Solar by state
Solar in Illinois, by the numbers
Utilities and their rates, adoption, ten years of growth, batteries, ownership, state rules and installer licensing in Illinois, from federal 2024 data.
Illinois in brief
1.91% of Illinois homes had rooftop solar in 2024, the 22nd-highest of 51 (3.55% nationally). Power cost 15.87¢/kWh, below the national 16.48¢, and the average system was 7.74 kW. Commonwealth Edison Company serves 69.2% of homes.
Where does Illinois stand out?
The four measures, beyond price and adoption, on which Illinois sits furthest from the middle of the ranking.
Illinois solar in numbers, 2024
Every Illinois figure next to the national one, with its place in the ranking (highest first, out of the jurisdictions reporting it).
| Measure | Illinois | United States | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homes with a metered rooftop system | 1.91% | 3.55% | 22nd-highest of 51 |
| Rooftop systems counted | 103,145 | 5,077,543 | 12th-highest of 51 |
| Average system size | 7.74 kW | 6.74 kW | 17th-highest of 51 |
| Residential price | 15.87¢/kWh | 16.48¢/kWh | 19th-highest of 51 |
| Average monthly bill | $109.99 | $142.26 | 7th-lowest of 51 |
| Use per home | 8,317 kWh/yr | 10,359 kWh/yr | 16th-lowest of 51 |
| Systems with a battery | 0.03% | 5.86% | 6th-lowest of 47 |
| Leased or on a PPA | 47.0% | 29.1% | 6th-highest of 38 |
| Growth in systems, five years | 57.0% a year | — | 3rd-highest of 51 |
| Minutes without power per customer | 158 | 297 (median state) | 12th-lowest of 51 |
| Homes on a time-varying rate | 9.6% | 11.1% | 11th-highest of 51 |
| Installed rooftop capacity | 798.2 MW | 34,226 MW | — |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861, 2024 final release, retrieved 2 September 2026. The Illinois ratios and ranks are HyreSolar calculations from EIA inputs.
Which utility serves Illinois, and what does it charge?
The 8 largest utilities selling to Illinois homes, by residential customers, with the price full-service customers paid and how many run net-metered solar.
| Utility | Type | Homes served | Price per kWh | Use per home, monthly | Net-metered systems |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth Edison Company | Investor-owned; wires, 78% on its own supply | 3,727,675 (69.2%) | 15.22¢ | 610 kWh | 65,704 (1.8%) |
| Ameren Illinois Company | Investor-owned; wires, 49% on its own supply | 1,060,894 (19.7%) | 15.26¢ | 842 kWh | 31,572 (3.0%) |
| MidAmerican Energy Company | Investor-owned; wires, 100% on its own supply | 73,582 (1.4%) | 9.99¢ | 712 kWh | 520 (0.71%) |
| City of Springfield | Municipal | 59,621 (1.1%) | 11.95¢ | 830 kWh | 459 (0.77%) |
| City of Naperville | Municipal | 56,117 (1.0%) | 12.98¢ | 762 kWh | 1,018 (1.8%) |
| Corn Belt Energy Corporation | Co-op | 34,710 (0.64%) | 15.76¢ | 914 kWh | 689 (2.0%) |
| Southwestern Electric Co-op Inc | Co-op | 24,822 (0.46%) | 13.68¢ | 1,124 kWh | None reported |
| Southeastern IL Electric Co-op | Co-op | 22,731 (0.42%) | 14.47¢ | 1,146 kWh | 274 (1.2%) |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861 2024, Sales to Ultimate Customers and Net Metering, utility level, retrieved 5 October 2026. Shares are of 5,386,716 Illinois residential accounts. Each Illinois price is residential revenue divided by sales for full-service customers (HyreSolar calculation); a wires company’s price is its default-service price.
What do the Illinois utility figures mean for a solar quote?
EIA-861 lists 25 utilities serving homes in Illinois in 2024, across 5,386,716 residential accounts. The three largest, Commonwealth Edison Company, Ameren Illinois Company and MidAmerican Energy Company, served 90.3% of those homes. By ownership: investor-owned utilities 90.3%, electric cooperatives 3.8%, municipal utilities 3.0% and small utilities EIA counts as a group 2.8%.
1,456,186 Illinois homes (27.0%) bought their energy from 60 competitive suppliers, while the local utility kept delivering it. On a supplier, the energy price on your bill is the supplier’s, so price a solar quote against your own bill rather than the utility prices in the table.
Commonwealth Edison Company, the largest, served 3,727,675 Illinois homes (69.2%). Its full-service residential customers paid 15.22¢ per kWh, below the Illinois average of 15.87¢, and used 610 kWh a month on average. 65,704 of its customers ran net-metered rooftop solar, 1.8% of its homes against 1.91% statewide.
Among the 22 Illinois utilities with at least 5,000 residential customers and a full-service price, the price ran from 9.99¢ at MidAmerican Energy Company to 19.79¢ at Jo-Carroll Energy.
At the Illinois average of 8,317 kWh a year, that 9.80¢ gap is worth about $815 a year (our arithmetic), so the same system offsets more money in one territory than the other.
