Impact Spotlight
Providing free solar installations for more than 10 low-income homes
Completing solar systems for more than 5 churches at no cost
Developing a solar training center in Chicago to build a local clean energy workforce
About
Clean Community is a Chicago-based nonprofit founded in 2017 to provide communities with opportunities to thrive through clean energy. Rooted in the Austin neighborhood on Chicago's West Side, the organization trains and certifies residents for high-demand clean energy jobs while installing rooftop solar systems that lower costs and improve health in disinvested communities. Clean Community is community-founded and community-led: its founder and Board President are lifelong Austin residents, and the organization operates out of its Renewable Energy Workforce Center, a neighborhood hub for solar outreach, education, and workforce training.
Clean Community's work concentrates in communities that Illinois has formally prioritized for equitable clean energy investment under the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, addressing historic disinvestment, disproportionate pollution burdens, and high energy costs on the West Side. By pairing free and low-cost solar installations with hands-on job training and certification, the organization works to reduce energy burden, expand access to clean energy benefits, and build durable career pathways in a rapidly growing solar workforce.
“Solar works properly when it’s grounded. Without being grounded, you can’t receive good energy.”
HF Partnership
Through this partnership, Clean Community will close the remaining funding gap between pre-development and construction for nine Illinois Solar for All-approved rooftop solar projects already in its pipeline, serving low-income homeowners and nonprofit sites, including churches, on Chicago's West Side. The grant will fund remaining solar equipment and installation costs alongside continued delivery capacity at Clean Community's Renewable Energy Workforce Center, employing local contractors through its subsidiary installer, CC Solar LLC.
Each completed site is expected to reduce participating households' energy bills by an estimated 25 to 50 percent while creating visible clean energy assets and paid local jobs in a community historically excluded from green investment. Since May 2025, Clean Community's outreach has engaged more than 1,500 West Side residents and supported more than 30 homeowners and nonprofits toward project approval, and this partnership will help convert that momentum into completed, operating solar systems across the West Side.
In the News
