How does Illinois Shines work for a homeowner?

Illinois Shines is a state program that provides an incentive for solar projects. It pays for the credits a project in the program makes. The state does not pay you. The credit contracts run through Approved Vendors, not each homeowner. Your vendor sells the credits to the utility. Your own contract says where that money goes.

An Approved Vendor is a solar company cleared to sign up projects in the program. GSM Solar does not run Illinois Shines or speak for it. What follows comes from the program's own documents and from the Illinois Power Agency, the state agency behind it.

What is Illinois Shines?

Illinois Shines is a state program that provides an incentive for solar projects. The incentive is a payment for solar credits, not for panels. The program's consumer protection handbook describes it as payments for the solar credits a system makes over 15 or 20 years, depending on system type.

You may see a second name on forms: the Adjustable Block Program. That is the legislative name for Illinois Shines. Both names mean the same program.

Your panels still come through a contract with a solar company. You might buy the system, lease it, or sign an agreement to pay for the power it makes. The credit side runs next to that contract, between the Approved Vendor and the utility. The program asks you to sign one form, the Disclosure Form. The company files the program's applications.

What is a solar credit, and who owns it?

The credit is called a REC, short for renewable energy credit. A REC stands for the environmental value of solar power, not the power itself. Your panels make power. The REC is a separate thing that the same power creates.

The Illinois Power Agency (IPA) says there is one REC for each megawatt-hour of power made from a renewable source and delivered to the grid. A megawatt-hour is a thousand kilowatt-hours. The kilowatt-hour, or kWh, is the unit your power bill counts in. The glossary explains kWh and REC in a line each.

RECs are worth money because utilities must buy RECs to supply a set amount of power from renewable energy.

Under the credit contract, your Approved Vendor sells the credits to the utility. Under the handbook's rules, the seller must tell you it plans to sell your project's RECs through the program. Once your project is in the program, the RECs go to a utility or the IPA. They do not stay with you.

A REC is not the credit on your power bill. That one is net metering: a credit that appears on your electric bill, for the power your panels send to the grid. The IPA lists the two as different kinds of credit, each with its own value. How net metering works covers the bill side.

What does an Approved Vendor do?

An Approved Vendor is a company the Program Administrator approves to file project applications and hold the REC contracts. The Program Administrator is the firm that runs the program day to day, covered further down.

That is why you never sign a credit contract yourself. The IPA says the contracts are not directly with each homeowner. The vendor deals with the program and the utility for you.

The person who talks to you about solar may work for another company. That company may be a Designee: a company that works with customers for an Approved Vendor, such as an installer or a sales firm; each must register, and the program publishes the list. Either way, you should know who is making the offer. Program rules require it: a seller in person must name their company and, if it is a Designee, its Approved Vendor. If a seller leaves out either name, ask. See how to check a solar company.

Nothing goes to the program until you sign one form. The Illinois Shines guide says nothing is filed until you sign the Disclosure Form. The Disclosure Form is the program's standard form. It lays out the offer in clear, consistent terms. You sign the Disclosure Form before the contract. See the Disclosure Form and your right to cancel.

After that, your Approved Vendor files the application, in a batch with other projects. The Program Administrator reviews each batch. You do not file anything with the program yourself.

Where does the credit money go?

The utility pays your Approved Vendor for the credits. It does not pay you. The Illinois Shines guide spells it out for systems 25 kW or smaller. If the project is accepted under the 2026 contract, the utility pays for the credits it will make over the next 15 years. It makes a 50% upfront payment, the rest quarterly over six years.

What reaches you depends on the deal you sign. The guide says the payment is passed to you, or built into a lower project cost, depending on your contract.

If your offer is a power purchase agreement, or PPA, the system is owned by the solar company, not the homeowner. You pay a set price per kWh for the power the system makes. On a PPA or lease, the handbook says the credit value can be passed through indirectly, such as in lower PPA or lease payments. See PPA, lease or buy.

If your contract does promise you a share of the payment, a program rule protects it: the Approved Vendor must pay you on time, as your contract and its own statements say.

Ask the seller which way your contract handles the credit value. Then find the answer in the contract itself. This page does not estimate what the credits are worth to you. That depends on the contract you sign.

Who runs Illinois Shines day to day?

Illinois Shines is administered by Energy Solutions on behalf of the Illinois Power Agency, an independent state government agency. Energy Solutions is the Program Administrator.

Three groups touch your project's credits. The Program Administrator reviews the applications. Then the Illinois Commerce Commission approves the REC contracts between your Approved Vendor and the utility. The utility buys the credits from your vendor.

You can check where your own project stands. The guide points to an application lookup tool at illinoisshines.com/project-status.

GSM Solar is none of these groups. It is not the Program Administrator, the IPA, the Commission or a utility, and it does not speak for any of them. The program's own website and documents are the place to confirm a rule.

What can anyone say about your power?

Selling the credits changes what anyone can say about your power. The handbook says whoever owns the RECs has the right to make claims about the use of that solar power. When your project is in the program, that owner is a utility or the IPA.

That means the home should not claim to use clean or renewable power. The same rule covers sellers. A seller who tells you your home will use clean power is making the kind of claim the handbook tells sellers not to make.

Some claims are fine. The handbook lets a seller say your solar project will create energy from the sun and add to new solar power. Your panels do make power from sunlight. The credit for that power just belongs to someone else.

Your relationship with your utility does not end either. Marketing about it has to say that you stay a utility customer, responsible for a utility bill. Net metering credits show up on that bill. Why you still get a utility bill explains what stays on it.

Quick answers

Does Illinois Shines pay me directly?

Not under the credit contract. The utility pays your Approved Vendor for the credits. Your own contract says whether part of that reaches you or is built into a lower project cost.

What is a REC?

A renewable energy credit. It stands for the environmental value of solar power, not the power itself. Your Approved Vendor sells it to the utility.

Who runs Illinois Shines day to day?

Energy Solutions, on behalf of the Illinois Power Agency, an independent state government agency. The Illinois Commerce Commission approves the credit contracts.

When does my project go into the program?

Not until you sign the Disclosure Form. You sign it before the contract. Then your Approved Vendor files the application.

Can I say my home uses clean energy?

The handbook says a home whose credits are sold should not make that claim. The credits go to a utility or the Illinois Power Agency, and whoever owns them has the right to make claims about the power.

Does GSM Solar run Illinois Shines?

No. GSM Solar does not run the program, work for it or speak for it.