Price a quote on your own utility’s rate, not the 15.87¢ Illinois average.
Rooftop solar is concentrated: Commonwealth Edison Company alone accounts for 65,704 net-metered residential systems, about 64% of the 103,145 counted in Illinois, and 23 Illinois utilities reported any at all. The highest adoption among the larger utilities was at Ameren Illinois Company, where 3.0% of homes had a system.
What does power cost in Illinois, and why does it matter?
Residential electricity in Illinois averaged 15.87¢ per kilowatt-hour in 2024, the 19th-highest of 51 and below the national 16.48¢. The price sits above the middle of the 51, which tilts the arithmetic toward using production on site rather than exporting it.
The average Illinois household bill was $109.99 a month ($1,320 a year), the 7th-lowest of 51, against $142.26 nationally. That $1,320 is the ceiling on what solar could save a typical Illinois home, before fixed monthly charges.
Only 9.6% of Illinois homes were on a time-varying rate in 2024 (11.1% nationally), so a flat rate is the likely starting point. 93.6% of Illinois residential meters were smart meters (83.8% nationally), and a time-varying rate needs one. How time-of-use changes solar.
How many Illinois homes have solar?
Illinois had 103,145 rooftop systems on net metering in 2024, across 5,392,477 residential accounts: 1.91% of homes, the 22nd-highest of 51. Adoption in Illinois sits above the middle of the 51, so there is a working installer market to choose between.
The Illinois market counted 30,401 more systems in 2024 than in 2023 and has grown 57.0% a year over five years, the 3rd-highest of 51. Where growth has turned nationally.
How has Illinois solar changed since 2014?
Illinois counted 749 net-metered rooftop systems in 2014 and 103,145 in 2024, 137.7 times as many. The share of homes with one moved from 0.01% to 1.91%. The biggest one-year addition came in 2024, with 30,401 more systems than the year before.
| Year | Rooftop systems | Share of homes | Average size | Residential price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 749 | 0.01% | 6.0 kW | 11.91¢ |
| 2016 | 1,554 | 0.03% | 6.6 kW | 12.54¢ |
| 2018 | 3,448 | 0.07% | 8.1 kW | 12.77¢ |
| 2020 | 23,126 | 0.43% | 7.5 kW | 13.04¢ |
| 2022 | 45,860 | 0.85% | 7.5 kW | 15.65¢ |
| 2024 | 103,145 | 1.91% | 7.7 kW | 15.87¢ |
Source: US EIA, Form EIA-861 annual files 2014–2024, net-metered residential systems, retrieved 2 September 2026. Illinois shares and sizes are HyreSolar calculations.
What does the Illinois trend mean for a savings estimate?
Over the same years the Illinois residential price went from 11.91¢ to 15.87¢ per kWh, up 33%, and the average system from 6.0 kW to 7.7 kW. A rate that has risen that far makes a 2024 bill a conservative base for a Illinois savings estimate only if the trend continues, which nobody can promise.
How big is a typical Illinois system?
The average Illinois system was 7.74 kW in 2024, the 17th-highest of 51, against 6.74 kW nationally. Illinois homes used 8,317 kilowatt-hours a year each, the 16th-lowest of 51.
A Illinois home using 8,317 kWh is an average, not a design input: size from your own twelve months of bills and usable roof with cost by system size and the system size calculator.
Who owns the systems in Illinois?
In Illinois, 47.0% of systems were third-party owned in 2024: leased, or on a power purchase agreement (PPA), rather than owned by the household. That is the 6th-highest of 38, against 29.1% nationally.
Third-party ownership is the common way solar is sold in Illinois. Expect a lease or power purchase agreement to be offered, and check who will own the equipment before you sign. Whoever owns a Illinois system claims any tax credit on it: Section 48E explained.
Do Illinois homes add batteries?
In Illinois, 0.03% of solar systems were paired with a battery in 2024 (28 systems), the 6th-lowest of 47. Illinois’s share is well under half the national 5.86%.
On reliability, the average Illinois customer went 158 minutes without power in 2024 counting major storms, and 59 minutes without them. The median state saw 297. Outages in every state.
Whether a battery pays in Illinois turns on your utility’s export credit and your own outage history: what a home battery does.
How do you check a solar company’s license in Illinois?
We checked 26 Illinois solar companies from June to August 2026 against a state program roster, rather than the issuing register. None of those showed an expired or revoked license when checked.
Ask which license a company holds, then confirm the number with the issuing authority yourself.
These counts describe the companies we checked on those dates, not every company in Illinois, and a license current then may have lapsed since. How to verify a solar license.
Which states are closest to Illinois on adoption?
The six jurisdictions nearest to Illinois’s 1.91% share of homes with rooftop solar.
Where do the Illinois numbers come from?
The Illinois figures are HyreSolar calculations from the Form EIA-861 annual files: 103,145 net-metered residential systems counted against 5,392,477 residential accounts, sizes as means, and 25 utility-level rows for the utility table, matched to net-metering records by EIA utility number.
The method and limits cover all 51; the Illinois row is in the data as a CSV.
No Illinois figure here is an estimate for one home: your roof, usage, utility tariff and tax position decide that.
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Questions
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