Illinois Shines Act Overview

Overview & Background

Illinois Shines is an Adjustable Block Program, designed to encourage new solar development by offering financial incentives. Through the program, the state agrees to buy the Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) generated by approved solar projects at a fixed price.

As more projects are submitted and approved, each “block” of capacity fills up, and the REC price adjusts downward for future applicants. Read below for detailed breakdown of each block within the program, and the most recent REC pricing for each.

According to Section 1-75(c)(1)(Q) of the Illinois Power Agency (IPA) Act (20 ILCS 3855) as modified by Climate and Equitable Jobs Act (Public Act 102-0662), projects participating in Illinois Shines are now classified as "public works" and must comply with prevailing wage requirements. According to the program’s official guidance, individuals working on the construction of eligible projects must be paid the applicable prevailing wage rates, and projects must meet notice and recordkeeping requirements set by the Prevailing Wage Act.

Current Blocks & REC Prices

The Illinois Shines program defines four main project categories, or “blocks.” These include Distributed Generation (DG), Traditional Community Solar, Community-Driven Community Solar, and Public Schools. Each has unique eligibility criteria and incentive rates:

Exceptions to Prevailing Wage Requirements

According to the Illinois Shines program’s official guidance, there are several exceptions to the prevailing wage requirements:

(1) Residential Distributed Generation (DG) projects (projects that serve a single-family or multi-family residential building).

(2) DG Projects that serve a house of worship and do not exceed 100 kWac (aggregated with any co-located project).

(3) Large DG projects (>25 kW AC) that were on the waitlist for the Shines Program as of the reopening on December 14, 2021 (full list of projects available here).

(4) DG projects that began construction activities prior to September 15, 2021.

(5) 10-25 kW projects initially submitted to the Large DG Category Before November 1, 2021, when the program paused to adopt CEJA updates. These projects will be treated as Large DG waitlisted.

Compliance Guidelines

According to the Shines Program website, in order to remain eligible for incentives, projects must follow several compliance steps:

(1) All approved ndors must certify that they understand prevailing wage requirements might be applicable to the project via a Prevailing Wage Attestation checkbox submited at the Part I Application.

(2) All approved Vendors are required to ensure that all Designees, contractors, or subcontractors working on the project have sufficient notice of the prevailing wage applicability. Additionally, they must be informed of the proper prevailing wage for the relevant county and of the proper posting/record keeping requirements.

(3) Contractors/subcontractors must review the local prevailing rate set at the Illinois Department of Labor (IDOL) website. The IDOL website should be reviewed regularly to ensure that all period changes to prevailing wage rates are accounted for.

(4) All approved vendors, Designess, and/or subcontractors must provide written notice to all construction employees of the applicable prevailing wage rates through either a poster at the work site, main office, or via other written communication.  

(5) Each Designee, contractor, and subcontractor is required to pay the proper prevailing wage rate to their employees and submit a Certification Transcript of Payroll (CTOP) to the IDOL Certified Transcript of Payroll Portal on a monhtly basis during the construction process.

(6) All approved Vendors are required to submit all IDOL CTPs to the Shines Program Administrator at the Part II application.

Useful Resources / Contacts

For help with certified payroll reporting, contact:
‍• IDOL Certified Payroll Helpdesk: dol.certifiedpayroll@illinois.gov | (312) 793-3600
‍• Illinois Shines Program Support: admin@illinoisshines.com | (877) 783-1820

Useful Resources:
• 2024-2025 REC Pricing Chart

DSPTCH Reimagines Compliance.


DSPTCH takes a "TurboTax" approach to Prevailing Wage and Apprenticeship Compliance. Our software centric solution drastically reduces costs, provides predictable best-in-class pricing, and radically automates tedium vs industry standard and auditor-centric solutions. Check out the DSPTCH difference today!

Compare Compliance Tools!
Apprentice Tracking

· Track any apprentice program
· DOL Compliance Safeguards
· DOL Direct integrations
· Calculate and monitor wage progression schedules
· Visibility across sub-contractors, asset owners, and apprenticeship sponsors!



Watch the Demo
Prevailing Wages

· Real-time pre-payroll calculations for prevailing wages, fringes, wage-progression schedules
· Ensure accuracy prior to payroll
· Turnkey overtime for every state, province, and federal standard
· Detailed paystub breakdowns for intentional disregard safeguards
· Database of similar projects and wage progression monitoring
· Automated WH347 generation

Watch the Demo
Live Penalty Calcs

· Cross company reporting for all subcontractors
· Unified owner visibility
· Real time calculations for every worker, sub contractor and IRA Cure Provision
· Apprenticeship hours and ratio compliance checks
‍· Worker, Backpay, and Interest Calculations for all hours worked

Watch the Demo
DSPTCH IRA Compliance Software dashboard showcasing job management and worker utilization for Inflation Reduction Act compliance. Features include a job list with readiness status, worker utilization graph by provider, and billable hours breakdown per customer and provider. The dashboard highlights PWA compliance tools and real-time tracking for technician efficiency and productivity.

DSPTCH is the most modern, comprehensive & cost-effective IRA compliance solution

Simplify prevailing wage, apprenticeship, and project tax credit documentation with a single pane of glass.

