Solar industry still hopes to shine

New Jersey has been proud of its commitment to renewable energy, and legislative policies have encouraged the installation of photo-voltaic solar arrays to the point that the state is second only to California in solar power production, according to the Board of Public Utilities.

But in June, Gov. Chris Christie’s administration announced that it was withdrawing New Jersey from a 10-state regional energy plan, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

This was followed a few days later with the introduction of the proposed new Energy Management Plan, a blueprint for energy planning for the next decade. In the plan, the governor and his administration recommend the construction of gas-powered energy plants, and putting more emphasis on large solar arrays owned by power companies rather than arrays on private homes. Questions arose about whether these policies will weaken New Jersey’s solar industry.

As hearings continue on the Energy Management Plan this week, several executives in the solar industry have shared their perspectives on how they read the plan, how solar energy has worked in the state so far, and how their industry can remain robust.
Emphasis on arrays

In New Jersey, solar energy has been made affordable through ratepayer subsidies.

Here is how the system works: The state Legislature has mandated that each year the utility companies must produce an increasing number of megawatts of power through renewable means. If they are not producing that power themselves, the companies must go to sources that produce power through renewable energy and buy power from them. They do this in the form of Solar Renewable Energy Credits or SRECs.

Homeowners and commercial property owners are now producing electricity with their photo-voltaic arrays, and they earn an SREC for each megawatt hour they produce. They can sell the SRECs to the power companies on the spot market, which is regulated by the Board of Public Utilities, or they can sign a long-term contract to sell a power company their SRECs at a fixed price for a fixed number of years.