Approved Vendors & Designees

The Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) amended the Illinois Power Agency Act to expand the “priority access to the clean energy economy for businesses and workers from communities that have been excluded from economic opportunities in the energy sector, have been subject to disproportionate levels of pollution, and have disproportionately experienced negative public health outcomes.”

Approved Vendors are entities approved by the Program Administrator (as an agent of the Illinois Power Agency), to submit project applications to the Illinois Shines Program and act as a counterparty to the Program REC contracts with utilities. Designees are entities that work with and on behalf of Approved Vendors, and that have direct interaction with end-use customers. They include installers, marketing firms, lead generators, and sales organizations. Approved Vendors often work with Designees to manage various portions of solar system development.

Illinois Shines functions through the sale of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) or Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs). A REC represents 1 MWh of electricity generated by a renewable generator; an SREC is a REC that comes specifically from a solar panel. RECs are sold by Approved Vendors to the contracting utility over a 15- or 20-year contract.

Approved Vendors in Illinois Shines can develop and submit projects in two primary project types, Distributed Generation and Community Solar, and within these project types, across six project categories: Small Distributed Generation, Large Distributed Generation, Traditional Community Solar, Community-Driven Community Solar, Public Schools, and Equity Eligible Contractors (EECs). For more information about these project categories, please see the Illinois Shines Project Types page.