As stated on page 87 of the Long-Term Renewable Resources Procurement Plan, “The Initial Forward Procurements, conducted in August 2017, March 2018, and April 2018, did not procure any RECs from new brownfield site photovoltaic projects, and the Agency has not otherwise procured any RECs that would satisfy the brownfield site photovoltaic project requirement.” The average winning price of $5.01/REC that you reference was for RECs from utility-scale solar projects only. Under the Initial Forward Procurements, there was no carve-out for brownfield site photovoltaic projects. All RECs from utility-scale solar projects and from brownfield site photovoltaic projects were evaluated together.
This was not the case for the Brownfield and Utility-Scale Solar RFP. Under this procurement event, utility-scale solar projects and from brownfield site photovoltaic projects were evaluated separately. Ultimately, no successful bids were received from brownfield site photovoltaic projects and thus no such projects were selected.
The IPA received feedback on any barriers that may have limited successful participation in the Brownfield Procurement. A document listing specific questions that the Agency posed is available on their website here. The comments received are posted on the Illinois Power Agency’s (“IPA”) website here.
Revised 7/25/2019 first posted 2/19/2019