Commercial Solar Project at Tuscola, IL Rock Quarry

Tuscola Stone is a privately owned quarry celebrating 50 years of operation in 2021. Mining is very electricity intensive requiring power for conveyors to move mined rock, run pumps to remove water from the quarry pit, operate large rock crushing machines and other energy hungry loads.

A major challenge of this project was finding adequate space to support this project. Over several months, hundreds of truckloads of dirt from a nearby wind farm filled in a portion of the old mine area to create space for this project. Fortunately, Tuscola Stone has large equipment on-site and they were instrumental in filling, compacting, and grading the site. The solar project was built on a site divided by a conveyor requiring a north and south subarray. The area north of the conveyor hosted solar racking supporting 582 solar panels. The remaining 928 solar panels were built on the south section of the solar field.

This project will help Tuscola Stone reduce electricity costs which are a major operating expense. The project will generate a sizeable federal tax credit, accelerated depreciation benefits, obtain over $500,000 in state SREC incentives from the Illinois Shines program, and nearly $150,000 from the smart inverter rebate incentive.  Over the next 15-years, the project is estimated to generate over $900,000 of electricity saving assuming mild rate of electricity inflation. However, given the potential volatility of future electricity prices savings could be much higher.

Tick Tock is grateful to be part of this challenging project and help another family-run business in Illinois boost profitability by controlling energy expenses.