Why NJ is #1 for Solar
While it's not surprising that sun-drenched California leads the US with 67% of the country's grid-connected solar power, how did a little East Coast state like New Jersey gain the No. 2 spot with nearly 9% (and double the power of No. 3 state Colorado)? Making this achievement more remarkable is that in 2001 New Jersey had only six PV installations, and now there are nearly 4000 generating >85 MW.
Instead of building all their own renewable energy power generators, the utilities can also meet these requirements by buying SRECs in an open auction from installers and operators of distributed solar facilities. One SREC is earned for every 1000 kWh of generated energy, and its price is capped at $711, although the trade value is usually less than that.
The story behind this progress was told at a session at PV America, a new exhibition/conference that took place in Philadelphia, June 8-10. The recipe for the "secret sauce" that made it all possible was revealed early on by Dr. Jeanne Fox, president of the NJ Board of Public Utilities.
"I believe that New Jersey is the best place to do solar in the country, policy-wise," Fox explained. Her background includes stints both within the electric utility industry and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); she confessed she is not technical, having been a philosophy major who went on to get a PhD in law at Rutgers. As an EPA administrator, she said she went to a briefing in Washington DC on the coming impact of climate change — it was so scary, she said, that she realized the electric utility where she had worked would have to make dramatic changes in the future.
So she campaigned for a job where she could help do something about it, and came on as the head of the public utilities board in NJ in 2002. At that time, the state offered rebates for solar installations, but she found out how difficult it was to get one when she tried to help a solar facility get hooked to the grid in Kearney, NJ, in 2004-2005. Out of that experience came new standards for two-way net metering and for interconnection to the grid. In addition, it was later decided to get away from a rebate system to a free-market mechanism. While this would take the onus off of taxpayers and ratepayers, even more importantly it would enable long-term contracts.
A system of solar renewable energy credits (SREC) was developed, and $3M was spent on the first SREC tracking and trading system in the U.S., according to Fox. New Jersey now gets fees from other states for the use of this pioneering system.
Another factor helping the state to boost alternate energy was the view of Governor John Corzine, who realized that environment and energy policies are interlinked, but also saw a business opportunity. "Minimizing our carbon footprint can and should go hand-in-hand with increasing economic vitality," he stated. This view drove NJ's "Master Plan" goals, according to Fox. These include:
- Reducing energy use (and greenhouse gas emissions) in the state 20% by 2020.
- Switch to 30% electric power from renewable energy by 2020, including 2.12% from solar.
