The Illinois Power Agency (IPA)has released its Program Guidebook for the 2025-26 Program Year, which outlines new REC pricing and other changes ahead of the program’s launch on June 2.

The guidebook was published 45 days ahead of the 2025-26 program launch to allow participants time to review and prepare for compliance.

While REC prices for the Traditional Community Solar (TCS), Community-Driven Community Solar (CDCS), and the Public Schools categories will remain relatively the same as the program year, some REC prices increase, and others decrease in the Small DG and Large DG categories.

For DG projects that range in size from 2 MW to 5 MW, REC prices will be USD 31.96 for Group A and USD 37.39 for Group B. For DG projects between 500 kW to 2 MW, RECS will be USD 42.38 for Group A and USD 49.57 for Group B.

REC pricing for the Equity Eligible Contractor (EEC) category will follow the REC pricing associated with that project’s group, whether it’s small or large DG, and the project’s size. Community solar projects that are submitted to the EEC category will receive TCS pricing also based on the project’s group and size.

RECs are issued when 1 MW of electricity is generated by a renewable energy source.

The USD 5 Community Solar Rooftop Adder will again be offered, and Stranded Customer Adder is expected to be finalized by the close of the 2025 calendar year. The Stranded Customer Adder is being designed to represent the value of additional risk and work necessary when taking on stranded customers.

Stranded customers are customers that have previously contracted with an approved vendor who is unable or unwilling to complete a project. This may be because the vendor has gone out of business or has been suspended and is prohibited from advancing projects. As the program matures, stranded customers are becoming more prevalent, according to the IPA.

Other key changes include new information on customer protection initiatives, clarifications for co-location pricing and timing on community solar application submission.

To date, most categories in Illinois Shines have reached capacity, however a few have plenty of runway available. This includes more than 45 MW of capacity in the Large DG category and nearly 40 MW of combined capacity for EEC Community Solar and EEC DG categories. Additionally, the Public School DG category and Public School Community Solar categories have combined available capacity of more than 140 MW.

Developers including Keystone Power Holdings, Dimension Energy, Trajectory Energy Partners, Hawk-Attollo, Nokomis Energy, BOW Renewables, EnPower Solutions, ESP Solar, and Cenergy Power have submitted projects into Illinois Shines 2024-2025 Program Year.