Illinois tends to school other states when it comes to its solar incentive programs Illinois Shines and Illinois Solar for All. The state’s “community-driven community solar” program, through Illinois Shines, is competitive to get into and most projects to not get in the first year they apply due to the program’s allocated capacity.
However, Illinois Shines’ solar on schools program is lagging behind its its counterparts in the Illinois Shines program, and has yet to fill its allocated capacity.
Just 2% of public schools in Illinois have solar, according to the Illinois Power Agency, which includes Illinois Shines projects that don’t participate in the public schools category but are located on public school-owned land. At the time of publication, Illinois public schools had 14 energized projects and 39 solar projects in the works. Over the program’s lifetime, Illinois Shines’ public school category has supported 91 schools with onsite solar.
The public schools is a part of Illinois Shines, which will comprise about 15% of the program’s capacity. Illinois Shines (also known as the “Adjustable Block Program”) is one of the state incentive programs through the Illinois Power Agency.
Illinois Power Agency offers an extensive library of information related to the Illinois Shines, which was a large part of the agency’s focus this past year. For bringing solar to schools:
- 2025-26 Illinois Shines guidebook (information for public schools beginning on page 14)
- Public schools program category brochure
- Public schools project guide
- Other funding sources for public schools projects outside Illinois shines
- Public schools case study
Schools face many barriers in bringing solar projects into fruition. Because of this, Illinois Shines offers incentive payments to bring down the upfront or lifetime cost of the solar installation. Among other things, the program also offers prioritized capacity for projects constructed within environmental justice communities and on land owned by Tier 1 and Tier 2 K-12 school districts.
Patrice Flynn, a senior director Energy Solutions, which administers the Illinois Shines program on behalf of the Illinois Power Agency, spoke with pv magazine USA about why bringing solar to public schools in Illinois can be challenging, and what can be done to overcome them. The interview was edited for clarity and conciseness.
pv magazine USA: Considering how strong solar buildout has been in Illinois, I was surprised there’s been low buildout in the state’s schools. Why is that?
Patrice Flynn: Compared to the capacity allocated, yes, it’s low. There’s a lot of barriers for putting solar on schools. Of course, there’s barriers for solar in general, because of cost and just organization and getting things together. But in general, a school can be a little trickier, because it’s an institution with a lot of influences. There’s the school district, the superintendents, and then there’s the parents, organizations and the building quality.
And of course, the school-year schedule also creates a barrier. It’s just a lot of stakeholders and so it’s been a little bit tricky to get a lot of schools signed on. We do have a number of projects that have gone through and been approved, but not as many as we’d like.
pv: What kind of barriers exist in bringing solar projects to schools?
PF: They face a lot of financial barriers. Of course, there’s only so much funding to go around, and so that includes the operations and maintenance of multiple buildings, right? If we’re thinking of a Chicago School District, there’s so many schools that they need to look at all of the schools and weigh the priorities based on building maintenance and building health.
There’s also the need to have somebody who is a dedicated champion for the project because it really takes a lot of work to do the project management, even in coordination with approved vendors who work on solar projects throughout the state and support the property owners or the renters to facilitate projects. So there is a need for there to be a champion or a stakeholder with the school and – likely with the school district as well – that are communicating things like the financial questions, and the planning and the approvals. With all of the construction considerations, there needs to be somebody who’s on the maintenance the operations and then financials. They need to be able to pull those folks together to align on priorities, and have an agenda champion that’s really pushing it through and making sure that everybody’s fully informed.
pv: By “champion” are they typically from the from solar or the school?
PF: Typically, it is somebody with the school district. It could be somebody with the district or with the school itself, such as a principal or vice principal. It should be somebody who has some decision-making authority and certainly some influence to get the right ears to talk to, like the folks who need to buy in to the project, both for financial reasons, and for operational and scheduling and things like that.
pv: Are the installations typically through power purchase agreements (PPAs)?
PF: They are frequently PPAs, but they can also be community solar. So there’s two sort of major categories. There’s the distributed generation, which would be through a PPA, and then there are some community solar projects that are being evaluated at this time. So we don’t have any of those that have gone all the way through.
pv: Why might a school that is installing solar opt for community solar over signing a PPA where they get to be the sole offtaker?
PF: It kind of depends on how the project is identified and generated. For community solar, it’s possible that the school wasn’t the entity that escalated the desire to be involved in in solar. It might have been a group that decided they wanted a community solar project and recognized that the school might be a good place to do so.
There could be a lot of space. There could be on that nice roof. But again, of course, the community solar may be roof based, but it might, might also be on a field or somewhere else on a school property. It could also be school district property. So it could be on anything owned by the school district, as well as colleges, secondary college, community colleges, etc.
