New grant program to help cut red tape for rooftop solar in Illinois

In a webinar explaining how Illinois plans to use its $156 million Solar for All grant, staff from the Illinois Finance Authority announced plans for a new grant program designed to make it easier, cheaper and faster for Illinois residents to put solar panels on their roofs.

The agency plans to provide funding to support up to 75 Illinois communities with $20,000 grants to help adopt and get trained to use the automated permitting platform, SolarAPP+. SolarAPP+ streamlines the permitting process for residential rooftop solar installations and projects approved through SolarAPP+ are installed and inspected faster, with a lower likelihood of inspection failure compared to traditional methods.

“Illinois needs more rooftop solar, and less red tape,” said Johanna Neumann, Senior Director of Environment Illinois Research & Education Center’s Campaign for 100% Renewable Energy. “When communities automate permitting for rooftop solar systems it makes going solar faster, cheaper and easier.”

Rooftop solar adoption has taken off in Illinois. According to the report Rooftop Solar on the Rise, residential solar in Illinois grew 2252% from 2017 through 2022. But, in 2022, Illinois had tapped only about 1.95 percent of its rooftop solar generation potential according to the report.