Illinois Shines (Adjustable Block Program)

The Illinois Shines (Adjustable Block Program) lets Illinois solar owners sell renewable energy credits generated by their system, tracked as a solar incentive in DSIRE. Eligibility is scoped to residential customers, with a stated benefit of $65-$75/REC for 15-year contract. DSIRE lists no scheduled sunset, though enabling legislation and appropriations can still be revised year to year.

That baseline is slower than most states, which raises the stakes for every incentive on the table. Illinois averages 4.3 kWh/m²/day of usable sunlight and residential rates of 16.5¢/kWh, producing an estimated 7,534 kWh/year and $1,243 of annual utility offset on a typical 6 kW system costing $17,400. That baseline already implies a 14-year simple payback and a 25-year modeled net of roughly $13,675 before this incentive - every dollar this srec / renewable credit delivers compresses that payback further.

Illinois bundles a deep incentive stack, so this program rarely stands alone. Illinois has 5 solar incentive programs indexed in DSIRE, including adjacent options like IL Solar Property Tax Exemption, IL Net Metering, ComEd Smart Inverter Rebate. The state's net-metering policy is classified as full, which governs how excess generation is credited and often decides whether a given program is worth claiming for a specific household.