Solar Panels in Peoria, IL: 2026 Cost, Ameren Illinois Net Metering & Savings

Peoria and the bill

Peoria is Ameren Illinois for typical addresses. New residential net metering is the supply-only treatment Illinois Shines describes for Ameren after January 1, 2025. Peoria has a slightly stronger rounded resource than Chicago and Ameren's downstate tariff. River-valley fog and snow are real. The Illinois Shines disclosure, if the installer uses the program, should show the REC value for this group, not a Chicago screenshot. Delivery charges still matter under supply-only net metering. The 2025 EIA residential average for Illinois was 17.67 cents per kWh. That statewide figure is what our calculator uses. It is not the Ameren Illinois tariff. A rounded solar resource for this metro is about 4.3 peak sun hours a day.

Export credits and any SREC or REC

Ameren Illinois is the usual utility for Peoria. New residential Ameren customers are on supply-only net metering, not a full retail credit for every exported kilowatt-hour. For the Illinois Shines year starting June 1, 2026, distributed generation up to 10 kW in Ameren territory (Group A) is priced at about $70.37 per REC. Projects approved on or after June 1, 2026 get 50 percent at energization and the rest over six years. The published price is what the program pays a vendor for the credits, not a check this website sends.

Roofs, climate, permits, and HOAs

Older bluff houses can be shaded. North and west subdivisions are more open. Roof age varies widely. A Peoria permit comes from the local building department, not from Ameren Illinois. An HOA can add its own review. This page does not quote a IL permit fee or an approval, because both depend on the address. Name Ameren. Ask which net-metering vintage the account would be on. Compare the disclosure form across two vendors if both claim Illinois Shines.

Estimated cost range

Estimated cost range for Peoria, labeled as an estimate and not a local quote: Berkeley Lab's August 2026 update put 2025 host-owned residential systems at about $3.60 per watt before incentives, about $3.00 per watt in the cash subset, and about $4.50 per watt in the loan subset. The median size in that set was 7.7 kW. Peoria is about 4.3 peak sun hours a day, against about 4.2 statewide. The federal residential credit under 26 U.S.C. § 25D ended for systems placed in service after December 31, 2025. The IRS treats that expenditure as made when the original installation is completed.

• Cash

  $3.00/W

  $23,100

  Subset classified as cash

• Middle published case

  $3.60/W

  $27,720

  All host-owned systems

• Loan

  $4.50/W

  $34,650

  Financed subset, before interest

Before incentives. A loan price here excludes interest. The federal residential credit under section 25D ended for systems placed in service after December 31, 2025. Berkeley Lab, U.S. Distributed Solar and Storage, August 2026 data update.