Community Solar: Evanston Residents Help Shift to Renewable Energy

If you live in Evanston and get your electric bill from ComEd, there’s an easy way to go solar and help offset Illinois’ climate-warming carbon emissions. There’s no upfront cost. You don’t need a solar roof. You can live in an apartment or even rent one.

How is this possible? Sign up for a solar farm.

There are currently 625 ComEd customers in Evanston who subscribe to the solar farms, an arrangement commonly called community solar. While they still represent a small percentage of Evanston’s residential customers, the number of local participants is growing. Across ComEd’s service area, about 25,000 homes subscribe to community solar, according to a ComEd spokesman.

What is community solar energy?

It was not until state legislation was passed that solar energy became a viable option in Illinois.

The Future of Energy Jobs Act of 2016, the Climate and Equitable Workplaces Act of 2021, and state laws have introduced a series of incentives, subsidies, and mandates that promote the construction of solar farms and require utilities to accept electricity generated by those farms.

This Citizen Services BoardFounded in 1983 to defend the rights of utility customers throughout Illinois, explains how solar community program works: “ComEd customers who participate subscribe — at a discounted rate — to a portion of the energy produced by Community Solar’s large, off-site solar farm. Each month, these participants receive credits on their ComEd bills for the amount of energy generated by their subscription solar farm.”

The solar farm owner charges the subscriber a discount for these credits (usually 10% to 20%), which saves them money on a monthly basis. The program also provides even greater savings for lower-income households and makes solar “an option for millions of apartment dwellers and people with shaded roofs who simply couldn’t consider solar in the past.”

How does community solar energy help reduce carbon emissions?

Hal Sprague, Member Evanston Climate Action energy team, which works in the solar industry, explains it this way: The electricity provided by ComEd (the utility that owns and distributes electricity in northern Illinois) is generated from three primary sources: nuclear power, fossil fuels (natural gas and coal), and renewable energy sources (wind and solar). Burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the atmosphere that contribute to global warming, which is why we need to phase it out—and fast.

Solar farm subscribers contribute to this transformation by increasing the share of the electricity pie that comes from renewable sources, which in turn decreases the share that comes from fossil fuels, Sprague explains. In other words, by subscribing, “you’re helping the state of Illinois eliminate the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity.”

T. Manning, another member of the CAE energy team and a community solar advocate, is preparing to give presentations to groups around the city along with Sprague and others (contact information is below).

“It’s hard to explain,” Manning said, “but when people hear it, they ask themselves, why didn’t I do this five years ago?”

Flawless

Manning signed up for community solar two years ago through a company called NexAmp Amplifier. His account is tied to a solar farm in Kane County, west of Chicago. The credits wax and wane throughout the year, depending on the number of hours of sunlight, so they cover more of the electricity supply in the summer than in the winter. On average, “at least three-quarters of the typical solar household’s consumption, or more, is offset by the farm’s production,” Manning said. “For my household, it’s almost 100 percent.”

He still gets a bill from ComEd. “They have to maintain the entire system,” he said. That includes distribution, taxes and fees. But deliver part of the ComEd bill is partially (in his case almost completely) offset by the credits from NexAmp. Now he receives two bills instead of one (one from NexAmp for the credits, the other from ComEd, where the credits are subtracted).

But it’s worth the minor hassle, he said. Plus, the cost of the credits is reduced by 20%, so Manning pays less per kilowatt-hour on his NexAmp bill than he would if he paid ComEd for his supply.

Loan: Citizen Services Board

Saving emissions and money

Matt Cotter, co-chair of the Environment Council, has signed up for solar power in November 2022. Ampio. The farm he was assigned to is located in Rockford. His motivation is simple: “get more renewable energy.”

In the email he emphasized how easy the process was.

“I signed up, turned on auto-pay and haven’t done anything since then except check the CO2e savings and energy production allocated to our account,” he said.

So far, he estimates he has saved 10,671 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions.

“We also save a nominal amount of money on our energy bills,” he added. “I highly recommend it.”

