.6 yrs67.4
ENERGY SHELBY COUNTYSubstation-AdjacentILCumberland County138 kV100 MW4.6 yrs66.2
UNKNOWN121708Substation-AdjacentILClay County138 kV100 MW4.6 yrs65.5
Greenfield (COFFEEN - PANA)GreenfieldILChristian County345 kV600 MW4.6 yrs64.9
TAP139402Substation-AdjacentILFayette County138 kV100 MW4.6 yrs64.9
UNKNOWN121712Substation-AdjacentILEffingham County138 kV100 MW4.6 yrs64.7

See all datacenter sites in Illinois

Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.

Brownfield attributes are derived from EIA retired-generator and EPA public data. Existing capacity reflects the retired plant's historical nameplate, not deliverable interconnection for a new load. Confirm reusable interconnection rights, remediation status, and site availability with the utility, ISO, and current owner.

Go deeper than the public screen

This page shows a public slice of the GridCensus dataset for Freedom Power Project, St. Elmo, Fayette, Illinois. Pro and Enterprise plans unlock the full 164,098-site catalog, raw sub-scores, parcel ownership, interconnection-queue detail, saved searches, and programmatic API access.