Sunnier days may be ahead for New Jersey.
On Friday, standing near a series of solar arrays in Berkeley Township, Gov. Phil Murphy announced more money going toward solar power programs and projects in the state.
New Jersey is on course to surpass 200,000 solar installations in May and 5 gigawatts of installed solar capacity this year, the governor said.
“To put that in perspective,” Murphy said Friday at midday of the solar capacity, “that is enough energy to power more than 750,000 homes throughout all of New Jersey.”
The Democratic governor said New Jersey is on track this year “to procure more solar than ever before, which will help us hit all of our solar goals, and more importantly, make solar energy more affordable and accessible than ever before while righting many wrongs of the past.”
The latest announcements from the governor and state officials included:
- Growing a community solar program, which doesn’t require people to install panels to take advantage of energy from the sun. That program expanded recently by 225 megawatts and the state Board of Public Utilities will consider opening it to more applicants on Tuesday
- A new pilot program — set to determine the viability of incentivizing solar farms on regular farms — is expected to launch this summer
- More than $156 million in federal grants for residential solar projectsin New Jersey. That “Solar for All” award is set to deliver roughly 175 megawatts of solar energy for 22,000 low-income households in the first five years of funding
- A solar investment award, the state’s largest first announced last week by the state BPU, is additionally slated to create 310 megawatts of grid-scale solar and the first state-incentivized energy storage project as part of New Jersey’s Competitive Solar Incentive program
- A proposed $40 million from the Fiscal Year 2025 budget dedicated to modernizing New Jersey’s grid, which would very much be needed to expand our use of solar energy
Are solar savings too costly?
Murphy wants to reach 100% clean energy by 2035.
But New Jersey has a ways to go.
The densely populated state — with more than 3.7 million homes and where there are multiple plans to combat climate change — aims to supply 34% of its power from solar by 2050. At the end of 2023 that remained 7%.
Installing solar panels can be costly (upwards of more than $12,000 depending on the size and energy needed), difficult based on a person’s roof or impossible for some who are renting a home. And while savings can be plentiful, it can take years for panels to pay themselves off.
Thus, New Jersey officials said they are working on incentivizing solar panels to make them more affordable and appealing to residents, especially those who are low-to-moderate-income.
The governor has also worked to prop up New Jersey’s effort on other green energy alternatives like electric cars and offshore wind power.
New Jerseyans “want to see and experience a cleaner, healthier, safer and equitable future but ultimately a future with aggressive climate action,” Anjuli Ramos-Busot, director of the NJ Sierra Club, said at Friday’s event.
However when it comes to solar power, the Garden State’s history of harnessing it has included ups and downs.
New Jersey often ranked #2 and #3 nationally for its annual and cumulative solar installations a decade ago, data from the Solar Energy Industries Association, or SEIA, and energy research consultancy Wood Mackenzie showed.
In 2022, the state dropped to #10 for annual solar installations (measured by megawatts) and last year fell again to #20. For total installations overall, the state ranked #10.
Several states — that ten years ago did not lead when it came to fastening solar panels to homes and upping their capacity — have gained ground.
Shawn Rumery, senior director of research at the Solar Energy Industries Association, previously explained that’s partly because places like Texas have more land to install panels and larger solar farms while others like California simply get more sun (granted that state has run into challenges of its own).
More than one environmentalist and local official thinks landfills and warehouses are where our solar future lies.
Aresearch and policy center recently noted that New Jersey has more than 13,000 warehouses with about 431 million square feet of roof space suitable for solar installations. That would be able to generate about 7,280 gigawatt hours of electricity.
Murphy, joined by climate advocates from groups like the state’s Sierra Club chapter and New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, spoke at CS Energy’s new Eagle Solar I and II community solar projects which are nearly done.
That 10 megawatt installation — which turned a landfill into a solar project — will power about 1,600 homes in the region and provide a 20% discount to subscribers, including 51% low and moderate income residents, officials said.
“This project achieves many goals in Berkeley Township, which include the final capping of our long-closed landfill, providing green energy to our residents at a discounted rate, and improving the environment by reducing our carbon footprint,” Berkeley Township Mayor John Bacchione said in a statement.
Asked after the news conference if he expected similar projects — sealing landfills and building solar panels above — in other parts of the state, Murphy said yes.
”This is a heckuva a lot better than chopping down a bunch of trees,” the governor said. “There’s nothing else that’s gonna go on top of this. It might as well be solar panels.”
NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.
