Many people don’t know of a state with more than one community using 100-percent renewable electricity, but one state has nearly 100 of them.

Illinois has 91 communities that have achieved 100-percent renewable energy, according to ‘Leading from the Middle: How Illinois Communities Unleashed Renewable Energy,” a report released Friday by the Environmental Law & Policy Center, Sierra Club, World Wildlife Fund, LEAN Energy US, the Illinois Solar Energy Association and George Washington University Solar Institute. Each of the communities used group buying power to purchase electricity with renewable energy credits.

Illinois is one of six states in the country that allows community choice aggregation (CCA), a system where residents can use their bulk purchasing to solicit bids from energy providers.

‘We look at community aggregation as a way to get our city a great price on electricity, and we see it as a way to advance our sustainability goals,” said Chris Koos, mayor of Normal, Ill. ‘We are proud that Normal and almost 100 other Illinois cities and towns are model for the nation in having those two goals go hand-in-hand.”
Graphic credit: “Leading from the Middle: How Illinois Communities Unleashed Renewable Energy.”

Graphic credit: ‘Leading from the Middle: How Illinois Communities Unleashed […]