The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is proud of its sustainability initiatives, as documented in the Illinois Climate Action Plan. One of the most important and challenging initiatives is a shift from conventional energy to the use of renewable energy. Various renewable energy projects have been implemented since signing the Climate Leadership Commitments.

• The first project was a 32.76 kilowatt (kW) solar photovoltaic (PV) array on the roof of the Business Instructional Facility in 2009.
• The 14.7 kW PV array, ground mounted at the Building Research Council, is a research platform for the Information Trust Institute.
• Solar thermal panels on the Activities and Recreation Center roof heat the indoor and outdoor swimming pools.
• In April 2014, campus purchased 20,000 renewable energy certificates (RECs) from Midwest Independent Systems Operators (MISO) wind power for fiscal year 2015.
• The Allerton Park, which was left to the University, built an 11,000W/year solar array as a step towards their goal of carbon neutrality by 2035.
• The most significant on-campus renewable energy generation project to date went into commercial operation in December 2015, with the completion of the 5.87 megawatt (MW) Solar Farm. Since then, the farm has been producing approximately 7,200 MWh/year. Campus is continuously monitoring the efficiency of the Solar Farm, compared to the design specifications, and in February 2016 the Solar Farm produced 100.2% of the anticipated electricity for that month.
• In December 2015 another solar array was installed on the new Wassaja Residence Hall roof with a capacity of 30 kW.
• In September 2016, campus signed a ten-year Wind Power Purchase Agreement for 25 million kWh/year.
• In June 2017, campus installed a 200 kW biomass boiler at the Energy Farm, using Miscanthus grown on site.
• Since then, the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Building has had 970 rooftop panels installed, totaling an estimated 470 MWh of electricity annually. Since production began in April 2018, 11% of all power supplied to the ECE Building has been from the rooftop panels, not including the panels that are used for student-oriented research.
• During FY21, the University will be home to an additional Solar Farm. The Solar Farm 2.0 is projected to produce approximately 20,000 MWh/year, nearly tripling on-site renewable energy production.