The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (the “Department” or “DCEO”) is issuing this Notice of Funding Opportunity (“NOFO”) to provide awards to support the pre-development and development of community solar projects that promote community ownership and energy sovereignty.
Donor Name: Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity
State: Illinois
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 07/01/2024
Size of the Grant: $500,000 to $1 million
Grant Duration: 4 Years
Details:
The Community Solar Energy Sovereignty Grant Program is intended to provide grants to plan, develop, and execute community solar projects. The grant program provides upfront capital to support the development of community solar projects and provides seed capital and pre-development funding to support community ownership of renewable energy projects.
The Department will prioritize funding for projects that best demonstrate the ability and intent to create community ownership and other local community benefits, including local community wealth building via community renewable generation projects. Grants shall be prioritized to applicants for whom:
- The proposed project is located in and support an equity investment eligible community or communities; and
- The proposed project provides additional benefits for participating low-income households.
Performance Goals and Measures
Successful applicants will submit Periodic Performance reports to document milestones achieved and other relevant outputs and outcomes of the grant. Reporting will be required during project and after all funds have been expended to confirm metrics. Grant metrics are expected to be completed within four years of initial grant award. Grant may be extended for reporting purposes. Phase 1 metrics may include:
- Planning/development activities completed
- Pre-construction site readiness
- Estimated energy to be saved or produced, projected reduction in utility energy cost, and the beneficiaries of the savings
- Projected number of households to be served by the community solar project(s)
- Any leveraged funding sources or incentive programs that the applicant has applied to or plans to apply to for the project.
- Planned use of CEJA trained workforce contractors or CEJA Pre-apprenticeship or Apprenticeship workforce participants.
Funding Information
- Estimated Total Program Funding: $8,500,000.
- Award Range: $50,000 – $1,000,000.
- The period of performance is expected to be up to four years from start of the award.
Uses of funds
Grant funds may be used to support a wide array of activities to support the development of community solar projects, including:
- Early stage project planning
- Project team organization
- Site identification
- Organizing a project business model and securing financing
- Procurement and contracting
- Customer outreach and enrollment
- Preliminary site assessments
- Development of cooperative or community ownership model
- Development of project models that allocate benefits to equity investment eligible communities.
Eligibility Criteria
- Community-based organizations defined by the National Community-Based Organization Network (NCBON) in the Illinois Power Agency’s 2022 Long Term Plan as organizations in which:
- The majority of the governing body and staff consists of local residents,
- The main operating offices are in the community,
- Priority issue areas are identified and defined by residents,
- Solutions to address priority issues are developed with residents, and
- Program design, implementation, and evaluation components have residents intimately involved, in leadership positions.
- A public entity may qualify as a community-based organization, but only if the public entity meets the following requirements:
- The public entity must represent a municipality or county (or school district, park district, etc.) Priority given to proposed projects located in and supporting an equity investment eligible community or communities; and benefiting participating low-income households.
- The public entity must certify that no local community-based organizations exist that are capable of filling this role.
- The public entity must provide the same showing of robust community engagement as a non-public entity would be required to show.
- Technical service providers as defined in the CEJA Section 5-60 (e)
- working in direct partnership with community-based organization.
- The entity must demonstrate robust community engagement and support b. A technical service provider can be a solar supplier or installer or business involved in the field of solar energy.
For more information, visit DCEO.
