For Jon Carson, founder of solar developer Trajectory Energy Partners, the impact of the state's massive climate bill -- the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act or CEJA -- has been stark and immediate.
Since the law's passage a year and a half ago, his company's head count has doubled in size.
Trajectory Energy Partners, based in Highland Park, works on community solar as well as large, utility-scale projects.
While Illinois' previous climate bill -- the Future Energy Jobs Act of 2017 -- helped kick-start the solar industry, that momentum didn't last long, Carson said.
"By the time we got to late 2021, solar had kind of started to grind to a halt in Illinois, and so CEJA was just a tremendous shot in the arm. It's a fantastic bill, and it has energized the industry," he said. "We've seen all the action."
Carson added that from his perspective, renewable energy is bringing people to Illinois: The company recently hired an employee who grew up in Ohio, and it has several people on its payroll who moved to the state from Wisconsin.
Both residential rooftop projects and large-scale solar projects like the ones Carson works on have been fueled by incentives and grant programs that came out of CEJA.
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