Welcome to Community Energy Systems!

Community Energy Systems’ mission is to educate the public regarding energy conservation, energy efficiency, and the prudent and fair operation of utility companies. We believe that mission requires both intellectual and practical applications. See our complete Mission Statement.

Seeking Donated Building
Community Energy Systems is seeking a donated building to convert to an Environmental Center. We would like to perform Springfield's first ever Green Teardown and a Green Rebuild. This Environmental Center would serve as free office space for the various environmental groups in Springfield, IL. We would seek donations, residential wind turbines and solar panels to power the Center. If you or anyone you know can donate a house or an appropriate building in Springfield, IL please contact Community Energy Systems at 217-629-7031.

Achievements
At Community Energy Systems we are proud of our achievements in the last 4 years. These include:

2009 - CES signed on with Google AdSense and began raising money through its advertising. We held 2 fundraisers with the Springfield Scooter Club. These Poker Scoots (Poker Runs) were fun and raised awareness about fuel efficient transportation. Through those Scoots CES gained its first Television coverage. We pursued two opportunities to establish the Environmental Center. One was with the local United Church of Christ and the other was with the Enos Park Neighborhood Association. People seem to be excited about the idea but getting a donated building is challenging. Our Website continues to be very popular. CES' website received over 100,000 visits.

2008 - Our biggest success was getting the Springfield, IL utility to substantially increase its PURA Standards. Our second success was our web presence. We received nearly 100,000 visits on our Website. We also participated in groups such as Clean Air Springfield, The Earth Awareness Fair, Safe Water Springfield, CWLP's Energy Forums and Sustainable Springfield. We joined with other groups to fight deep well injection in the ADM, FutureGen and the Taylorville Energy Center. CES worked with the City of Beardstown to help it attain some sources of renewable energy.

2007 - Launching the organization. This included filing with the Federal, State, County and the Attorney General of Illinois all organizational papers to give CES Tax Exempt Status. We were awarded that status by the end of the year by all concerned. This also included creating, and producing stationary and business cards for the organization. One, of our two top achievements of that year was the creation of this website which includes content pages, a Newsletter in the Spring and Fall, a bulletin board called Refrigerator Magnets which posts many different organizations materials for others to view, and finally the Energy Tough Love blog.

Our Second achievement was extremely exciting. CES along with dozens of other organizations lobbied against and won a rate increase reductions for millions of Illinoisans. This also involved the Attorney General reversing the illegal "reverse auction" process, created the Illinois Public Power Authority, and forced the electrical distribution companies to purchase power at reasonable rates with transparent contracts. It was a big win.

Please Donate
Community Energy Systems is a small nonprofit organization. Please go to our donation page and make a contribution if you can.