Some New Jersey lawmakers are backing efforts by big
solar-energy developers to build grid-supply projects on farmland and other
areas, in a dispute that already has landed in the courts.
The legislators, saying a state agency has misinterpreted a
1-year-old law aimed at reviving the solar sector, called on the Board of
Public Utilities to take action to reinstate solar grid-supply projects that
have been blocked by the Christie administration.
Lawmakers are taking up their cause, including the sponsor
of the legislation, which is dubbed the Solar Act of 2012.
“By wrongfully implementing the Solar Act and changing the
rules for projects already in the development pipeline, the BPU has unfairly
obstructed important renewable energy projects and denied the state millions of
dollars in economic investment,’’ said Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula
(D-Somerset), who also is chairman of the Assembly Telecommunications and
Utilities Committee.
A sponsor of the law, Chivukula said the bill was intended
to recognize the significant investment made by the development community and
to approve projects already in the pipeline if all other requirements were met.
The legislation would allow the BPU to approve 80 megawatts
of grid-supply projects each year over the next three years. Grid-supply solar
systems feed electricity directly into the regional power grid, generally at a
lower cost than smaller arrays, and help the grid deliver its biggest output at
peak periods, on hot summer days.
At one time, the state encouraged large grid-supply
projects, but that support has evaporated in the wake of the tumult engulfing
New Jersey’s solar sector and a decision by the Christie administration to
steer such projects away from existing farmland and instead promote large-scale
solar-energy systems on old garbage dumps and brownfields.
At the same time, some in the solar industry fear that the
large grid-supply projects could cripple the state’s effort to stabilize the
sector, which most agree has seen too many solar-energy systems being
installed, a trend that has driven down the price of solar credits owners of
the arrays earn for the electricity they produce.
The dispute reflects the fractured nature of New Jersey’s
solar-energy sector, which was once the second-largest in terms of
installations in the nation. Smaller firms, installing more modest systems for
homes and small businesses, fear the grid supply projects, if allowed to move
forward, would further depress the prices of solar credits and dry up
investment in the sector.
Assemblyman Robert Clifton (R-Monmouth) disputed that view,
saying many of the large grid-supply projects are being unfairly denied due to
retroactive limitations set by the BPU. “It is unwarranted, and it is blocking
revenue and jobs,’’ he said.
BPU spokesman Greg Reinert declined comment, saying the
agency does not comment on pending litigation.
Jim Spano, president of the New
Jersey Grid Supply Association, said litigation was the only option for its
membership, which is comprised of 20 grid-supply developers.
“The bureaucratic obstruction of these solar grid
applications has resulted in the loss of millions of dollars of investment by
businesses that the state originally incentivized to pursue these exact types
of renewable energy projects,’’ Spano said.
Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said
the failure to move the larger grid-supply projects forward may be because such
renewable-energy projects are being held hostage to Gov. Chris Christie’s
presidential ambitions.
“We will never meet our clean-energy needs,’’ Tittel said.
“By not allowing solar on some unpreserved fields, we are taking away some
important opportunities for solar.’’
Some conservation groups, however, take issue with that
stance, saying the state should not encourage building solar arrays on New
Jersey’s rapidly dwindling farmland.
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