From Sierra Club Magazine: Solar Having Its Best Year Ever
This year will likely be the year that more solar came on line than coal, first time ever in of American history.
The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) found that New Jersey took the top prize for installing 174 MW of solar in the first quarter of this year, even more than California, coming in at 148 MW. (Georgia had 18 MW installed in the same time period.)
In 2010, New Jersey installed over 137 MW of solar systems which was almost a 140% increase over the 57.3 megawatts installed in 2009 and 517% increase over the 22.5 megawatts of installed New Jersey solar in 2008, ranking it second in the U.S. behind California. That’s enough to power approximately 50,000 homes with sustainable, clean energy. New Jersey also became the second state to install over 100 megawatts of solar power in a single year.
New Jersey did this through system-financing and Solar Renewable Energy Credits(SRECs). The states uses one of the most aggressive Renewable Portfolio Standards(RPS) in the United States. This dictates the schedule of annual increases in the percentage of retail electricity that must come from renewable energy sources each year. The ultimate goal requires 22.5% of the state’s retail electricity load from renewable energy sources by 2021.
If suppliers don’t meet the state targets, they face a fine known as a Solar Alternative Compliance Payment (SACP) that was $0.691/kWh in 2010. In 2011, 306,000 SRECs (or MWhs of solar electricity) were required to be purchased by electricity suppliers in the state in order to meet the NJ solar requirement. That requirement grows to over 5 million in 2026.
I wonder how Georgia might get in on this race!