A nice big slice of deep dish pizza, the Sears Tower, and Michael Jordan are all things that come to mind when you think about Chicago. Solar energy doesn’t seem to show up on the radar for the windy city, but that’s all beginning to change with the final dedication of the nation’s largest urban based solar power plant, Exelon City Solar.

Last week the mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley, Exelon Chairman and CEO John Rowe, and other dignitaries from Chicago’s South Side dedicated the new 41 acre solar power plant with great pride and joy.

“I want to thank Exelon and SunPower for their vision and their commitment to Chicago,” Daley said in the July 27, 2010 edition of Space Daily. “This project is a great example of the good things that happen when government and the private sector work together.”

John Rowe also added his own sentiments to the occasion.

“This state-of-the-art demonstration facility will give Exelon valuable insights into the solar market, deliver a real environmental benefit for Chicago by adding clean energy to the grid, and enhance the neighboring community by beautifying a brown field and improving safety for local residents,” he said.

The location of the new solar plant was acquired by purchasing the 41 acre site from a former West Pullman neighborhood industrial property that had been vacant for over 30 years. By taking the empty facility and making use of the land it occupied, Mayor Daley’s goal was to improve the quality of life and economic strength for the struggling South Side community.

Construction on the site began in July 2009, with commercial operation commencing in December 2009 and final site work completed this month. By cleaning up dangerously deteriorated buildings and erecting a new facility, the power plant project helped provide over 200 construction jobs with at least half of the work hours going to South Side Chicago residents as well as construction materials that were sourced from South Side companies.

“SunPower solar plants are welcomed by our communities, including those on urban industrial sites like Exelon City Solar,” said SunPower Executive Vice President Julie Blunden.