SITE NOT CONDUCIVE TO SOLAR? By John Q. Martin, Construction Consultant, Roxbury High School Has the thought of installing a solar array on one of your projects, or perhaps even your personal home, crossed your mind? Do you wish to take advantage of the recently updated financial incentives for solar? Maybe you want to become more energy independent and do something good for the environment? BUT, your site has some challenges for a solar implementation. Does the property or the structure have limited southern exposure? Is it heavily shaded? Do you have limited ownership/control such as a condo situation? Fortunately, there may be a way around these challenges. In 2018, Gov. Phil Murphy signed the Clean Energy Act of 2018. This legislation mandated that the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) will create a Community Solar Energy Pilot Program. Shortly thereafter, rules and applications were published by the BPU, and a multi-year pilot program was initiated. Community solar allows existing utility customers to subscribe to the program to receive energy credits, usually at a discounted rate, from a remote solar energy project without having to install and pay for solar panels. Such solar projects, which tend to be quite large (upwards into the megawatt-range), can be found on warehouses, churches, storage facilities, and even capped-off landfills. A single solar project could be powering several hundred homes that otherwise would not have considered solar. Due to the success of the pilot program, by late 2021, BPU decided to transition the program to permanent status ahead of the 3-year pilot program timeline. In the first year of the pilot program, BPU approved 45 applications representing 78 MW of capacity. In the following year, 150 MW worth of projects were approved, which has become the benchmark annual target going forward. For more information, you can visit BPU’s website by following the first link listed below. There you can find a video that provides a brief overview of how the program works. There is also a link to the program’s “Community Solar Project Finder” that is used to search for community solar projects in your area by zip code. https://njcleanenergy.com/renewable-energy/ programs/community-solar
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