On June 3, 2024, Traditional Community Solar (TCS) for the 2024-2025 Program Year opened, allocating 64 MW of capacity to Group A and 149 MW of capacity to Group B.
Capacity was initially awarded to projects on the 2023-24 Program Year waitlist leaving 0.50 MW of capacity available for Group A and 28.43 MW available for Group B for newly submitted applications. The 20% developer cap was applied during this time. Applications submitted to the Program just before the portal closure were not processed as of June 3, 2024. Once these applications were added to the waitlist, they exhausted the available TCS Group A and Group B capacity, leaving 0 MW available for applications received on or after June 3, 2024.
| Group A | Group B | |
| 2024-2025 Program Year Capacity | 64 MW | 149 MW |
| Capacity awarded to 2023-2024 Program Year waitlists* | 63.50 MW | 147.73 |
| Available 2024-2025 Program Year Capacity | 0 (0.5) MW | 0 (1.27) MW |
In accordance with the Traditional Community Solar (TCS) scoring guidelines, previously published in both the 2022 Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan and the Program Guidebook, the Program Administrator scored all projects submitted on June 3, 2024. The scores and a full announcement regarding the scoring process were posted on the Program website’s Project Category Hub on the Traditional Community Solar page on August 9, 2024. The Program outlined that following the finalization of the score appeal process, the Agency would utilize a random selection process to break ties between projects submitted on the first day of the Program Year, June 3, 2024 that received tied scores.
On September 10, 2024, a random selection event, open to stakeholder attendance, was conducted. A recording of the event, the presentation slides, and the resulting spreadsheet have been added to the Program’s website at the Traditional Community Solar page. Updated waitlists for each group (projects receiving scores of at least 5.0) have been added to the Program’s website Block Capacity Dashboard page.
Group A Traditional Community Solar
There were no tied scores for Group A projects submitted on June 3, 2024 and therefore a random selection process was not necessary for these projects. All submitted projects received scores of at least 5.0 points and were added to the current Group A waitlist ordered by score.
Group B Traditional Community Solar
For Group B, multiple projects submitted on June 3, 2023 received the same score, which necessitated a random selection event to create an ordered waitlist. A command- line script was used to generate random numbers to break tied scores for June 3, 2024 submitted projects, and projects were added to the waitlist ordered by project score. Projects that did not score the 5 point minimum did not qualify for the waitlist.
Please see the recording of the live event for a full demonstration of the selection process.
Next Steps
Projects that did not make it on to the waitlist (minimum 5.0 points required for waitlist) can reapply to the Program at any time. The Approved Vendor will need to submit a new application, and thus a new application fee will be required. The review of projects submitted after June 3, 2024, will be prioritized and processed in the order received and will be added to the applicable waitlists for the TCS blocks if the project meets the 5.0 point minimum threshold. These waitlists are published on the Block Capacity Dashboard and are updated regularly. Waitlisted projects will be eligible for new capacity released for the 2025- 2026 Program Year beginning June 1, 2025.
Thank you!
Illinois Shines Program
[email protected]
