Home solar
Find out whether your roof and your bill make it worth doing, before anyone designs you a system.
Check my fitDeKalb County · Illinois
Solar installation and repair in DeKalb, Illinois
We install new systems, take panels off when your roof needs work, and fix systems other companies walked away from. Based in Rockford since 2021.
Local intro
The utility here, and the drive from Rockford.
This page covers DeKalb, Sycamore, Genoa, Rochelle, Malta and Cortland in DeKalb County, Illinois. DeKalb lies about 30 miles southeast of Rockford, down I-39 and across on IL-38, the farthest Illinois page we publish. If your address is on the edge of that, send it and we'll tell you straight whether we can serve you properly.
ComEd. ComEd serves DeKalb, Sycamore, Genoa, Malta and Cortland.
Rochelle Municipal Utilities. Rochelle sits in Ogle County and is served by Rochelle Municipal Utilities, a city-owned electric utility, not ComEd. RMU uses net billing rather than net metering: exported energy earns a total credit of 5.22 cents per kWh (3.42 cents energy, 0.72 cents capacity, 0.78 cents transmission, plus a 6% loss factor) under its Rider 4, and interconnection runs through a five-step process from agreement to billing.
Permitting
How a permit runs in DeKalb.
We pull the permit and file the utility interconnection on every job. Here is who issues it and what they ask for.
City of DeKalb Building Division
The City of DeKalb Building Division, (815) 748-2070, aims to return initial plan-review comments within two weeks of a complete submittal.
SourceDeKalb County Community Development
Unincorporated DeKalb County has a dedicated Solar PV Permit through Community Development at 110 East Sycamore Street, Sycamore, (815) 895-7188. The fee is $150 up to 9.9 kW DC, $300 from 10 to 49.9 kW and $600 from 50 to 99.9 kW, doubled if work starts before the permit issues. Residential plans are sealed by an Illinois professional engineer, a roof mount needs a structural review letter and stamped drawings, two plan sets of at least 11 by 17 inches go in on paper (no electronic submittals), the ComEd interconnection application is part of the package, and the permit lapses if no inspection happens within 180 days.
SourceRochelle Municipal Utilities interconnection
A Rochelle system interconnects with RMU, not ComEd: interconnection agreement, RMU approval, city permits, inspection, then billing under Rider 4.
SourceServices offered
What we do in DeKalb.
Service and repair
Offline, underproducing, or the company that installed it is gone. $400 covers the visit and the first two hours. On site within five business days.
Request service
Detach and reinstall
Panels have to come off before a roofer can touch the deck, and they have to go back on without voiding your warranty or your roof.
Start a roof review
Storm solar check
Get the solar side checked before the roofer starts. We document what happened to the array, coordinate the removal, and put it back properly.
Storm Solar Check
Farm and ground mount
Ground mounts, pole barn and quonset roofs, with the business tax treatment explained before you commit.
Farm solar
Commercial solar
The 30% credit is alive for business-owned systems, with depreciation on top, though the project has to be in service by 31 December 2027.
Commercial solarIncentives
What Illinois Shines pays here.
ComEd-served homes in DeKalb County are in Illinois Shines Group B. The program buys fifteen years of your system's renewable energy credits at a price the state fixes for each program year; since 1 June 2026 a home-scale system receives 50% at energization and the rest over six years. Illinois Shines figures are estimates until the program approves them, and Illinois Shines is not free solar.
Rochelle is a municipal-utility territory, which is eligible for Illinois Shines, but RMU's 5.22 cents per kWh net-billing credit replaces ComEd net metering and changes the payback arithmetic, and the REC price group depends on the grid region the utility sits in. We confirm both before we put numbers in a proposal.
On a ComEd account, ComEd pays a distributed generation rebate of $300 per kW on a system interconnected with a smart inverter, and Illinois lets you file form PTAX-330 so the array should not raise your assessment once you file the claim form.
The federal residential credit ended for installations completed after 31 December 2025. Business-owned systems still qualify for the 30% Section 48E credit if the project is in service by 31 December 2027. See what changed in 2026 for the full picture.
See what's still availableTell us what you need.
Whether that's a quote, a second opinion on someone else's quote, or a system that stopped working, you'll get a straight answer and a real next step.
Tell us what you need
Tell us what's going on. If solar doesn't suit your roof we'll say so on the first call.