Photo voltaic Panels in Illinois: Prices, Incentives

Earlier than any federal tax incentives, the typical price for photo voltaic panels in Illinois was $35,347 throughout the second half of 2023. Illinois affords many incentive packages, along with federal tax incentives, for putting in photo voltaic panels.

Illinois Photo voltaic For All, for instance, helps low-income households add photo voltaic panels to their roofs, sometimes for no upfront price. Illinois Shines pays an incentive upfront by buying photo voltaic renewable power certificates (SRECs) from sure photo voltaic panel house owners. As a consequence of these packages, photo voltaic panels are sometimes way more inexpensive and have a sooner payback price than in lots of different states.

Photo voltaic prices in Illinois at a look

Prices and tendencies in Illinois

Photo voltaic panel system prices in Illinois are barely greater than the nationwide common, at $3.10 per kW in 2023. System sizes are additionally near the nationwide common. System sizes trended barely downward from early 2023 to the second half of the 12 months, from 11.8kW to 11.4kW, in response to EnergySage.

The Illinois Energy Company requires their authorised distributors to offer particular disclosure kinds about pricing ^[0]

Residential photo voltaic panel coverage in Illinois

Illinois has a Renewable Portfolio Normal that requires 25% of the state’s power to return from renewable sources by 2025 ^[0]

Main investor-owned utilities provide web metering in Illinois. Web metering is a billing mechanism that credit householders and companies for extra photo voltaic electrical energy they generate and ship to the facility grid. Rural electrical cooperatives and municipal electrical suppliers have barely totally different web metering insurance policies but in addition provide web metering.

“Web metering insurance policies and charges for ComEd, Ameren and MidAmerican distributed era (on-site) residential and small business photo voltaic clients are altering beginning in 2025,” Audrey Steinbach, Senior Program Supervisor of Illinois Shines, stated in an e mail.

“At the moment, Illinois residents and small companies obtain a credit score on the ‘retail price.’ That’s, all extra era despatched to the grid is compensated on the price that buyer pays for distribution and provide from the utility,” Steinbach stated. “Methods that obtain retail price web metering will proceed to be credited at that price for the lifetime of the system. Full retail web metering will now not be obtainable to residential and small business clients interconnecting new renewable methods after December 31, 2024.”

Residential clients of ComEd, Ameren and MidAmerican can obtain a rebate of $300 per kW of DC energy in the event that they select to put in a sensible photo voltaic inverter ^[0]

This program affords a path to rooftop photo voltaic that requires no preliminary cost up entrance and saves lower-income households cash all through the lifetime of the system. This system defines low-income households as these incomes 80% or much less of the Space Median Earnings ^[0]

The state points SRECs to photo voltaic suppliers that set up renewable power methods reminiscent of residential photo voltaic. The photo voltaic suppliers then promote the SRECs to Illinois Shines, and so they could cross the financial savings onto their clients. “Anecdotally, we’ve heard that REC incentives lined about 40% of set up prices,” stated Anthony Star, Chief of the Planning and Procurement Bureau on the Illinois Energy Company, in an e mail ^[0]

Vitality storage in Illinois

Photo voltaic batteries can deliver peace of thoughts that may include a battery backup, however they typically price 1000’s of {dollars}.

“To this point in 2024, 3.9% of residential tasks which have been verified embrace battery storage,” Star stated. “The packages administered by the IPA (Illinois Shines and Illinois Photo voltaic for All) don’t embrace incentives for batteries. A rebate is out there by way of the utilities if a battery is included in an set up that features a good inverter. The present rebate stage is $300/kWh.”