On January 1, 2025, Illinois will begin transitioning from Net Metering to Smart Solar Billing. It will only affect new solar customers throughout the state, and current customers will be considered “legacy” customers. Those customers will continue to receive the same Net Metering benefits throughout the lifetime of their systems.
“It is a great time to go solar,” said Lesley McCain, Executive Director of the Illinois Solar Energy & Storage Association. “The monthly savings Smart Solar Billing will continue to provide – in addition to significant rebates from the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act and tax breaks from the Federal Inflation Reduction Act – greatly lower the barrier to entry for individuals to invest in solar power and storage. This is an exciting time to join the clean energy economy and be a part of helping the environment.”
Net Metering is a billing mechanism that compensates households who adopt rooftop solar energy for their excess energy, helping to broaden access to home solar and other technologies, providing fair compensation and expanding solar growth throughout the state, which comes after a record-breaking year for residential solar in Illinois, with over 1,500 MW of capacity being installed in 2024.
With Smart Solar Billing, new solar consumers will still have access to the full benefits of solar installations, helping make the investment more affordable and accessible than ever before, with additional support for battery storage. The existing Distributed Generation Rebate is available for all solar systems and consumers can access the existing Storage Rebate if their solar system is paired with battery storage. Customers may also receive additional incentives for Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) produced by their home solar systems through the Illinois Shines program.
“The solar industry is committed to educating households about how Smart Solar Billing will impact them,” said Sara Birmingham, Vice President of State Affairs for the Solar Energy Industries Association. “While the new system will result in a slightly smaller monthly benefit, customers who invest in solar energy will continue to receive significant energy bill savings.”
There will be several changes under the new Smart Solar Billing program. For example, energy credits from surplus power will now be applied to the supply portion of a customer’s energy bill, rather than the entire bill. Bill credits can also now be rolled over year-over-year and last the lifetime of the installation.
If a customer wants to qualify for the original Net Metering compensation, they must submit their application before the deadline. However, Ameren and ComEd reserve the right to reject a submission for projects the utility deems incomplete or for submissions that are determined to have missing or inaccurate information. With record levels of homeowners installing solar, other potential delays could hurt a customer’s ability to meet the deadline, so submitting an application as soon as possible is preferred to receive the full retail Net Metering credits.
In order to receive the current benefits, your system must be installed and your solar installer must submit a Certificate of Completion application, a Witness Test Request application (for Ameren Illinois customers only) and a Net Metering application to the customer’s utility by 5:00 p.m. Central Time on December 31, 2024. With the current high demand, it is highly recommended that all customers should speak with a solar company to verify if they are able to meet the deadline.
Solar customers and businesses can access more resources to learn about the changes to Net Metering and the new Smart Solar Billing system.
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