DCEO - Community Renewable Energy Grant Program

Summary

The application period for this program is closed. The Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity is currently reviewing applications. Utilizing funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity is providing $5 million dollars worth of grants to public entities (local, state, federal government, or public school, public community college or public university), for-profit entities, and not-for-profit entities for community renewable energy projects that provide energy for the applicants' own energy needs. Eligible projects include solar, wind and other renewable energy projects. For solar thermal, the program may support any new solar thermal system over $100,000 in total cost that has been approved by the Solar Rating and Certification Corporation (SRCC). For solar photovoltaic (PV), the program may support any new solar PV system over $100,000 that is UL listed or has successfully completed one year of field testing. It should be noted that batteries or other storage devices are not eligible for funding and expenses made for them may not be used as a matching contribution (see below). For wind, the program may support a wind system over $100,000 in total cost. The applicants must provide project-specific, site-specific wind data or otherwise justify the wind resource. Preference will be given to the projects with innovative design or financing, or that are being used for certification purposes under the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED Silver, Gold, Platinum Certifications. This is a competitive grant solicitation; projects will be evaluated on criteria including application quality, applicant capacity, feasibility of project plan, economic development (job creation), energy reduction, green house gas emission reductions, cost-effectiveness, project timeliness, and use of leveraged funds. Overall, at least 25% of total project cost must be covered by grantee--funds leveraged from other publicly supported programs may not be used for this purpose. See the program website for application materials and additional project eligibility criteria. The deadline for applying is October 26, 2009.