ILSFA’s latest: Project updates, grassroots education spotlight, and more
The original version of this newsletter misstated that, for Program Year 2019-2020, the Low-Income Community Solar sub-program had projects with a total incentive value of $164.9 million. This number was corrected on December 23, 2019.
Grassroots Education Spotlight: PERRO
Our next featured grassroots education campaign is the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO). PERRO is a grassroots community group of Pilsen residents that formed in 2004 to fight the disproportionate amount of pollution affecting Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. Learn more about the PERRO volunteers’ (pictured above) outreach efforts or you can attend their next scheduled event on November 16, 2019 from 1:00 to 3:00 PM CT at the Chicago Public Library Lozano Branch.
Check future newsletters for spotlights highlighting other grassroots education organizations and their campaigns to spread the word about ILSFA to communities statewide.
Second Round of Projects Under Review
Projects submitted for ILSFA’s second program year (2019-2020) are entering the final stages of the review and selection process. The final sub-program budget amounts for the 2019-2020 program year, along with an explanation of how the budgets were calculated, have been posted on the website. The updated project dashboards, have also been posted, and the current eligibility status for each of the sub-programs is as follows:
- Low-Income Community Solar: 29 eligible projects with incentive values totaling $164.2 million
- Low-Income Distributed Generation: 1 eligible project with incentive values totaling $4 million
- Non-Profit/Public Facilities: 12 eligible projects with incentive values totaling $3.3 million
Eligible projects within the Low-Income Community Solar sub-program will be selected using the Project Selection Protocol and Random Selection Protocol, if necessary, on Thursday, October 31, 2019 at 10:00 AM CT and selected projects from each sub-program will be announced on Thursday, November 7, 2019. The Low-Income Community Solar scoring rubrics have been posted here.
The Low-Income Distributed Generation sub-program has already reopened for application submissions on a rolling basis and has $9,798,808 remaining in its budget. The Non-Profit/Public Facilities sub-program has $3,111,199 remaining in its budget and will reopen for batch application submissions on Friday, October 25, 2019 at 9:00 AM CT. Click here for the rolling submission guidelines.
Contracts Approved for First Projects
The Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) has approved the contracts for the first round (Program Year 2018-2019) of Low-Income Community Solar and Non-Profit/Public Facilities projects. The projects selected will be located across the state and are a mix of large- and small-sized solar arrays. Stay tuned for more updates as these projects get underway!
Pilot RFP Qualification Window Open
The Illinois Power Agency (IPA) is conducting a competitive procurement event in fall 2019 for the purchase of Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) from Low-Income Community Solar Pilot Projects under 15-year contracts. Projects selected through this RFP process will receive a $/REC price determined through a competitive bidding process for the RECs purchased by the IPA. More information is available here.
The Part 1 Window opens Thursday, October 24th for suppliers to submit their qualification materials. Part 1 Proposals are due by 12:00 PM CPT on Wednesday, November 6, 2019. Please submit any questions to the Illinois-RFP@nera.com or via the Ask a Question page here.