By: Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner*

There’s an irony surrounding the battles over solar farms in Illinois. Residents are being forced – through mandatory surcharges in their electric bills – to pay for the very subsidies that help make solar projects profitable. Their own money is being used to finance solar farms that many residents don’t want.

That’s exactly what’s playing out in Effingham today. Sol Source Power, a solar development company started in 2021, wants to purchase productive farmland to build a solar farm just outside city limits. More than half of the project’s $24 million cost will be covered by state and federal subsidies, in part funded by Effingham residents.

The Effingham project – along with most solar projects in Illinois – wouldn’t be viable without such handouts. But thanks to these subsidies, the project is being pursued. That results in a whole host of other concerns for the city’s residents.

There’s the loss of productive farmland; the potential decline in property values; the project’s proximity to a neighborhood school; the reclamation costs and the potential for pollution; and more. If participation at the latest city planning meeting is any indication, many Effingham residents are lining up against the solar project.

State and federal solar subsidies

The state subsidies are a product of Illinois’ original 2017 green-energy law, called FEJA. FEJA added a surcharge to Illinoisans’ monthly electric bills, with the money set aside for the state’s renewable energy fund. The state requires utilities like Ameren to take money from that fund and pay it to solar developers for the electricity the farms produce. 

In total, state subsidies for renewable energy, including those for solar, will total about $1.1 billion this year. That’s money from your energy bill being used to build green energy projects across the state. It’s just another way politicians in Springfield are making life less affordable for Illinoisans.

Solar farm developers also receive massive federal subsidies in the form of investment tax credits, or ITCs. Those tax credits cover 30% to 40% of a project’s cost.

Without all those subsidies, most of Illinois’ solar farms wouldn’t be profitable – and therefore wouldn’t exist. Nor would solar developers be able to pay extravagant amounts to purchase productive farmland.

Take the proposed solar farm in Effingham. A representative of the developer, Sol Source Power, told me during his testimony at a city planning meeting that the total project would cost about $24 million.

I asked him if his project would be viable without state and federal subsidies and he admitted it would be unlikely. A look at the numbers makes it obvious why.

Of the total $24 million cost of the project, the federal government would give Sol Source a tax credit of 30% to 40%. That’s $7 to $10 million.

Then there are the state subsidies. That’s another $5 to $10 million over the life of the project. In the end, more than half of the project is subsidized by state ratepayers and federal taxpayers. 

So you can understand why so many solar developers want to take advantage of all the “free” cash available to them.

The reason why developers like Sol Source are buying up productive farmland is easy to understand as well. Farmland is flat and wide open to the sun, easy to access, near the grid, and ready for rapid construction. 

Plus, developers have the money to buy the land at a premium thanks to the taxpayer subsidies. Blighted areas of a suitable size are harder to find and more expensive to develop.

That’s why solar companies go after the state’s farmland – it’s a lot easier for them.

And now they’re speeding to snap up farms for new projects because the federal government’s lucrative tax credits are expiring soon. No tax credits will be granted after December 2027, a result of the federal government’s 2025 budget bill.

Unaffordable mandates

Illinois’ energy situation is a mess, largely due to the state’s green energy mandates, which demand the state go fully green by 2050. Cheaper, more reliable sources of energy like coal and natural gas plants are being forced to shut down prematurely, driving up Illinoisans’ electricity bills. At the same time,  they’re paying higher energy fees to subsidize less reliable, more expensive wind and solar projects – which drive up bills even more.

Those ever-higher energy costs, on top of Illinois’ property and gasoline taxes, are wreaking havoc on Illinoisans’ wallets. 

The extreme mandates. The one-size-fits-all policies. The loss of farmland. The taxpayer handouts. It’s all unfair. And what Illinoisans must unite against. 

*Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner are both formerly of Wirepoints

Illinois solar projects fail without massive state and federal taxpayer handouts.

Illinoisans are being forced – through mandatory surcharges in their electric bills – to pay for the very subsidies that help make solar projects profitable. Their own money is being used to… pic.twitter.com/Iktbwp0nYB

— Ted For Illinois (@TedForIllinois) August 25, 2026