New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to launch new solar incentive program
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) is launching a new solar incentive program.
This program will serve as a transition from the state’s current Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC) Program. This transition program will serve as a bridge between the SREC program and a successor incentive program that will consist of 15-year Transition Renewable Energy Certificates (TREC).
The TRECs will be available to projects that are in the SREC pipeline as of Oct. 29, 2018, but have not yet reached commercial operation.
The NJBPU also intends to hold a cost-cap proceeding in early 2020 to determine the annual value of the TREC. Specifically, they will consider if they will have a flat 15-year TREC price of $152, or a lower price of $65 for the first three years and $189 for the remaining 12 years.
“Our mission is to achieve 100 percent clean energy by 2050, and we won’t get there without solar power, a critical industry for the state,” NJBPU President Joseph Fiordaliso said. “This transition program brings us another step closer to a more effective, efficient, and sustainable solar energy market for New Jersey that will help us attain our clean energy goals, continue an extremely successful solar program, and protect ratepayers from needlessly high costs. Ultimately, our aim is to balance ratepayer impacts with ensuring a thriving and stable solar industry.”
The state’s Clean Energy Act required to adopt regulations that close the SREC program to new applications when 5.1 percent of the electricity sold in New Jersey comes from solar or by June 2021, whichever comes first.
In December 2018, the NJBPU board adopted a rule beginning the process of phasing out the current SREC program and developing a new initiative. NJBPU staff held two stakeholder workshops in the spring and summer of 2019 on the transition incentive.
