December 19, 2019 – Cadmus expert Chad Laurent provided guidance to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities on how to transition to a new solar program for the state, as mandated by the Clean Energy Act. The BPU approved a transition financing program to incentivize solar projects during the transition to this new, yet-to-be-determined, program.
During a presentation to stakeholders on December 17, Chad Laurent said the new Successor Program must provide maximum benefit to ratepayers at the lowest cost and must grow the solar industry. He said there must be a particular emphasis on community solar, rooftop, and landfill installations, as well as others that minimize development on agricultural and forest land.
The program should also help accomplish the state’s overall renewable energy goals: 100 percent clean energy by 2050, and about 12.2 gigawatts of solar by 2030.
“What do you want the next solar policy for New Jersey to look like?” he said. Other than accounting for those priorities, Laurent said, “It is a relatively clean slate.”
He laid out a menu of choices for various facets of the new program, which could be centered around direct payments for production based on capacity, environmental attributes or other factors.
Groups of industry members, installers, and other stakeholders met to consider the various options presented and agreed on the need for predictability in the market. Preventing gaps between the transition program and the successor program would help ensure that certainty and minimize market disruption.
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