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What Is An
 SREC?

Learn about Illinois Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) below. If your home or business is located in Illinois and you’re ready to get started on a custom assessment—which will estimate your SREC savings along with other incentives you may be eligible for—reach out.
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What are Illinois
SRECs?

(Please note SRECs are not available to individuals or organizations purchasing solar electricity via a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). In those cases, the third-party invester owns and sells the SRECs.)

Every solar system produces actual electricity, as well as an environmental and energy security benefit to the region.

The SREC places a value on this benefit, so that someone other than the system owner can buy just the benefit, and count it as its own contribution to the community. When an organization buys an SREC it is essentially buying the environmental benefits (leaving the system owner to use the electricity without claiming the environmental benefit).

Nationwide, the agreed upon standard is that one SREC equals the benefit afforded the community by the generation of 1000 kWhs (kilowatt-hours). And remember payment for a system’s SRECs are in addition to the direct savings the system owner reaps from actually using the electricity they produced.

Who wants to
Buy SRECs?

In Illinois (as well as a few other states) there is a dedicated marketplace for the sale and purchase of renewable energy credits.  To protect Illinois’ long-term energy supply and its natural environment, the Illinois Power Agency (IPA), on behalf of Illinois utilities, is tasked with meeting a goal of 40% renewable-sourced energy by 2030. This % requirement is known as a state Renewable Portfolio Standard or RPS.  Most states in the nation today have an RPS.

The State’s three investor-owned utilities (not energy cooperatives or municipal utilities) must pay into a dedicated fund, and these dollars are collected from ratepayers. The utilities draw from this exclusively to purchase SRECs (according to specified state RPS targets) from owners of solar electric systems including those in cooperative and municipal utility territories. Utilities buy the SRECs in larger quantities through bundled contracts with Approved Vendors. These Approved Vendors contract with IPA and the utilities and package together all the SREC paperwork for many small projects.

Approved Vendors work with various Designees to submit projects into the Illinois Shines SREC program. StraightUp Solar is an Approved Vendor through StraightUp Solar REC Solutions. and a Designee, qualified to install solar PV projects for the program. We have the expertise to effectively file our customers SREC applications. We work directly with the Illinois Shines program to address any issues with SREC payments to our customers. 

The value of each SREC has been determined by the State on a set schedule, in blocks of decreasing value. The sooner the consumer has a signed purchase agreement the more likely they are to obtain a contract for the higher value SRECs. 

 Sign up now for the best possible incentive rate. 

If your home or business is in Illinois, reach out for a custom solar quote to discover how much you can save with SRECs as well as other possible incentives.

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How does the SREC Program work

From the Consumer’s End?

In Illinois you as a solar owner contract with an Approved Vendor (through your installer) to sell all the SRECs your system is expected to generate over the first 15 years.

  • For systems under 25kW you receive a 50% of the total SREC value in year one, after your installation date, and the remainder paid out annually in equal amounts for years 2-7. 
  • For systems larger than 25kW, the total is paid out evenly over 7 years. 


In both cases, you receive your payments from the Approved Vendor. 

For example, if your solar system generates 9000 kWh one year, you have 9 SRECs to sell for that year.  As a reminder, these payments are in addition to the direct savings you reap from actually using the electricity you produce.

As the solar system owner you will sign the actual contract for your SRECs with StraightUp Solar REC Solutions, which is an Approved Vendor with the Illinois Shines Program. The contract will specify the maximum number of SRECs that the IPA is obligated to buy, and the exact price per SREC. The IPA pays the Approved Vendor for the SREC delivery. The Approved Vendor in turn distributes payments to their contracted solar owners.

A few other notable aspects of SREC programming:  While the SREC sale is a purely paper transaction, there are safeguards in place to prevent individuals from selling the same SRECs to more than one party.  Once a homeowner sells their SRECs, technically speaking the correct way to publicly describe their contribution to the larger community is that the homeowner is ‘producing green energy on behalf of the State of Illinois.’

How Much Can You Save with SRECs?

If your home or business is in Illinois and you’d like an estimate your SRECs payments, along with other incentives available to you, reach out for a custom solar quote now.
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Rainer G.Normal, Illinois Homeowner
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