State hits 'solar cliff' as incentives run out
Path to 100 environmental group pushes for renewed goals, funding for solar, wind energy
Funding for incentives for renewable energy have run out, threatening to put the move to wind farms in the doldrums. (One Illinois/Ted Cox)
By Ted Cox
A leading environmental group is pushing for a new set of goals and funding in the move to renewable energy after a state incentive program ran out of cash.
The environmental group Path to 100 has warned for over a year that the renewable-energy industry was facing a “jobs cliff” in Illinois as funding for incentives in making the shift to solar and wind energy under the Future Energy Jobs Act was eventually going to run out.
The Illinois Power Agency reported a week ago that all of the FEJA funding had been allocated, leaving the state’s industry looking over a “solar cliff.” According to Path to 100, that threatened to derail the move to 100 percent clean and renewable energy, threatening the goal to reach 25 percent renewable energy statewide by 2025.
So the group is lobbying for its Path to 100 Act to be considered by the General Assembly in the new year. It would renew funding for incentives while resetting goals to reach 40 percent renewable energy by 2030. According to a report prepared by Illinois State University economics Professor David Loomis, co-founder of the Center for Renewable Energy, it would create more than 53,000 construction jobs and 3,000 operations jobs by 2033, pumping $8.3 billon into the economy and $571 million a year in increased economic output.
The Path to 100 Act is one of a few competing proposals for increasing renewable energy in Illinois to build on FEJA. The Clean Energy Jobs Act is another, and labor groups have aligned behind the Climate Jobs Illinois coalition. While not committing to any one in particular, Gov. Pritzker has put forth eight principles for clean-energy legislation, and CEJA sponsor state Sen. Cristina Castro of Elgin has said the governor appears to be cherry picking the best aspects from each of the proposals.
According to the new ISU report, utility-scale wind and solar projects have contributed more than $300 million in property taxes since 2003, $41.4 million last year alone and $49 million in all combined state and local taxes, much of that going to local school districts. Not coincidentally, the renewable industry is concentrated in McLean County, home to ISU’s Bloomington-Normal campus, with the county having received $53 million in tax revenue from renewable energy.