Solar rebates to make way for market credit system (in NJ)

BPU plans to refocus sun's power

Solar rebates to make way for market credit system

Sunday, November 18, 2007
BY RYAN TRACY AND BILL MOONEY
STAFF WRITERS

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"The solar market has been virtually shut down in New Jersey this past year," said Tom Leyden, managing director of SunPower's Tren ton-based subsidiary. The installation at Shiseido, a $4.4 million project, marked the end of a "backlog" in the corporation's sales. The company hasn't made a deal in New Jersey since "a year or two ago," Leyden said.

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Soon, instead of forcing purchasers of solar panels to wait in long lines to receive the ratepayer- funded rebates, all but the smallest solar producers will instead recoup their installation costs by selling the "solar renewable energy certificates" (SRECs) they received for producing power.

The Board of Public Utilities issues one SREC for every 1000 kilowatt hours (or one megawatt hour) of electricity their solar installations produce.

The solar producers can then sell the SRECs on a trading market administered by the BPU. The buyers in the market are utility companies -- controllers of coal, nuclear, and other large power sources who are required by state law to fund a certain amount of electricity produced from renewable sources such as solar power, Winka said.

The market system "produces what you want," Winka added. "You want to make solar electricity by providing the incentive for every megawatt hour you generate," rather than simply giving a rebate for the purchase of a solar panel array that may or may not continue to produce power.

An SREC can fetch more than $225 on the open market.

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