Illinois Commercial Real Estate Owner, Commercial Tenant, Enterprise & Municipality Guide To Community Solar in 2025
Guide to Community Solar in Illinois
How Community Solar works:
Community Solar is a policy that was first signed into law in Massachusetts under the 2008 Governor Patrick and President Obama Administration, and has since swept the nation with over 6.5 Gigawatts installed to date, allowing states and electric utilities to adopt, participate, and further advance Net Metering and Community Solar Net Energy Billing programs in their respective regions. Community Solar projects are funded majorly by federal and local renewable energy incentives and rebates, are financed by private-sector and institutional investors, and developed by community-scale solar developers, built by solar construction companies (EPC’S), and are ultimately owned and operated by independent power producers and asset owners (IPP’s) who operate and own fleets of community solar farms across community solar markets as a portfolio of renewable energy assets. Community Solar farms are generally sized between 2 - 5 MW, can be found on 20 - 50 acre land parcels that are either greenfields or brownfields, and can locally distribute clean solar energy throughout the local utility distribution network to any energy consumer that enrolls into community solar.
The main source of greenfields where Community Solar farms are located on is farmland, which is generally flat, privately-owned, locally connected to existing utility infrastructure, and allows for farmers to optimize their land portfolio’s revenue performance with only utilizing a small portion of their farmland. A brownfield is a piece of land, typically municipal, city or county-owned land that does not have an alternative use for being repurposed, such as a landfill, that can finally be repurposed into a brightfield by becoming a community solar host. The community solar farms produce millions of kWh annually, allowing local residential renters, homeowners, small businesses, enterprise-level organizations or industrial facilities, and even municipalities to integrate clean energy digitally through their local Community Solar Net Energy Billing program. Small subscribers have minimal-to-no enrollment requirements, and can save up to 15+%, depending on their eligibility as a low-income homeowner or renter, and the state in which they live.
Energy consumers who enroll into a local community solar farm when it becomes operational will receive net metering bill credits in the form of a line-item bill discount, either billed to them directly by their local utility or by a third-party community solar billing platform provider, depending on the state’s approved legislation for net metering and bill credits. Alternatives to utility-consolidated billing are dual-billing, and developer-consolidated billing, where either the bill is required to be split between the utility company and developer’s billing provider, or alternatively fully consolidated to the developer’s billing provider for a seamless integration and single-billing method. Discounts range between 5 - 15%, and varies depending on the state, developer and billing platform provider.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Illinois really offer the most robust Community Solar program?
In September 2021, Illinois substantially expanded its community solar program when Governor JB Pritzker signed the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act into law. As of 2024, over 2.4 Gigawatts of solar is operational in Illinois, making Illinois one of the fastest growing states adopting solar. In addition to federal tax credits and tax credit adders, community solar projects are majorly funded by local incentives in Illinois called SREC’s, or Solar Renewable Energy Credits, which can cover up to 30% of the project cost of a solar project via the value of energy production over 15 years, paid up-front in 7 years. Developers and financiers can also earn utility rebates for installing smart inverters on-site, as well as incentives for stacking battery storage facilities on-site to help manage the load of the local substation and capturing excess power generated throughout the daytime, and dispersing it at nighttime during peak hours. The swift policy adoption across both major utilities in Illinois, Commonwealth Edison and Ameren Illinois, in support from experienced private-sector financiers who invest in early-stage project developers that de-risk solar projects through permit approval, and trusted builders who construct and interconnect these de-risked projects with the support of local labor and electrical workers, showcase how the industry is collectively working on an aligned mission to meet the state’s ambitious climate goals. Illinois has a climate goal of achieving 50% clean energy by 2030, and 100% clean energy by 2050, and the swift adoption at the energy consumer level is all thanks to the collaboration of the State of Illinois, Illinois Power Agency, Illinois Shines, Elevate, and Illinois Solar For All for accurately advertising, marketing, and promoting Community Solar.
I’ve heard stories that subscribers didn’t receive a discount for the first few months or even the first year, why is that? And can that happen to me?
Community Solar projects have an average development timeline of 2 - 4 years. In that timeline, several milestones need to occur for successful operation - environmental and geotechnical studies, county & zoning approval, permitting approval, procurement of equipment, construction, and permission-to-operate. Once a solar project reaches permission-to-operate, typically subscribers are allowed to begin receiving savings. Some billing providers do not necessarily opt-in to kick on bill-credit savings right away, while others pre-fill the farm before permission-to-operate and kick on bill-credit savings from month 1. It is still common for community solar developers and billing providers to seek subscribers to enroll before the project is operational, to ensure the financial viability of the project by having a full pipeline of subscribers to offtake the clean solar energy. Clean Earth Renewables always provides COD or a Bill Credit Flow Date to its subscribers to ensure they are aware of when to expect bill credit savings to kick in on their utility bills.
There are so many offers out there, why should I choose Clean Earth Renewables?
Clean Earth Renewables is an authorized subscriber manager for all major community solar developers and billing platform providers across Illinois, and is authorized to enroll all energy consumers and utility ratepayers across Commonwealth Edison and Ameren Illinois service regions, working with the most trusted and secure developer billing platform providers in the nation. With a footprint of over 200,000 enrolled electricity consumers, Clean Earth Renewables, its development partners and billing platform providers are here to ensure every community and energy consumer earn the best chance at securing clean energy savings, and are rewarded with best-in-class customer service, seamless billing, and piece of mind that even without a rooftop or investment, everyone has equal access to clean energy savings.
What else does Clean Earth Renewables do differently than other community solar providers that makes them the best choice for a community solar enrollment?
Clean Earth Renewables is locally operating out of its headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, and in addition to managing subscribers onto community solar farms, performs early-stage site acquisition for leading community solar developers, giving our development and origination team a long-term line-of-site on the projection of the Community Solar market in Illinois over the next 10-40 years. Projects can have a life span of up to 40 years, and over just the next 10 years, the amount of available land to construct community solar projects will be drastically constrained, leaving community solar developers with less land, requiring innovation to develop more advanced technology requiring less land per solar farm project to keep up with the rising demand. More community solar projects will be constructed on large industrial and commercial rooftops and parking lots, requiring roof or parking lot space of 200,000 - 1,000,000 square feet. Clean Earth Renewables development team actively identifies eligible land parcels, rooftops and parking lots for Community Solar projects across ComEd and Ameren service regions, with over 50 MW of community solar project sites acquired to to date.
Enroll & Access Clean Energy Savings Today!
Clean Earth Renewables is an emerging climatech startup driven to accelerate USA's net zero goals through education and integration of on-site and off-site solar. Join the mission and partner with us to reach your clean energy savings goals for your home, business or community!