Services
Grants & financing
State grants, federal credits, C-PACE and low-rate loans — found, stacked in the right order, filed, administered and closed out.
What we do
- Search every program a project could qualify for — state, county and federal — with the same incentive database that powers our sister platform, Grantya.
- Stack and sequence them, so a rebate that must be filed before purchase is not blocked by a grant that pays on completion.
- Keep site design, parcel documentation and cost basis ready for grant rounds that open without advance notice.
- Administer the grant and report on it — the closeout package, the award documentation and the numbers your board will be asked about.
- Line up financing where grants stop: C-PACE on the tax bill, or a fixed-rate efficiency loan.
Search it yourself
Grantya lists Illinois grants, rebates and credits in one place, and its research assistant answers plain-English questions about eligibility.
The programs
Grants pay on completion; financing pays up front. Most projects use both.
"Up to 80% of the cost of the installation of charging stations may be funded. Additional awards may incentivize charging infrastructure in eligible communities." Round 3 is closed — the Illinois EPA is not accepting more applications, as all available funding has been requested — and the next round has not been announced. Funding supports publicly-available Level 2 or Level 3 stations. Rounds are posted as Notices of Funding Opportunity with no advance notice, so readiness is the whole strategy.
"Illinois Shines has set incentive amounts that are paid for RECs produced by solar projects participating in the Program. The incentives are paid to participating Approved Vendors and savings are passed on to customers." Block prices live in the program's own documents. Categories are sized: Small DG at or under 25 kW, Large DG above 25 kW up to 5 MW. We participate through an Approved Vendor rather than as the applicant of record, and we read the pass-through terms before the contract is signed.
"PUBLIC SCHOOLS — Includes any solar project, whether Small or Large Distributed Generation, or community solar projects that serve a public school in Illinois." A district's array is scored in its own category rather than against commercial projects, which is worth knowing before a board approves a design.
"The base amount of the Clean Electricity Investment Credit is 6 percent of the qualified investment. Credit is increased by up to: 5 times or up to 30% for facilities meeting prevailing wage and registered apprenticeship requirements." The full rate applies if construction began on or before 4 July 2026 with the system placed in service by 2030, or if it is placed in service by 31 December 2027. Tax-exempt organizations and government entities can take elective (direct) pay or transfer the credit, with pre-filing registration required.
"Cook County commercial-property owners can obtain up to 100-percent upfront financing from private capital providers for qualified upgrades to their HVAC, lighting and solar photovoltaic systems," covering hard and soft costs on existing buildings and new construction. Repayment is a special assessment line on the property tax bill, secured by a lien on the property, and the term "may extend up to the useful life of the eligible improvements, which could be up to 30 years." Cook County private commercial property only.
IFA C-PACE "permits terms of up to 40 years, and allows financing of up to 100% of all project and closing costs" — "in each case up to 25% of the value of the property." Commercial, industrial, non-residential agricultural and multifamily (5+ units) property in designated PACE areas, for energy, water, EV charging and resiliency improvements. Non-recourse, repaid on the property tax bill.
An unsecured efficiency loan of "$500 - $150,000" at a fixed "7.49%" for 1-, 3-, 5-, 7- and 10-year terms, administered by Slipstream Energy Finance Solutions in ComEd territory. The $500 minimum applies to 1-, 3- and 5-year terms; 7- and 10-year terms start at $8,001. No prepayment penalty, and installation must be by an authorized contractor.
$196,000 for Golf Mill Chevrolet in Niles and $196,000 for Chevrolet Jeep in Forest Park, in a signed letter from the owners, plus a $640,000 Illinois EPA grant "to be awarded upon full installation" — pending the completed installation, not banked.
Not offered: federal §30C and §179D, both expired or closed to new construction on 30 June 2026, and the residential §25D credit, which is not available for property placed in service after 31 December 2025.
Pre-approval comes before the purchase order. Programs do not pay retroactively; we file first, then we build.