Author: Johnny Kwok

Categories:
Community
News
Press Release
Renewables
Solar
Date: 01/06/2026

(HOUSTON and GALESBURG, IL) Hundreds of households and businesses across Knox County will soon gain access to affordable renewable power as ENGIE North America (ENGIE) brings two new community solar farms online. The clean energy generated by these facilities will be made available to the state’s electric grid. Local residents and businesses subscribe to the solar farms through Ampion, a community solar subscription management company that will oversee subscriber enrollment and customer service.

The Knox 2A and Knox 2B projects, located in Galesburg, Illinois, will generate clean energy, cut carbon emissions and provide meaningful bill savings to local subscribers. Together, the two projects will produce more than 8.2 million kilowatt-hours annually, avoiding over 7,800 tons of carbon dioxide emissions – the same as taking 1,655 cars off the road for a year.

A community solar farm is a privately owned business established to capture energy from the sun and convert it into electricity that flows into the utility grid. Residents and businesses can subscribe to a share of the farm’s output and, in turn, receive credits on their monthly electricity bills that reduce costs. ENGIE owns and operates the Knox solar farms, while Ampion provides subscription management by enrolling new participants and supporting them as customers.

“Community solar is about more than clean power. It’s about ensuring that households – including those with the greatest need – share in the benefits of the shift to clean energy,” said Kristen Fornes, Head of Distributed Solar and Storage for ENGIE. “These projects in Knox County show how renewable energy can strengthen communities, reduce costs and create a healthier future for families.”

More than 60% of the subscriptions are reserved for low-to-moderate income households, who will qualify through existing federal and state programs such as LIHEAP, Medicaid, SNAP, and TANF. These households – along with other local subscribers – will receive 20% savings on the value of solar bill credits applied to their monthly electricity bills.

“Ampion is proud to work with ENGIE to help low-to-moderate income families in Illinois access the cost-saving benefits of community solar,” said Nate Owen, CEO & Founder of Ampion. “With the majority of the benefits reserved for households enrolled in programs like LIHEAP, Medicaid, and SNAP, these solar farms will deliver much-needed electricity savings. We look forward to working with ENGIE throughout the course of these projects, while ensuring subscribers receive real cost savings on their utility bills.”

In total, the Knox solar gardens will benefit 443 households and businesses, delivering economic relief and advancing Illinois’ goals for clean and equitable energy access.

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About ENGIE North America

Based in Houston, Texas, ENGIE North America Inc. is a regional hub of ENGIE, a major player in the energy transition, whose purpose is to accelerate the transition towards a carbon-neutral economy. With 98,000 employees in 30 countries, the Group covers the entire energy value chain, from production to infrastructures and sales. ENGIE combines complementary activities: renewable electricity and green gas production, flexibility assets (notably batteries), gas and electricity transmission and distribution networks, local energy infrastructures (heating and cooling networks) and the supply of energy to local authorities and businesses. Every year, ENGIE invests more than $10 billion to drive forward the energy transition and achieve its net zero carbon goal by 2045. ENGIE (ENGI), is listed on the Paris and Brussels Stock Exchanges.  For more information on ENGIE in North America, please visit our website at www.engie-na.com or our LinkedIn page at www.linkedin.com/company/engie-north-america-inc.

About Ampion

Ampion provides turnkey subscription and revenue management solutions for renewable energy developers nationwide, simplifying the complex world of distributed generation. From prospect to payment, we maximize investor returns in a holistic way, optimizing revenue with a customer management platform purpose-built for community distributed generation. We’re industry veterans with the people, platform, and processes required to help developers and asset owners get the most out of their portfolios. Our clients choose us because we make their projects more predictable and more profitable, with better data insights, happier subscribers, and less risk. Learn more at ampion.net.

Media Contacts

ENGIE North America
Michael Clingan, External Relations
Michael.clingan@external.engie.com

 

Ampion: Technica Communications
Melanie Morris
ampion@technica.inc

Latest deal builds on collaboration to accelerate the energy transition

HOUSTON – ENGIE North America (ENGIE) announced they recently completed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Google to supply 90 MW of renewable energy from its Chillingham solar project in Bell County, Texas. This agreement in the United States (U.S.) expands on ENGIE and Google’s prior collaborations in Europe and is the fifth renewable energy project under agreement between the two companies globally.    

To support its operations in Texas, Google will purchase a portion of the 350 MW facility’s output which is expected to commence operation later this year. The Chillingham solar project was developed by ENGIE, who will also construct and operate the project located north of Austin, Texas.

This agreement was facilitated through LEAP™ (LevelTen Energy’s Accelerated Process), which was co-developed by Google and LevelTen Energy to make sourcing and executing clean energy PPAs more efficient, and contributes to Google’s ambitious 2030 goal to run on 24/7 carbon-free energy (CFE) on every grid where it operates.

“We are honored to continue to expand ENGIE’s global relationship with Google, supporting their growth and delivery of their net-zero commitments” said Dave Carroll, Chief Renewables Officer, ENGIE North America “We are proud that ENGIE’s proven track record in developing, building and operating renewable assets puts us at the forefront of the energy transition. Chillingham solar clearly demonstrates ENGIE’s track record of consistently delivering quality renewables projects that meet the needs of customers such as Google – allowing us to collaborate together and meet their unique needs.”

