Why Build New Generation Here

New power generation needs three things: land, a connection to the grid, and transmission to move the power. Assembling them from scratch takes years.
The Newton plant site already had all three. The Newton Power Plant has owned and maintained its property for decades, and already had established transmission equipment that connects the regional grid. The plant deployed the new generation assets on land it had owned for decades and is now generating power for families, farmers, and businesses across Illinois.
Using acres of land at existing or former power plant sites and reclaimed brownfield land for new energy technologies brings economic benefits to local communities. It also supports a Just Transition and helps bring new energy resources to Illinois’ grid.
This approach matches the state’s policy goals. The new power generation facilities are built on land the plant has owned and maintained for decades. Each brownfield acre used to meet the evolving energy needs of Illinois and America is one more acre saved for other uses like farming.
The Newton plant site, Jasper County, Illinois.

New Power Generation Added In Illinois

Solar capacity52MWUtility-scale solar generation at the Newton plant site.
Battery storage2MW / 8 MWhFour hours of storage, dispatchable to the grid.
Annual generation108,000MWhZero-carbon electricity a year, over an expected 20-year life.
Capital invested$116MPrivate investment at the Newton plant site.

How Newton Solar + Storage Was Built

All work on the project was performed under a Project Labor Agreement. These are recorded hours from the build, not modeled estimates.
97,450On-site local labor hours at Newton.
155 / dayPeak on-site craft employment. Because trades rotate by construction phase, more individuals worked the site than this figure.
423,237Total local labor hours across Baldwin, Coffeen and Newton. Excludes off-site, supply-chain and indirect work.

Economic Impact in Jasper County

Building Newton Solar + Storage delivered a one-time economic stimulus to Jasper County — capital investment at the site, wages for local trades, and spending through the local supply chain. The property tax base is the lasting piece.
During construction72FTEDirect, indirect and induced full-time equivalents of construction work.
Local earnings$5.4MPaid to local workers during construction.
Local economic output$7.6MTotal stimulus to the Jasper County economy during construction.
Property taxes~$5MEstimated over the life of the project, at constant local rates.
Construction-phase economic impact was modeled for Vistra by Dr. David G. Loomis, Strategic Economic Research, LLC using the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s JEDI Solar PV model with county-level IMPLAN multipliers, from the March 2021 analysis. Figures are gross rather than net, and full-time equivalents are units of construction work — one equivalent is 2,080 hours in a year — not a count of people hired. State law governs how renewable energy systems are taxed; the property tax estimate assumes local rates hold constant.

Newton Site at a Glance

Address6725 N 500th Street, Newton, IL 62448
CountyJasper County, Illinois
Coal plant statusOperating
Coal plant retirementYear-end 2027 — September 2020 announcement
Solar capacity52 MW
Storage2 MW / 8 MWh — 4 hours
Annual generation~108,000 MWh
Grid connection2026
On-site local labor97,450 hours
Peak craft on site155 trades per day
Labor agreementProject Labor Agreement

Questions About Newton Solar + Storage

The Newton Power Plant continues to operate its traditional thermal generation. Vistra announced a preliminary retirement date of year-end 2027 for Newton in its September 2020 announcement. Retirement timing depends on market, economic and regulatory conditions, and preliminary dates announced in 2020 have since changed at other Illinois sites — those changes are recorded on the Illinois Timeline. Newton Solar + Storage is a separate facility at the same site and is operating today.

Is Newton Solar + Storage operating?

Yes. Newton Solar + Storage became operational at the Newton plant site in 2026. The facility pairs 52 MW of utility-scale solar generation with a 2 MW / 8 MWh battery energy storage system, and produces approximately 108,000 MWh of zero-carbon electricity a year over an expected 20-year operating life. Solar generates when the sun is up, and the battery holds four hours of energy that can be dispatched to the grid when it is needed most.

On the Newton plant property at 6725 N 500th Street, Newton, Illinois 62448, in Jasper County. The plant has occupied the site for decades.

By placing new generation assets — including utility-scale solar and energy storage projects — at power plants, the project reuses the existing infrastructure and transmission lines already at the site. This reduces the need to build transmission and other utility equipment elsewhere, which is costly and time-consuming.

Using acres of land at existing or former power plant sites, along with reclaimed brownfield land, brings economic benefits to local communities. It supports a Just Transition and helps bring new energy resources onto Illinois’ grid.

This approach also matches the state’s policy goals. The new generation is built on land the plant has owned and maintained for decades, so every brownfield acre used to meet the evolving energy needs of Illinois and America is one more acre saved for other uses, such as farming.

The project involved 97,450 on-site local labor hours, with peak on-site craft employment of 155 members of the skilled trades per day. All work was performed under a Project Labor Agreement.

The peak-day figure reflects the highest number of workers on site on any given day. It is not the total number of individuals employed at the project, because the crafts rotate based on the phase of construction — so considerably more tradespeople worked on Newton than 155.

Across the three completed Coal to Solar projects at Baldwin, Coffeen and Newton, the Initiative created 423,237 labor hours of work for union members of the skilled trades. Work completed off-site, by the supply chain or by other vendors, is not included in that figure.

Economic modeling estimated 72 full-time equivalents of work during construction — direct, indirect and induced. Construction also generated an estimated $$5.4 million in earnings for local workers and roughly $$7.6 million in total economic output in Jasper County.

A full-time equivalent represents 2,080 hours of work in a year, so these figures describe units of work rather than a headcount. Because construction is short-term and the crafts rotate by phase, the number of individuals who actually worked on the project was higher than the equivalent figure suggests.

The solar components are estimated to generate approximately $5 million in property taxes over the life of the project. State law governs how renewable energy systems are taxed, and that estimate assumes local tax rates hold constant; should officials change local rates over the next two decades, the actual amount collected would vary.

The new investment has added to the local property tax base and is a stable source of annual revenue for local governments, schools and districts in Jasper County.

Vistra commissioned Dr. David G. Loomis of Strategic Economic Research, LLC — Professor of Economics at Illinois State University and co-founder of its Center for Renewable Energy — to conduct an economic impact analysis of the Initiative. Dr. Loomis has testified on the economic impacts of energy projects before the Illinois Commerce Commission and numerous county boards.

The analysis uses the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Jobs and Economic Development Impacts (JEDI) Solar PV model, an input-output model built on IMPLAN industry multipliers. Separate models were run at the county level for each project so that local officials could understand the effect in their own community. Figures represent gross rather than net impacts.