Occasionally, while taking pictures of the bridges on the various Chicago waterways,  I run across an interesting facility that is an incidental finding.   One such organization is the Robbins Community Power, LLC.  This is located on Kedzie Avenue near the Cal Sag Canal in Robbins, Illinois

There are red colored buildings present.  There is a very tall chimney.     A corporation known as Foster Wheeler built the Robbins plant in the early 1990’s.    This was designed to produce electricity by burning trash.    Unfortunately during the years, the process became too expensive to be profitable.   This was due in part to the withdrawal of state subsidies.   While in operation,  the facility had a troubled history.  It was cited on numerous occasions for emitting excessive pollution.    Foster Wheeler eventually went bankrupt and closed the facility.   The facility has sat empty for more than 6 years.

The facility fell into the hands of Citigroup after the bankruptcy.  Sylvan Power Company bought the plant.   Their goal is to obtain a permit from the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to convert the waste incinerator into a wood burning power plant.    It would produce steam and electricity.  The facility would require 350,000 tons of wood annually.   Source of the wood would be from a variety of places where the wood is broken down and recycled.     Projected capacity of the plant would be 50 megawatts per hour.