“We’re pleased to further our collaboration with ENGIE with new carbon-free energy from its Chillingham plant that will supply our operations in Texas with clean power,” said Amanda Peterson Corio, Global Head of Data Center Energy, Google. “This agreement is another example of how using our scalable procurement approach is transforming the way the industry sells and purchases power, and ultimately speeds up the development of carbon free electricity.”

The Chillingham project has employed over 300 skilled workers during construction, many of them local to the region and will generate more than $72 million in tax revenues to support the local community over the life of the project. This includes some $53 million specifically for local school districts. Once operational, Chillingham, which will be ENGIE’s largest single solar project in the U.S. so far, will join the company’s portfolio of around 8 GW of renewable projects including solar, wind and battery storage in operation or construction across North America.

This power purchase agreement with Google contributes to ENGIE closing almost 1GW of signed PPAs in the U.S. for 2024 (YTD). ENGIE’s continued innovation in this space has resulted in the company being named as a top developer to sell corporate energy PPAs several years in a row.

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About ENGIE North America

Based in Houston, Texas, ENGIE North America Inc. is a regional hub of ENGIE, a global leader in low-carbon energy and services. ENGIE (ENGI), is listed on the Paris and Brussels Stock Exchanges. Together with its 97,000 employees around the globe, clients, partners and stakeholders, the Group strives every day to accelerate the transition towards a carbon-neutral economy, through reduced energy consumption and more environmentally friendly solutions. Inspired by its purpose statement, ENGIE reconciles economic performance with a positive impact on people and the planet, building on its key businesses (gas, renewable energy, services) to offer competitive solutions to its clients. In North America, ENGIE helps its clients achieve their energy efficiency, reliability, and ultimately, their sustainability goals, as we work together to shape a sustainable future. We accomplish this through: energy efficiency projects, providing energy supply (including renewables and natural gas), and the development, construction and operation of renewable energy assets (wind, solar, storage and more). For more information on ENGIE North America, please visit our LinkedIn page or Twitter feed, https://www.engie-na.com/ and https://www.engie.com.

Contacts:

ENGIE North America
Michael Clingan, External Relations
Michael.clingan@external.engie.com
832-745-6057

100MWh Project will Provide Services to Support Growing ERCOT Grid

HOUSTON – ENGIE North America (ENGIE) announced today that its Sun Valley Battery Storage project in Hill County Texas has been commissioned.

 The 100MW / 100MWh project is one of ENGIE’s largest utility scale storage facilities in the U.S. so far and is co-located with the company’s existing 250MW Sun Valley Solar project which commenced operation last year.

 “Sun Valley is our first 100MW+ co located energy storage project in the U.S. We have more than 2.0 GW of energy storage already under construction in Texas and other states expected to be commissioned by end of 2024. Together, these projects will contribute to ENGIE’s global aspiration of 10 GW of energy storage installed by 2030,” said Dave Carroll, chief renewables officer of ENGIE North America.

The Sun Valley Battery Storage project will provide reliability and ancillary services to meet ERCOT’s growing demand for electricity and is a key element in supporting the acceleration of the Net Zero energy transition.

 The storage system can dispatch electricity into the grid when needed, including the ability to meet peak hour electrical needs of some 10,000 average homes. The system can be charged both from the co-located solar facility as well as from the wider grid, when appropriate.

“ENGIE is already operating or constructing more than 7GW of renewable generation across North America and storage projects like Sun Valley provide complementary services to support greater penetration of renewables onto the grid,” said Carroll. “Co-located projects like this, alongside a leading portfolio of stand-alone facilities such as those recently acquired from Broad Reach Power mean ENGIE is able to support both the growing demand for renewables and enable greater reliability and resilience on the nation’s power grids.”

 The Sun Valley Storage project comprises 308 battery cabinets and involved more than 3,500 workdays to construct, including both local and regional skilled workers.

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About ENGIE North America

Based in Houston, Texas, ENGIE North America Inc. is a regional hub of ENGIE, a global leader in low-carbon energy and services. ENGIE (ENGI), is listed on the Paris and Brussels Stock Exchanges. Together with our 96,000 employees around the globe, our customers, partners and stakeholders, we are committed to accelerate the transition toward a carbon-neutral world, through reduced energy consumption and more environmentally friendly solutions. Inspired by our purpose (“raison d’être”), we reconcile economic performance with a positive impact on people and the planet, building on our key businesses (gas, renewable energy, services) to offer competitive solutions to our customers. In North America, ENGIE helps our clients achieve their energy efficiency, reliability, and ultimately, their sustainability goals, as we work together to shape a sustainable future. We accomplish this through: energy efficiency projects, providing energy supply (including renewables and natural gas), and the development, construction and operation of renewable energy assets (wind, solar, storage and more). For more information on ENGIE North America, please visit our LinkedIn page or Twitter feed, https://www.engie-na.com/ and https://www.engie.com.

Contacts:

ENGIE North America
Michael Clingan, External Relations
Michael.clingan@external.engie.com
832-745-6057

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