Illinois Solar for All has released updates to the Income-Eligible (IEC) and Environmental Justice Communities (EJC) maps for the 2026-2027 Program Year. Current and updated designations will both be considered to meet program goals and to count as selection points for the 2026-2027 Program Year, with the exception of adjacent communities, which solely determine eligibility for Non-Profit and Public Facilities projects.
A webinar will be hosted on May 28, 2026, at 2 p.m. CT to review these IEC, EJC, and adjacent community updates for the 2026-2027 Program Year. Interested stakeholders should register through a link announced by the Program closer to that date.
Income-Eligible Communities Map
As detailed in Section 8.10.3.1 of the 2026 Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan (2026 Long-Term Plan), the Income-Eligible Communities Map identifies census tracts where 50% of the households earn no more than 80% of the Area Median Income and is revised annually.
The IEC map contains two data layers, including income-eligible census tracts from 2025 and 2026 census data. To account for project development cycles, designations from 2025 will be accepted as IECs for the duration of the 2026-2027 Program Year. The IEC map features a “Find Address” widget to navigate the map quickly and layers for census tracts adjacent to Income-Eligible Communities, which, new to the PY26-27 Program Year, are used to determine Non-Profit and Public Facilities project eligibility.
The updated Income-Eligible Communities map is available on the ILSFA website.
Environmental Justice Communities Map
As detailed in Section 8.12 of the 2026 Plan, the EJC Map identifies Illinois census block groups most impacted by socioeconomic, environmental, and exposure indicators from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s EJScreen Tool and is revised at least every 5 years. The EJC Map has been updated with data from the 2024 version of EJScreen, and the top 25% of communities across the service areas of each Regional Transmission Organization (“RTO”) within the state will be designated as EJCs. See Section 8.12.2 of the 2026 Plan for more details on EJC methodology updates. To account for project development cycles, designations from the 2023 version of the EJC Map will be accepted for the duration of the 2026-2027 Program Year, but only the updated 2026 map will be used in the 2027-2028 Program Year and beyond. The EJC Map features three data layers: designations from the 2023 and 2026 versions of EJScreen and self-designations, and census block group layers adjacent to EJCs, which, new to the PY26-27 Program Year, are used solely to determine Non-Profit and Public Facilities project eligibility.
Communities that are not qualified under the calculated scores can request self-designation as an Environmental Justice Community based on environmental and socioeconomic factors that may not have been captured in the data screening process. To seek self-designation, an application through the Environmental Justice Community Self-Designation Process must be approved before submitting any project applications that use the approved Self-Designated Environmental Justice Community status for project selection. Previous Self-Designated Environmental Justice Communities are maintained through this update.
The updated Environmental Justice Communities map is now available on the ILSFA website, under the Environmental Justice Communities page.
Adjacent Communities
Per Section 8.5.6.1 of the 2026 Long-Term Plan, the Agency is expanding eligibility to Non-Profit and Public Facilities projects located in adjacent census blocks. Adjacent census blocks are defined as neighboring statistical geographic areas that share a common boundary with a community, which is, at that point in time, designated as an Environmental Justice or Income-Eligible Community. Adjacent communities are not intended for prioritizing project selection and do not influence or determine any budget allocations or carveouts. For more information, please consult the 2026-2027 Approved Vendor Manual.