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Updated: 20 April 2022
If you are in Ameren Illinois or ComEd territory in Illinois you can purchase your grid power from other suppliers--some of which offer "100% Renewable" electricity. The power still comes to you through the Ameren or ComEd utility lines, but you are paying someone else for producing the power.
Community Solar Subscriptions
One option is to subscribe to a "Community Solar" project. Legislation passed in 2016 allows you to subscribe to off-site solar farms to get your electricity delivered through your utility provider--if you live in the same utility territory as the Community Solar farm. I am subscribed to a Community Solar project to get from them a portion of of my energy needs not provided by solar panels on my house. The company (NexAmp) charges 20% less per kwhr than the base Ameren supplier rate for my area. The forms were easy to fill out, and there were no extra fees, no contract termination fees, etc.
Keep in mind that the project to which you subscribe may be many miles from your home; my subscription is to a solar field 111 miles away! Critics may say that you can't prove that you are getting the solar energy from that project to your home. This is true, but it is also true that you also can't prove where your conventional fossil fuel power is coming from in most cases--the plants typically are many miles away, and multiple plants are involved. Ultimately, I believe it is better to pay a company that is putting green energy on the grid than it is to pay fossil fuel plants to continue polluting our earth.
Resources for Community Solar:
Choose an Energy Provider
Another option, if you live in Ameren Illinois, ComEd, or MidAmerican utility territory, is to choose a different energy provider. A 1996 law that "deregulated" the large investor-owned electric utilities in Illinois prevents those utility companies from producing power in most cases. Instead, they only service the wires and equipment providing you power, and some other companies actually produce the electricity. The utility company merely passes the billing and payments between you and a third party energy producer, while keeping a portion for line maintenance, profit, etc.
Some of the electricity providers from which you can choose produce 100% renewable energy. You might find cheaper rates from various suppliers if you only want to save money, but it may not be for 100% renewable energy. Here’s a link to search for other providers:
Aside from (possibly) saving a little money, buying renewable energy sends a demand signal to energy producers to provide more clean energy. It also helps create jobs for Illinoisans—many more jobs than will ever be available again in the coal or oil and gas industries.
Changing power providers should be pretty simple—it’s supposed to be as simple as just filling out an on-line form.
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