Illinois Shines and SREC payments, explained.

What Illinois Shines is.

Illinois Shines is the state's solar incentive program, run by the Illinois Power Agency. Your system earns one renewable energy credit, a REC, for every 1,000 kilowatt-hours it produces. The program buys fifteen years of those credits at a price the state fixes for each program year, and that purchase is the incentive. Program year 2026-27 opened on 1 June 2026 with 236.71 MW available for systems of home scale.

The program works through two roles. An Approved Vendor holds the REC contract with the utility and answers to the state for the project. A Designee sells and installs the system under that vendor. Braven Solar is Designee D5008 on the state's Find-a-Designee register, and Carbon Solutions SREC LLC is the Approved Vendor on every application we file. Ask any installer which role they hold, then check the register.

Small DG and Large DG pay differently.

The program sorts on-site systems by size. Small Distributed Generation covers systems up to and including 25 kW AC, which is where almost every home lands. Large Distributed Generation runs from above 25 kW AC to 5 MW AC, which is where shops, barns and commercial roofs land.

Each category carries its own REC price and its own payment schedule, so the same panel earns a different amount depending on which meter it sits behind. On a 35.2 kW Boone County farm we built, the net SREC value worked out near $990 per kW. On a home it runs to roughly $1,610 per kW. Bigger is not automatically better per watt, and a farmer comparing a quote for the house against a quote for the shop should expect the two numbers to differ.

How the money arrives.

It does not arrive as a discount at signing. You pay for the system, the system is energized, and the program pays afterward. Illinois Shines pays the Approved Vendor, not the installer. On a Braven project that vendor is Carbon Solutions SREC LLC (CSG), which holds the REC contract with the program and pays you: since 1 June 2026 a Small DG system receives 50% of its REC value at energization and the rest in equal quarterly payments over the following six years, less the program fee shown on your Disclosure Form. Braven designs the system, files the application and hands it over. The incentive money never runs through us, so it does not depend on us. A proposal written before June 2026 may show a different schedule. If the program's capacity for your category is full and it is only taking applications onto a waitlist, we tell you that before you sign, because an incentive on a waitlist is not an incentive you can count on yet.

In ComEd territory, which the program calls Group B, the 2026-27 price for a system of 10 kW or under is $80.77 per REC. That price is fixed for the program year and applies only to a project the program approves within it.

A real 10 kW system at our current pricing:

The collateral line is the part of the REC value the Approved Vendor holds back against the system's fifteen-year delivery obligation to the program. It comes back to you at year 15 if the system has kept producing and reporting.

Illinois Shines is not free solar.

You buy the array and you pay the full price for it. The program then buys the credits it generates, on the schedule above, once the application is approved and the system is energized. Eligibility, value and timing depend on your project and the program block it lands in, and nothing is guaranteed until the program approves it. A company that calls the program free, or a discount off the purchase price, has the mechanics wrong.

Questions to ask before you sign.

1. Who is the Designee, and which Approved Vendor holds the contract? Both names belong on the paperwork, and both should appear on the state's registers.
2. How was the SREC estimate calculated? Ask for the system size in kW AC, the production estimate in kWh, the REC price used, and the fees taken out.
3. Where does the payment go? To you, to the vendor, or against a loan. If it goes anywhere but your account, ask why.
4. What could change it? Program approval, the block your project lands in, and how much the system produces. Ask what happens to the contract if the approved amount comes in lower than the estimate.
5. Who handles it after installation? Fifteen years of REC delivery means somebody has to keep the system reporting. Ask who, and what it costs.

How Braven shows it in a proposal.

Every incentive on a Braven proposal is marked as an estimate until Illinois Shines approves the application, and every estimate has its assumptions beside it: system size, production, the REC price for the current program year, and the fees the Approved Vendor takes. If the program approves a different number, you see the difference before we install anything. We show the incentive as money that comes back to you on a schedule, because that is what it is.

Paying for the system.

Payment is half at signing, half when the work is substantially complete. Most of our customers pay cash; a HELOC is the usual route for those who finance. We do not lease, and we do not sell power purchase agreements.

Leases and PPAs are how a lot of companies make the monthly number look good; they also mean somebody else owns the array on your roof. With a HELOC the bank lends against the house and you own the array, so the Illinois Shines payments and the ComEd rebate come to you. Bring the lender's terms to the first call and we will run the numbers against them.

Community solar.

We do not offer it. Community solar is a subscription to a share of somebody else's array, billed through your utility, and it runs under a separate part of Illinois Shines. Braven installs on-site systems, services them, and takes them off and puts them back for roof work. If a subscription suits you better than an array on your own roof, we will tell you that on the first call.

Braven Solar LLC is a registered Illinois Shines Designee (ID D5008) and markets and installs Illinois Shines projects on behalf of Approved Vendor Carbon Solutions SREC LLC. Illinois Shines is a state program that provides an incentive for solar projects. Braven Solar is not affiliated with ComEd or any utility, and nothing on this site is part of a utility program. You remain a utility customer and continue to receive a utility bill. Incentive figures are estimates until the program approves your application, and the Disclosure Form you sign before any contract shows how the REC payment is treated.

Last reviewed September 2026. General guidance only. Eligibility and value vary by project. Verify tax and incentive details with a qualified professional before relying on them.