Illinois is a national leader . . . in dirty energy.  Despite our best attempts, Illinois still gets 97% of its electricity from resources like coal and nuclear power.  And while we've made significant progress on the growth of wind power in recent years, our state still lags behind on taking advantage of a very promising resource: the sun.  As of the start of 2010, the entire state of Illinois has only 3.3 total megawatts of installed solar power online -- less than 27 different cities in California alone. 

It isn't for lack of potential.  In fact, Illinois has better solar potential than Germany or Japan, two of the world's leaders in solar power.  But those countries have the policies in place to support solar energy.  It's time for Illinois to do the same. 

We believe that Illinois can become a regional leader in the development of solar power.  That's why Environment Illinois is supporting a set of solar solutions in 2010 that will put us on the right track.  Specifically, we're fighting for the following:  

• SB 3686/HB 6013, which requires utilities to begin procuring solar power immediately -- and not simply waiting until 2015 as required by current Illinois law;
  
• SB 3426/HB 6202, which allows large commercial and industrial users (some of our biggest energy hogs) to get full value for renewable energy that they generate and put back onto the grid; 
  
• HB 5429, creating a "bill of rights" for homeowners and condominium owners who want to take advantage of solar power;
  
• SB 2505, which enables municipalities to take advantage of Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing for funding clean energy projects with little to no upfront costs for individual property owners.