The Consumer Protection Handbook and Contract Requirements for the 2025-2026 Program Year Are Available

Illinois Solar for All has released the Consumer Protection Handbook and Contract Requirements for the 2025-2026 program year. Approved Vendors and Designees must fully comply with the new and updated requirements in these documents by June 1, 2025.

Updates to the Consumer Protection Handbook include:

• New requirements in Section I.C related to marketing the Federal Investment Tax Credit and depreciation tax benefits to residential customers
• Requirements in Section V.A related to disclosing information about batteries on Disclosure Forms, providing documents to customers who do not have email accounts, and updating Disclosure Forms if they become outdated or are incorrect
• Updating the requirement in Section IX that entities provide requested records to the customer in seven business days rather than 21 calendar days
• Updates in Chapter XI related to warranty/guarantee requirements and to refer to the Approved Vendor Manual for details on savings requirements
• New Chapter XII to describe major new consumer protection initiatives outlined in the 2024 Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan (Solar Restitution Program, escrow process, and stranded customer REC adder)

Updates to the Consumer Protection Contract Requirements include:

• Updating requirements to apply (as applicable) to loans used to purchase projects or shares in a community solar project, regardless of whether the lender is affiliated with an Approved Vendor
• Requirement that contracts may not prohibit or limit the customer’s ability to make complaints to the Program Administrator
• Updates to language for warranty/guarantee requirements
• Updates to clarify requirements for Energy Sovereignty projects