New Jersey’s Board of Public Utilities (BPU) selected 105 projects totaling 165 MW in the second phase of its Community Solar Energy Pilot Program Thursday as the agency planned to transition to a permanent program (Docket # QO18060646, QO20080556).

Nine of the second-phase projects will be developed on landfills, one on a brownfield and the remainder on rooftops, the BPU said, announcing the list of winning applicants at its monthly meeting in Trenton. Board members said a key element of the program, aside from reducing carbon emissions, is its goal of proving low- and moderate-income (LMI) communities with the opportunity to support the effort to cut emissions and benefit from reduced energy costs. All the approved projects will allocate 51% of the energy generated to LMI participants.

The 165 MW will be enough to power an estimated 33,000 homes, according to the BPU.

The BPU’s announcement came 10 months after the first of the 45 projects awarded in the program’s first phase started operating. About 20 MW of the 75MW of solar capacity awarded in the first phase is now in operation, and the remainder is in development.

Community solar projects target consumers — whether homeowners or small businesses — who either cannot or do not want to have solar on their roofs. In many instances, developers start enrolling subscribers before they begin building a project or look for a business to be an “anchor” subscriber by committing to buying a certain percentage of the power from the project.

In return for subscribing, consumers receive credits that can reduce their electric bills by 5% to 20%. The solar project operator supplies the electricity generated in the project to a utility company.

BPU President Joseph Fiordaliso said New Jersey is “light years” ahead of other states in the effort to create a community solar program that involves all sectors of the community.

“If we’re going to be successful not only in solar, but in the entire clean energy initiative, we all have to participate, and community solar pinpoints that directly.” He said he expects the program to continue for years.

“There are a lot of places to put solar,” he said, citing the large number of warehouses that sprung up along the New Jersey Turnpike to meet the state’s fast-rising demand for logistics space and warehouses that serve the e-commerce industry.

“New Jersey is the Saudi Arabia of rooftops,” Fiordaliso said.

Strong Industry Response

Community solar developments are a key element of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy’s push to have the state reach 100% clean energy by 2050. Murphy wants the state to have 32 GW of solar by 2050, about 34% of the state’s electricity. The 32 GW is about nine times the solar capacity online today. The governor’s aggressive efforts to combat climate change are a key plank of his campaign to be re-elected on Tuesday.

Solar developers, some of whom expressed concern earlier this month at the BPU’s slow pace at handling second phase applications, welcomed the BPU’s announcement.

“Industry stands ready to invest millions of dollars in these projects, which will also create jobs and improve the resiliency and security of the state’s energy grid,” said Leslie Elder, mid-Atlantic regional director for the Coalition for Community Solar Access. “We are thrilled that today’s announcement paves the way for new community solar projects.”

New Jersey is one of about 20 states that have policies encouraging shared renewables, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA).  Others include Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Minnesota, New Mexico, Maine and Maryland. New York said in July that it had allocated $52.5 million for community solar projects that would serve 50,000 people.

In New Jersey, BPU officials cite the heavy oversubscription to the project as a sign of its success. The second phase attracted 412 applicant projects, totaling more than 800 MW, compared to 252 applications in the first phase.

However, the BPU’s slow handling of applications in the second pilot phase drew the ire of some solar developers and their trade associations at the start of the month.

The criticism prompted the BPU to pledge that it would identify the winning submissions by the end of November and pledge to create a permanent program. (See NJ Plans Permanent Community Solar Program).

Those concerns were not mentioned Thursday. Scott Elias, senior manager of state affairs, mid-Atlantic for SEIA, called the BPU’s approval of second phase projects “another positive step in improving access to the benefits of clean electricity for lower income communities and communities of color.”

Streamlining Verification

To a similar end, the board voted Thursday to simplify the requirements for determining whether a customer is low- or moderate-income after developers said they found the process onerous. The agency dropped a requirement that customers applying for LMI benefits provide their tax records.

The new rules allow customers to be considered low- or moderate-income if they live in a census tract with a high proportion of LMI residents and enable customer representatives to suggest to the BPU new ways of verifying resident incomes. Another change will allow residents to verify LMI status through their participation in certain government benefit programs.

Ariane Benrey, program administrator and policy analyst at the BPU, outlined the awards to the board and called the program “a critical component to promoting a more equitable solar market and ensuring that solar is accessible to those who have historically not benefited from access to the state’s vibrant clean energy market.”

The board also voted to abandon a third phase of the pilot program. Instead, the board voted to begin developing a permanent program of 150 MW per year and launch a process to solicit input from stakeholders.

Shaun Keegan, CEO of Solar Landscape, which secured approval for eight projects in the first phase of the program and for forty-five projects in the second phase, said the company is “pleased to build on the success of our existing community solar projects.”

“Together, we are making clean energy history by opening access to solar power to everyone in New Jersey —especially our low- to moderate-income families,” he said, in a statement posted online.