Solution

The most comprehensive and integrated solution

DSPTCH

Prevailing Wage Tracking software Providers

Audit firms for prevailing wage and apprenticeship

Prevailing wage payroll vendors

Pricing

$

Per active worker per month or
Project month

$
($$$$ after hiring auditors to fulfill additional IRA compliance requirements)

Based on total project value, including materials and logistics

$$$$

Based on monthly retainer + hourly fees + revision audit hours + sub contractors

$$$

Varies hours worked, number of employees, and add-on integrations

Examples
  • DSPTCH
  • LCP Tracker
  • Elation
  • eMars
  • KPMG
  • PWC
  • Alliant
  • Baker Tilly
  • EBacon
  • Points North
  • HCM Tradeseal
  • Payroll4Construction
Turn by Turn Navigation
Largest Industry Workforce Network
Supports Internal Employees

Portal to upload data

$100+/ hr

Migrate Payroll System

Supports External Vendors
Predictable Pricing

Very Predictable, Scales with workers on projects

Increases with total project value (including materials, engineering, and logistics spend), typically requires audit firm to review

Volatile and very unpredictable. Based on retainer fee + hourly rate for support of any sub contractor follow ups

Only supports your company in payroll for prevailing wages, weak integration with benefits providers

Built for the IRA
Allows Apprentice Sponsors and Employers to simultaneously track DOL Logs
Natively tracks Apprentice hours & Wage Progression
Integrates with 100+ Payroll & HRIS systems
Mobile App
Field Forms

Varies

Generates Certified payroll reports

After each sub contractor uploading hours and performs calculations

Each sub contractor submits completed certified payroll forms or specific files

Built for Davis Bacon, adds tedious unnecessary requirements
Turnkey state, federal, provincial overtime

Varies, typically yes

Adopted organically by workers, outside of IRA projects

Manage Apprentices, Wages, Contractors, Forms, and Reporting all in one!

A fully integrated suite that plays nicely with your existing systems.

See the difference DSPTCH provides today!

DSPTCH IRA Compliance Software project overview page for ABC Project, highlighting checklist completion for Inflation Reduction Act compliance. Displays onboarding progress, ongoing maintenance checks, and tax credit compliance status. Includes contractor compliance summaries with completed and failed checks for specific jobs, helping track IRA compliance and prevailing wage obligations in real time.DSPTCH IRA Compliance Software job page for ABC Project Gen Shop displaying apprenticeship labor hours for Inflation Reduction Act compliance. Shows required apprentice labor percentage, hours worked by apprentices versus non-apprentices, and daily labor hour tracking graph. Includes detailed apprentice profiles with verification status, expected wage, hours completed, and wage period, aiding PWA compliance and tracking of apprenticeship requirements.
DSPTCH IRA Compliance Software time card page for employee Brett Johnson, displaying total hours, per diem, wage rate, and hourly rates for Inflation Reduction Act compliance. Shows verified time entries, prevailing wage obligations, pay breakdown, overtime hours, and total outstanding obligations. Includes approval history and links to payroll actuals, ensuring accurate tracking for IRA compliance and prevailing wage calculations.

Real Time Obligation and Expectation Payroll Calculations

Understand prevailing wage, fringe, wage progression schedules, and per diem expectations before running payroll! Although this seems obvious, other tools simply validate payroll in the rear-view mirror. That create issues, restitution payroll, backpay, and interest obligations. DSPTCH allows you and your sub contractors avoid issues entirely.

Reconcile pay requirements to the penny

DSPTCH integrates directly with 100+ payroll systems to minimize headaches and ensure business continuity. From there, we provide rich, deeply detailed breakdowns of every single line item a worker is paid and the calculations for compliance. This ensures all sub contractors are providing the level of detail required to avoid intentional disregard and the type of precision that many payroll systems simply don't support today.

Ensure Fringe compliance and automate subcontractor calculations

Our robust calculations compute accrue fringe benefits alongside calculate exact Bona Fide Fringe for every worker on site. This avoids countless hours of reconciliation, manual auditor reviews, and mountains of documentation through direct payroll syncs.

It's 2025, it's time for a modern PWA solution.

DSPTCH IRA Compliance Software time card actuals page for employee Brett Johnson, providing a down-to-the-penny breakdown of wages, earnings, taxes, retirement contributions, insurance deductions, and health benefits. Includes detailed prevailing wage breakdowns, overtime calculations, per diem, and tax contributions to ensure accurate reporting for Inflation Reduction Act compliance and prevailing wage obligations.

Reconcile real time actuals and automatically generate certified payroll reports

DSPTCH real time payroll syncs (with 100+ payroll systems natively supported) automatically provide detailed reconciliations with wage, fringe, per-diem, and company policy accruals. With that in place, DSPTCH directly and automatically generates certified payroll reports for every single worker as soon as payroll is run. These direct integrations short-circuit countless audit requirements by ensuring accuracy from the onset.

IRA compliance has never been more streamlined and efficient.

DSPTCH aims to empower the future of work.

Let’s get started

Join the largest network in the industry!

DSPTCH Web
DSPTCH Mobile   
Let's work together, schedule a demo today!