The number of home solar panel installations in Illinois has plummeted as state consumer incentives dried up amid a standoff in Springfield that’s seen lawmakers unable to agree on major energy legislation.

After a state incentive program ran out of money late last year, just 313 small rooftop solar projects were completed statewide in the three-month period ending June 30, compared with 2,908 a year earlier, Illinois Power Agency records show. Those numbers account for most of the rooftop solar projects done in Illinois.

The state program helped reduce the cost of adding solar to a home by thousands of dollars.

The funding problems also have idled hundreds of workers, hurting a fledgling, once fast-growing industry.

Unless legislators can send a fix to Gov. J.B. Pritzker by the end of the month, solar business owners warn things could get much worse.

“The story here is whether those Illinois legislators are going to choose the future or, frankly, choose the past,” says Josh Lutton, president of Certasun, a Buffalo Grove solar panel installer.

The number of Certasun’s solar installations this year is half what it was last year at this time, according to Lutton, who has furloughed dozens of workers as a result.



Lawmakers agreed months ago on details of expanded state funding for solar power. But that plan is part of a broader energy bill that’s been held up by disagreements over state aid for three Exelon nuclear power plants and a proposed phasing out of coal and natural gas.

This post originally appeared in Chicago Sun Times