Brownfield Datacenter Sites in Illinois
At a glance
Previously developed land with real or perceived environmental contamination. Brownfields trade remediation overhead for existing utility hookups, infill locations near fiber, and redevelopment incentives.
Top brownfield sites in Illinois
| Site | Type | County | Former use | Voltage | Capacity | Queue wait | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solar Star Urbana Landfill Community Solar Farm | Brownfield | Champaign | landfill | — | 5 MW | 4.8 yrs | 66.3 |
| Electric Junction | Brownfield | DuPage County | gas | — | 304 MW | 4.8 yrs | 65.8 |
| Bloom | Brownfield | Lake County | oil | 345 kV | 152 MW | 4.8 yrs | 64.4 |
| Lombard | Brownfield | DuPage County | oil | 345 kV | 133 MW | 4.8 yrs | 63.9 |
| Belleville Landfill Project | Brownfield | St. Clair | landfill | 138 kV | 13 MW | 4.8 yrs | 63.7 |
| Exelon City Solar | Brownfield | Cook | brownfield | — | 10 MW | 4.8 yrs | 63.0 |
| Collins | Brownfield | Grundy County | gas | — | 2,650 MW | 4.8 yrs | 62.9 |
| Hennepin Power Station | Brownfield | Putnam County | coal | 138 kV | 306 MW | 4.8 yrs | 62.6 |
| Rockford Community Solar | Brownfield | Winnebago | landfill | — | 3 MW | 4.8 yrs | 62.1 |
| Greene Valley Gas Recovery | Brownfield | Will | gas | 138 kV | 3 MW | 4.8 yrs | 60.6 |
| MPEA Energy Center | Brownfield | Cook County | gas | — | 3 MW | 4.8 yrs | 60.0 |
| University of Illinois Abbott Power Plt | Brownfield | Champaign County | gas | — | 3 MW | 4.8 yrs | 59.8 |
| Orchard Hills Renewable Energy Station | Brownfield | Winnebago County | gas | — | 16 MW | 4.8 yrs | 59.7 |
| Rantoul | Brownfield | Champaign County | oil | — | 16 MW | 4.8 yrs | 59.3 |
| Geneva Generation Facility | Brownfield | Kane County | oil | — | 2 MW | 4.8 yrs | 58.5 |
| Sabrooke | Brownfield | Winnebago County | oil | — | 150 MW | 4.8 yrs | 58.3 |
| City of Peru Plank Road Generating Station | Brownfield | LaSalle | oil | — | 8 MW | 4.8 yrs | 57.5 |
| Highland | Brownfield | Madison County | oil | — | 4 MW | 4.8 yrs | 57.4 |
| Lake Gas Recovery | Brownfield | Lake County | gas | — | 3 MW | 4.8 yrs | 57.3 |
| ITT Cogen Facility | Brownfield | Cook County | gas | — | 7 MW | 4.8 yrs | 57.1 |
| Breese | Brownfield | Clinton County | oil | — | 2 MW | 4.8 yrs | 56.2 |
| Sullivan (IL) | Brownfield | Moultrie County | oil | — | 1 MW | 4.8 yrs | 56.1 |
| Marshall (IL) | Brownfield | Clark County | oil | — | 1 MW | 4.8 yrs | 56.0 |
| Carlyle | Brownfield | Clinton County | oil | — | 3 MW | 4.8 yrs | 55.4 |
| Carmi | Brownfield | White County | oil | — | 3 MW | 4.8 yrs | 55.4 |
How does Illinois compare with other states for brownfield sites?
With 33 sites, Illinois ranks 6th of the 49 states that have any brownfield candidate sites. California leads with 103. Nationally, brownfield sites average 57.5/100 DC Readiness, above the 53.0 average across all site types. Across every site type, Illinois averages 53.6, the 26th-highest of 52 states, and its candidate sites face an average interconnection-queue wait of 4.8 years.
Where are the highest-scoring brownfield sites in Illinois?
The top 25 range from 66.3 to 55.4 on the 0–100 DC Readiness Score. They are concentrated in Champaign (3), Cook (3), Winnebago (3) and DuPage County (2). By grid region, 13 are in PJM and 12 are in MISO.
County pages: Champaign · Cook · Winnebago · DuPage County
What power, fiber and flood exposure do these brownfield sites have?
Of the top 25 brownfield sites in Illinois, 5 have a recorded nearest-substation voltage, with a median of 138 kV; for 2 that substation is rated 230 kV or higher. Their counties have a median of 11 fixed fiber broadband providers in FCC data. The median distance to the nearest internet exchange facility is 36 km. The median interconnection-queue wait in their markets is 4.8 years. 1 of the 23 with a mapped FEMA flood zone sits in a high-risk (A or V) zone. 7 lie within 25 km of a binding transmission constraint.
Frequently asked questions
How many brownfield datacenter sites are in Illinois?
GridCensus catalogs 33 brownfield datacenter candidate sites in Illinois, 4% of the national total for this type (6th of 49 states).
What is a brownfield datacenter site?
Previously developed land with real or perceived environmental contamination. Brownfields trade remediation overhead for existing utility hookups, infill locations near fiber, and redevelopment incentives.
What is the best brownfield datacenter site in Illinois?
By DC Readiness Score, Solar Star Urbana Landfill Community Solar Farm in Champaign ranks first at 66.3/100, followed by Electric Junction in DuPage County at 65.8.
Which Illinois counties have the best brownfield sites?
The top 25 brownfield sites in Illinois are concentrated in Champaign (3), Cook (3), Winnebago (3) and DuPage County (2).
How does Illinois score for datacenters overall?
All 3,641 scored sites in Illinois average 53.6/100 DC Readiness, the 26th-highest of 52 states, against a national average of 53.0.
More on brownfield sites and Illinois
- All datacenter sites in Illinois· 3,641 sites
- Brownfield datacenter sites nationwide· 771 sites
- Industrial sites in Illinois· 1,441 sites
- Greenfield sites in Illinois· 913 sites
- Substation-Adjacent sites in Illinois· 795 sites
- Former Mine sites in Illinois· 368 sites
- Federal Excess sites in Illinois· 89 sites
Brownfield sites in other states
- Brownfield sites in California· 103 sites
- Brownfield sites in New Jersey· 52 sites
- Brownfield sites in New York· 48 sites
- Brownfield sites in Massachusetts· 44 sites
- Brownfield sites in Iowa· 38 sites
- Brownfield sites in Texas· 30 sites
- Brownfield sites in Ohio· 29 sites
- Brownfield sites in Kansas· 23 sites
Dataset updated . Screening estimates derived from public data sources.
About this data
Source: GridCensus composite of HIFLD transmission and substation data, EIA, FEMA National Risk Index, FCC broadband data, PeeringDB and ISO interconnection queues, as published November 12, 2026 — GridCensus refreshes it monthly. See the methodology for how records are matched, cleaned and scored.
Cite as: GridCensus, “Brownfield datacenter sites in Illinois”, https://gridcensus.com/site-types/brownfield/illinois (data as of November 12, 2026).
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.