Should I go solar in Illinois?

Between 2017 and 2022, residential, or rooftop, solar grew 2552% in Illinois. That means we went from producing only enough energy to power 5,500 homes to producing enough energy for 118,000 homes. That number continues to grow as the solar industry grows in Illinois and more homeowners choose to go solar.

But in order to reach Illinois’ goal of using 100% clean energy by 2050, residential solar still has a long way to go. Luckily, Illinois is a fairly solar friendly state. Currently ranked 15th in the nation for solar energy, Illinoisans have a number of solar-related savings to take advantage of. 

Primary among these is what is known as Smart Solar Billing, a new policy that Illinois adopted in 2025.

What is Smart Solar Billing?

Smart Solar Billing is a way of compensating homeowners with solar panels for the excess electricity that they produce and feed into the electrical grid. Let’s break that down. 

When you put solar panels on your roof, they will generate electricity whenever the sun shines. Depending on the size of your system and your household consumption, those solar panels will produce more electricity than you use during peak generation hours. This excess electricity gets fed back into the grid, where it can be used by other customers. Your utility will then provide credit towards your electric bill for the electricity you’ve produced. 

Your electric bill is composed of three categories of charges: supply (the cost of the electricity itself), delivery (the cost for the utility to deliver the electricity to you), and taxes & fees. Under the Smart Solar Billing System, the utility credit for the electricity you produce covers only the energy supply charge, not the distribution charge. 

This is a big change from the previous system, Solar Net-Metering, where customers used to receive a one-to-one credit for the electricity they produce – that is, customers used to be compensated for the supply and distribution charges. 

However, customers who go solar under the Smart Solar Billing will still be compensated for the benefits their solar panels contribute to the distribution grid through a one-time “Distributed Generation” rebate by their utilities, equivalent to $300 per kW of installed capacity. For a typical system of 5 kW, that’s an upfront rebate of $1500. This can be applied towards the overall cost of the system. A similar rebate is available for adding storage to your existing solar system.

While this change does still allow for your roof-top solar installation to “pay for itself” in the long run through bill credits and the one-time rebates, the savings are not as large as they were under Net-Metering.

How to take advantage of Smart Solar Billing

In order to take advantage of these savings, you need to go solar!

The actual process of installing solar panels on your roof typically only takes a couple days, but typically the process can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to a couple of months. This extension includes time for permitting, inspections, and pre- and post-installation utility assessments, which vary between utilities in length and rigor.

To read more about how to go solar and what system best suits your needs, as well as assess your home for solar potential, read Environment America’s How-To: Go Solar guide.

How to save and go solar

Rooftop solar installations can be expensive. Luckily, there are a few different ways to save on them in Illinois.

On the federal level, the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in 2022 made federal solar tax credits available to the public as part of an investment in clean energy. These credits can offer 30% of the installation cost, after any rebates offered by your utility.

Illinois also has several programs that can help consumers save. Illinois Shines will provide you, either directly or through your utility, a Renewable Energy Credit (REC). RECs provide a one-time payment for every MW your system is expected to produce over 15 years. Note that this program requires using an approved vendor in order to take advantage of the credits.

For low-income customers, Illinois Solar for All can help pay for installation. The program requires no upfront cost for the installation of solar and customers will not pay more than half of the value they would receive monthly from their system towards its installation cost.

With Smart Solar Billing, you’ll already save on your electric bill every month. Those savings can be stacked through other initiatives to save long-term on your electric bill.

Adding storage will add upfront costs, but could help you save long-term

One such initiative is installing battery storage when you go solar. Battery storage systems collect energy throughout the day and can help you avoid buying back electricity from the utility on cloudy days or at night.

While adding storage will of course add to your upfront costs, all of the rebates above also apply to installing battery storage, meaning that, for example, the federal tax credits can also be used to attach storage to your home. Utilities will also offer a rebate of $300 per kWh of installed storage under the Smart Solar Billing method. The Illinois legislature is also considering policies that could increase the value of storage for customers going forward. 

Opting into time-varying rates can also help you save

If you can’t go solar for one reason or another or if you just want to save beforehand, there are other options available to you. One method, with no upfront costs and with the potential for significant savings, is opting into “time-varying” rates. In Illinois, utilities are required to offer customers the opportunity to opt-in to rates that change as the price of supplying electricity changes. The goal of this pricing scheme is to allow you to be more flexible with your electricity usage and shift usage of major appliances to lower priced times.

For ComEd customers, this system is called Residential Real Time Pricing. These prices change, literally, in real time, meaning that even as electricity is being produced, the price per kWh may fluctuate. Most customers on Real Time Pricing will save money over time without any changes to their energy use – and shifting usage from higher to lower priced times can result in significant savings. Because solar panels typically generate the most power at the same time power prices are highest – in the late afternoon – combining solar, storage and Real Time Pricing provides opportunities for strong savings for customers. But if you don’t have solar, can’t shift your usage, and tend to use a lot of power at more expensive times, Real Time Pricing may not be right for you. 

For Ameren customers, the time-varying rate option is known as Power Smart Pricing. Ameren sets the fluctuations in price the night before based on electricity usage the previous day. So, for example, if you were to opt in to Power Smart Pricing today and use any amount of electricity at 11am, the price per kWh of that electricity would be equal to how much it cost to supply that electricity yesterday at 11am. 

With all of these rebates, tax credits, and saving methods available, every sunny roof without solar panels is a missed opportunity. When it comes to adding solar to your home, there’s no time like the present. Be a part of a growing solar community in Illinois and go solar to do your part to protect our planet while saving on your electric bill.