The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) recently announced that New Jersey recently surpassed 4 gigawatts of solar-generated electricity produced by more than 157,000 solar installations statewide. This is enough “clean energy” to provide electricity to over 500,000 New Jersey households annually. The NJBPU estimates that solar capacity in New Jersey could double in the next four years. Clean energy generated by solar and wind power are key components to reach New Jersey’s goal to reduce carbon emissions in the state by 50% by 2030 and by 100% by 2050.
The NJBPU continues to move forward with a variety of solar programs, which include:
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- Community Solar Energy Program: After a two-year pilot program, NJBPU estimates during the third quarter of 2022, the NJBPU will issue the permanent program straw proposal. In the first year of the pilot program, the NJBPU approved 45 applications, with the capacity to generate about 78 MW in solar energy. In the second year of the pilot program, the NJBPU approved 105 projects, with the capacity to generate about 165 MW in solar energy. These projects combined have the cumulative capacity to serve approximately 24,000 low to moderate income subscribers;
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- Competitive Solar Incentive (CSI) Program: The NJBPU continues to advance the development of its Competitive Solar Incentive (CSI) Program for grid supply and large net-metered solar. NJBPU has issued a straw proposal and has held three public comment sessions. NJBPU anticipates launching this program later in 2022;
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- Dual-Use Solar Pilot Program: The NJBPU will be working to develop and implement a Dual-Use solar pilot program. NJBPU anticipates issuing a straw proposal later in the year;
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- Grid Modernization: The NJBPU continues to move forward with its Grid Modernization proceeding to solicit ideas for potential improvements to enable faster interconnection and higher levels of distributed energy resource (DER) integration. In June 2022, a draft report was presented at a public meeting with recommendations for interconnection reform.
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- For more information about New Jersey’s solar programs, please contact Alan P. Fox, Esq.