Its carbon savings are roughly in line with CAE’s energy team’s estimates for a typical household using solar power. Over 20 years, they calculated, a household “can expect to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 219,400 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent. That’s about the same as driving 263,280 miles” (in a conventional gasoline-powered car).

They also estimate that, assuming a 3 percent annual increase in electricity costs, the same household would save $2,700 on its electricity bill over the same period.

Former Climate Action Evanston board member Hal Sprague explains how signing up for community solar panels can help you save money. Loan: Evan Girard

Connecting Community Solar with Roof Panels

Sprague, a longtime solar advocate, installed solar panels on his garage roof years ago—the only place with enough sunlight. At the time, it was a worthwhile investment.

They generate up to 20 kWh on a sunny day. They use closer to 10 or 12 kWh. When there is a surplus, it goes back into the grid and gets a credit for it on your monthly bill from ComEd. That means some summer months are $0.

Now that he has a plug-in hybrid car, the panels don’t cover all of his electricity usage. The community’s solar subscription, through a company called Solsticehelps fill the gap. He is also registered with ComEd on real time pricesmeaning that ComEd charges him a different rate (for any electricity he delivers) based on the time of day. The electricity he uses later at night is cheaper than it is in the middle of the day, so it tries to shift some activities to the cheaper period. Everyone can combine different programs.

Bumps in the road, but still a “clear thing”‘

Our family signed up for Clearway solar in December 2020, and in May 2021, we were assigned to a solar farm in Kankakee County, south of Chicago.

Like other early adopters, we had to be patient at times – first while waiting for the farm to be ready for use, and then while it was offline for a period last year.

We set up both of our accounts for automatic payments, but when we check, the reconciliation can be difficult. Initially, this was because the credits were deducted from our ComEd bill at least a month or two after we paid Clearway for them. This year, although the farm was generating power and sending it to the grid, the credits had not appeared on our ComEd bill since January.

It turns out that this is a problem for all solar subscribers in ComEd communities, and the confusion it caused was the subject of a June 24 article in the Chicago Tribune. A ComEd spokesperson wrote in an email: “We are aware of this issue and are working to resolve it as quickly as possible; affected customers have been informed that they should begin receiving the offset credits on their July bills.”

Assuming this gets sorted out soon, CUB is taking care of itCommunity solar providers are sending reassuring messages to customers, and many have said they are still signing up new subscribers.

There was no downside to being a community solar subscriber. Through January, the Kankakee farm we are enrolled in has produced 6,465,371 kWh of electricity, which is the equivalent of 10,899,652 miles driven by a gasoline-powered car, according to Clearway. Our share of that is 16,525 miles.

For those who want to do their part to transition away from fossil fuels and can afford it, rooftop solar panels are still the number one option, according to Sprague.

“It actually empowers your own home. But 80 percent of the people who would like to do that can’t, in Evanston, because of trees, money, a lot of things,” he said.

So the next best option is community solar, Sprague said: “You pay nothing up front, you pay nothing to get out of it, you save money. It’s a no-brainer.”

On hot summer days, when we realize the consequences of burning fossil fuels, it may seem like a good idea to know that we are contributing to the transition to clean, renewable energy.

Want to learn more? Contact Climate Action Evanston’s energy team. They are ready to talk to “any group that will listen.” Contact T. Manning at [email protected]

Resources

Illinois Energy Agency was established under Illinois law in 2007 “to ensure a clean, reliable, equitable and economical energy future for residents and businesses throughout Illinois.”

Illinois shineswhich “supports the development of next-generation solar energy in Illinois through local and community solar projects.” A section dedicated to solar community suggests questions worth asking if you’re thinking about subscribing.

Illinois Solar for Allwhose goal is to “ensure access to the benefits of solar energy that translate into measurable savings for low-income households and communities.”

Citizen Services Board explains community solar and lists suppliers. They summarized bids from a range of companies in March 2024 in comparison chart.

Climate Watch is a series of occasional articles about how climate change is impacting Evanston and what is being done locally to make a difference.