Soot to Solar

The Fisk Generating Station in Chicago closed in 2012 following community activism. While the city has proposed a bus garage or park, the Union of Concerned Scientists suggests the site could support a 9 megawatt solar farm and a 10 megawatt storage facility, leveraging the Future Energy Jobs Act and brownfield incentives to create local jobs.

• The Fisk Generating Station in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood was closed in 2012 as a result of a ten-year campaign led by the Pilsen Alliance, the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (P.E.R.R.O.), and the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO).
• The city of Chicago has considered turning the site into a public park or a Chicago Transit Authority bus garage, though a 2017 study on a proposed Throop Street River Park has not yet released its results.
• An analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists indicates the site's land area could accommodate a 10 megawatt storage facility (occupying 0.27 percent of the site) and a 9 megawatt solar farm (occupying 98 percent of the site).
• Because the Fisk site is a designated brownfield, it is eligible for financial incentives and could provide local employment through the Solar for All training program under the Future Energy Jobs Act.

APA

Union of Concerned Scientists (2018). Soot to Solar. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2018/10/Fisk-Case-Study.pdf

Chicago

Union of Concerned Scientists. Soot to Solar. 2018. https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2018/10/Fisk-Case-Study.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Union of Concerned Scientists |title=Soot to Solar |date=October 2018 |url=https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2018/10/Fisk-Case-Study.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{unionofconcernedscientists2018soot, author = {{Union of Concerned Scientists}}, title = {{Soot to Solar}}, institution = {Union of Concerned Scientists}, year = {2018}, month = oct, url = {https://www.ucs.org/sites/default/files/attach/2018/10/Fisk-Case-Study.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }