Illinois Rooftops to Power 6,150 Homes as 60 Community Solar Projects Expand Access

A major community solar initiative is underway across northern Illinois to extend the benefits of rooftop solar to people who cannot install panels on their own homes. The program targets renters, apartment residents and households with shaded or structurally unsuitable roofs, allowing them to subscribe to shared rooftop systems and receive bill credits without any on-site construction.

Commonwealth Edison (ComEd) has partnered with developer Solar Landscape and property owner Public Storage to build 60 rooftop community solar installations that will add about 44 megawatts (MW) of capacity to the region, industry reporting from Solar Builder says. Ten of the projects are already operating and are part of ComEd's broader community solar portfolio of more than 400 sites.

"With demand for power rising faster than supply, community solar sites like this one offer a clean energy solution that can help close the supply gap and offer bill savings for customers,"

How the Program Works

Subscribers sign up for nearby rooftop arrays and receive credits on their electricity bills proportional to their share of the generation, without installing equipment at their residences. The three-way partnership model—utility, solar developer and property owner—speeds deployment by using existing commercial rooftops as ready-made sites for arrays.

Expected Impacts

When all 60 projects are completed, they are expected to generate enough electricity to power roughly 6,150 homes. Collectively, subscribers could save an estimated $750,000 per year on electricity bills—adding up to more than $36 million across the projects' expected lifetimes. The buildout is also projected to support about 300 jobs, delivering local economic benefits in addition to energy savings.

Expanding distributed solar can reduce reliance on higher-emitting power plants, improve local air quality and strengthen grid resilience by delivering power closer to where it is used. Using underused commercial rooftops minimizes the need for land-intensive solar farms, helping cities and companies lower operating costs while creating jobs and supporting a more resilient energy system.

"Commercial rooftops represent one of the fastest, most scalable opportunities to expand the electric grid using infrastructure that already exists … This portfolio demonstrates how utilities, property owners and private capital can work together to deploy clean energy at meaningful scale,"

ComEd has said it expects northern Illinois to emerge as a national leader in community solar, broadening access to clean electricity and delivering direct bill savings to subscribers who previously could not host solar systems on their properties.