The New Jersey Senate Environment and Energy Committee last week backed bills that would increase the state’s planned community solar program by 50% and create a series of pilot electric vehicle charging depots that would be served by distributed energy resources.

In its Feb. 16 meeting, the committee also endorsed a bill to create a new position, the clean energy advocate, who would coordinate, and solicit cooperation, from stakeholders to assist the “implementation of interagency clean energy projects.”

“This is not an effort to increase the size of government,” said Sen. Bob Smith (D), who sponsored the bill and serves as chair of the committee. “It’s to try and get government to work better, faster and more efficiently.”

S3556 would create a full-time position whose incumbent would serve “at the pleasure” of the president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. The advocate would ensure that approved programs move forward and the necessary rules and regulations are in place.

In arguing for the need for the position, Smith cited a law that Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed in July 2021 that requires the state within 180 days to create the rules of a pilot program that would enable the construction, installation and operation of dual-use solar projects. That task has not yet been completed nearly 600 days later, Smith said. (See NJ’s $2M Agrivoltaics Study Advances.)

The goal is for the clean energy advocate to “make sure everybody is coordinating their effort, so that all of the departments are on the same page” and that “timely and successful interagency implementation actually occurs,” Smith said.

The committee passed the bill with a 3-1 vote. Sen. Edward Durr (R) expressed concern that the bill would needlessly increase the size of government.

Expanding Community Solar

The three bills advanced two days after Murphy injected urgency into the state’s clean energy initiatives by accelerating the state’s target for achieving 100% renewable electricity in the state from 2050 to 2035 and outlining several other measures.

Those include setting up a process toward the adoption of California’s Advanced Clean Cars II rules, which would require all new passenger vehicles sold in the state to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035. The governor also signed an executive order requiring the installation of electric heating and cooling equipment in 400,000 homes and 20,000 commercial properties by 2030. (See NJ Governor Sets Out Accelerated Emissions Targets.)

The committee backed the expansion of the state Community Solar Energy Program with a 3-1 vote after a much larger proposed expansion faced opposition in November from the BPU, which argued that it could not handle such a sudden increase. After two pilot solicitations, the board is currently drafting a permanent 150-MW/year community solar program, significantly smaller than the 500 MW of available capacity annually proposed in past legislation. (See NJ BPU Opposes Community Solar Program Expansion.)

The amended legislation, S3123, would create a program offering capacity of 225 MW in the period before June 1, 2024, and another 225 MW after. In the years after 2025, the available capacity would be 150 MW.

BPU and other state officials consider the program, which drew 650 applications and awarded 240 MW of capacity in the two pilot solicitations, a great success. It enables energy users who either cannot or do not want to have solar on their roofs to sign up for renewable energy.

Still, the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel in a Feb. 15 letter urged the committee not to back the amended legislation, saying it would create “undesirable results” for ratepayers, such as increased costs. It would “crowd out less expensive grid supply projects” and undermine BPU efforts to create competition in the community solar solicitation process, the division wrote.

“Limiting the amount of solar that can compete to drive prices downward ultimately hurts ratepayers by resulting in higher, administratively set prices,” it said.

He added that creating the capacity by legislation would “set a precedent” that could open the way for future legislation to set capacity levels, rather than the BPU setting levels through “expert assessment of the market.”

The bill, however, drew support from the Solar Energy Industries Association, a few solar industry players, and environmental groups Environment New Jersey and New Jersey League of Conservation Voters.

Allison McLeod, policy director for the league, said the community solar program provides a way for people who “don’t have access to their own roofs,” such as those in multiunit dwellings, to benefit from solar.

“So far a lot of the solar program has been for those who own their own homes [and] have their own roof access,” she said. “So as we expand into our clean energy future, we want to make sure it’s accessible to all, including moderate- and low-income folks.”

Nurturing Off-grid Charging

The committee unanimously passed S3224, a bill that would require the New Jersey Economic Development Authority, which provides financing for much of New Jersey’s clean energy projects, to work with the BPU and Department of Environmental Protection to develop a request for proposals to attract developers interested in creating the EV charging depot.

The bill also secured unanimous approval from the 12-member Assembly Transportation and Independent Authorities Committee the same day.

The “demonstration program” proposal would create charging depots in six locations, with one in the service territory of each of the state’s utilities.

“Each electric vehicle charging depot shall be serviced by one or more distributed energy resource charging centers,” according to the bill. The depots, it added, should “at minimum be capable of supporting very high, coincident peak vehicle electric loads,” and should also be connected to a utility or to PJM.

Still, Sen. Smith said, the focus of the program is “not a grid issue.”

“The station will be providing its own power for the charging,” he said.

Each proposal must compile and report the “cost-saving, time-saving and resilience metrics” that stem from the project drawing energy from a DER, rather than from the public utility grid, the bill says.

The bill drew support from the business community, including from the Chamber of Commerce Southern New Jersey, the state Chamber of Commerce, the New Jersey Business and Industry Association, and Environment New Jersey.