New Jersey Solar Key in Race for Governor

In New Jersey’s gubernatorial race, solar power development has become a hot topic. Incumbent Democratic Governor Jon Corzine has been at the wheel over the last few years as the state moved from one of the country’s strongest  cash-based solar incentives to an innovative, and slightly risky, solar renewable energy certificate (SREC) trading program. SREC sales have been part of the state’s approach to incentivizing solar for years, but until recently, they were the support–not the foundation.

The surprising part about the solar debate being pushed by Republican Christopher Christie is that the contender feels Corzine has not done enough for solar development in the state. Christie is putting energy development at the forefront of his campaign, and it seems to be working: he’s leading (though narrowly) in the polls.

"Energy as Industry": The welcome screen on Christie's campaign website

Corzine ushered in a stringent RPS that dictates New Jersey’s energy portfolio must be 20% renewable by 2020, with 2% from solar energy sources. (If you want to split hairs, it’s actually 22.5% by 2021, with 2.12% from solar…) That equates 1500 MW of total solar capacity in the state. With an installed capacity of less than 70 MW at the end of 2008, that’s quite a hike. The current “integrated incentive” plan combining cash rebates with SREC sales is one prong of Corzine’s approach. He also presided over some recent controversial solar development bills that mandate solar minimums for some types of new housing and commercial spaces.

Corzine has not, however, presided over an explosion of solar installations. In 2001, five years before Corzine’s governorship, a lonely 9 kilowatts of solar panel installations were installed courtesy of New Jersey’s CORE rebate program. But by the time Corzine took office in 2006, CORE had found its footing. That year, the program funded over 17 MW of solar power. In subsequent years the program slackened a bit, until it choked on empty cash reserves in 2008 and then rebooted this year with more moderate rebate levels. Installations have not fallen off drastically since 2006, but they also haven’t skyrocketed. Admittedly, the shift to SRECs is a long-term investment whose true impact on solar in the state will only be seen as the market develops over the next few years.

Christie has a few suggestions for amping up the state’s solar capacity. He’s eyeing the state’s landfills (all of them) and protected farmland (20% of it) as the future sites of solar farms, as his campaign website lays out. He also wants to offer enormous tax incentives to renewable energy manufacturers to entice them to build within the state. While that might be a practice well within his party line, much of what Christie has to say about the importance of solar power and other renewable energy is hard to distinguish from the rhetoric of his Democratic opponent. It will make for an odd gubernatorial race, but is, perhaps, a testament to the truly non-partisan nature of our clean energy future.