But if it’s a community solar project, then there are subscribers that subscribe into that project. In that case, the school would be the major subscriber. And those projects are typically on the school, and so they are benefiting directly from the generation.
pv: You mentioned earlier Illinois doesn’t have any community solar projects on school property yet, but there are some in the works. Is that correct?
PF: None that have been built. We’ve verified [eleven] applications, but they haven’t wrapped up and finalized as of now.
pv: Illinois has a powerhouse both in clean energy incentives, and with its policies and programs. How does this help the program?
PF: The program is fully state funded, and are through renewable energy credit (REC) incentives. So there, they go through the utilities and then those incentives are paid based on the size of the project’s generation. This is through a 20-year agreement, and so those payments are made throughout that period based on the generation.
And then the federal funding is kind of off to the side. And so the changes there are in flux right now.
pv: How do these incentives help insulate the state’s solar market from changes at the federal level?
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PF: They absolutely do. Through Illinois’ Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) and other clean energy legislation over the past number of years, the funding for this program and other solar projects in the state, is fully funded and supported. The federal changes do not affect that whatsoever. We want to be really clear with our customers and with our participants that although there has been some benefit of overlapping incentives, the state incentives are here to stay. There’s not a threat to those going away. Those are established by Illinois legislation.
pv: CEJA is widely seen as the catalyst that launched the state’s solar market forward. How did CEJA impact solar on schools?
PF: Schools could have participated in the CEJA program or the CEJA laws before, but recent changes to our program have made it easier for them to participate, more lucrative.
We have a special carve out of capacity that’s reserved just for public schools, and then those REC incentives are a bit richer than for a typical commercial installations.
And then additionally, of course, there’s a lot of collateral and support that our program provides. We have a quick webinar that gives an overview. We do workshops for schools, and so we’re happy to sit down with the schools and talk through not only how the program works, but just considerations of how to schedule things, what it looks like, and address any barriers, allowing them to ask questions and talk about opportunities for financial support and kind of finding out how that looks and how the incentives look in the long term, those 20 years of direct contract, how that affects the project cost and things like that.
So all of those changes, all the new information, and our focus on one-on-ones and workshops, has really happened over the last 18 months. Most of all, I would say over the last year that we’ve that we’ve had express focus on public schools.
pv: You mentioned refining the program. Can you go into how it has evolved over the years?
PF: The big difference is adding the community colleges and secondary education. Additionally, it’s just identifying additional resources. Developing and getting these resources out has been our focus for the past year.
pv: What information do you wish more developers knew about getting solar on schools?
PF: Well, one thing about our participants is they’re never afraid to ask questions. So if there are barriers or concerns, they let us know. We’ve offered round table discussions over the last several years and meet with the vendors for different categories. Through the public-school roundtables, we’ve received a lot of questions and provided additional responses and information. But through those round tables is where we’ve heard about some of the concerns, and that, in turn, resulted in us creating additional collateral and support.
pv: What were some of those concerns?
PF: Some of the concerns were financial, just kind of looking at the project and seeing if the 20-year contract with a greater REC incentive better, or how it compares to a traditional DG or community solar project, which has a shorter timeline and a lower incentive. So that was just a consideration that we would talk through with them and understand if there were any concerns or barriers.
And the other, of course, is finding the right stakeholders, finding the right folks that are making those decisions. And then there’s just so many different folks involved, whether it’s the school district or the school itself. It’s not as straightforward as maybe a typical business install where there’s one stakeholder and one building owner, right? So it’s more complex to navigate through with stakeholders.
pv: How might this complexity affect the developer? Is it typically sorted out before the developer becomes involved?
PF: The developer is involved later, once the project gets started. However, it’s important for them to recognize that there are a number of folks that are going to be involved in moving the project forward.
pv: So it sounds like developers just need to understand the project might have a longer timeline than if that size project were going on a person’s private property.
PF: Exactly. And then there might be considerations such as the school calendar. They prefer to have work done when school is not in session, but some are okay with installing the project while school year is in session. So things like that are a greater consideration, typically, than a private business.
pv: Do schools use the solar installations as learning opportunities for their students?
PF: Absolutely. And so I think the case study that you were provided there was, there was some curriculum inclusion in that school. And it’s definitely something that we’re talking to schools about that are getting enrolled, or have been enrolled, that we think it can be a real positive for students just to, just to get a knowledge of what’s going on and why, why it’s happening. So that is something that our team, again, our team abs, are working with the schools to be included in the curriculum.
(Also read: Solar-powered schools act as living laboratories for learning)
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