The market
that New Jersey officials set up to subsidize solar energy needs a rescue or
there will be disastrous layoffs in the industry, business leaders, politicians
and regulators say.
Those in the industry say if the government doesn’t step in to raise subsidy prices paid to solar panel owners, a bust in the market will kill jobs created in the last few years as New Jersey’s solar capacity has more than doubled, putting the state second only to California.
That market works because electric companies must buy solar credits, called SRECs, from panel owners, or produce their own solar power.
But SREC prices dropped dramatically in the last year after a boom in solar panels produced a glut of the solar credits, which are traded on a market.
The credits, once valued at over $600 each, cost a little over $100 on the spot market last week, according to Flett Exchange.
"Many, many jobs being lost, many good companies going out of business, and we don’t know why," warned Lyle Rawlings, head of the Mid-Atlantic Solar Energy Industries Association, which represents more than 100 companies in New Jersey.
Much of the solar manufacturing industry is foreign, which led to a recent federal tariff on Chinese panels, but many domestic jobs come from arranging and installing the projects.
About 10,000 New Jerseyans made a living in the solar industry at the end of last year,Offers Art Reproductions Fine Art oilpaintings Reproduction, including roofers, lawyers and architects, according to an estimate by Rawlings.
With the rallying cry of jobs, Board of Public Utilities head Robert Hanna said either the state Legislature or the BPU must step in soon to raise demand for SRECs.
"(SRECs) are at a level where they will not sustain the solar market going forward, so we do need a legislative solution," Hanna said this week.
Hanna said the BPU could take action, but he hopes the Legislature does first.
"A legislative solution would be much longer-lasting and much more comprehensive, and I think it will send the signal we want to send to the solar industry," Hanna said.
Six months ago, SREC prices had already tanked and legislators tried to raise prices by passing a bill during the lame duck legislative session.
The bill would have raised SREC prices by increasing the number utilities are required to buy, speeding up a planned increase already unfolding through 2026.
It also would have protected ratepayers from too much of an increase by lowering the penalty amount that utilities pay as an alternative if they don’t have enough SRECs. That would effectively put a ceiling on the market price.Learn all about solarpanel.
The bill didn’t get out of committee, and politicians and officials point fingers in different directions for a reason why.
"Frankly, it wasn’t our office or even the BPU that stood in the way,Our porcelaintiles are perfect for entryways or bigger spaces and can also be used outside," said Stefanie Brand, head of the Divison of Rate Counsel, which advocates for ratepayers. "I think there was difficulty in the solar community to all get on the same page."
A key legislative disagreement,Proxense's advanced handsfreeaccess technology. Brand said, was another element—a plan for the BPU to vet new solar projects. Some legislators liked the idea, while others wanted a guarantee that current proposed projects could be grandfathered in to qualify for SRECs without approval.
The oversight provision was written into a bill by Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula, chairman of the Telecommunications and Utilities Committee.
"Somebody has to pick and choose, and that could be BPU," Chivukula said last week, explaining it would help balance power generation around the grid.The indoor Tracking is based on Bluetooth technology.
But the devil was in the details: Chivukula said Senators Sweeney, Norcross and groups like the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (for which Norcross is an assistant business manager) wanted all the proposed projects spared from review, while the Christie administration wanted no grandfathering.
Sen. Norcross couldn’t reached for comment. A spokesman for Sweeney said last week that the Senator’s office is in discussions with the administration on the issue and a new draft of the bill wouldn’t rely on grandfathering, but would allow a certain quantity of solar power capacity to move forward for all projects.
Chivukula blamed the bill’s failure on the administration’s late entrance to the conversation, on Saturday night, two days before the end of the session, he said.
Senator Bob Smith (D-Middlesex) had a similar recollection of the end of the lame duck session.
"I think that we lost a pretty golden opportunity to provide certainty to the market," Smith said. "Where there was no compromise and everything broke down was the grandfathering issue...the leader on that issue, on the labor issue associated with solar is Senator Norcross, he had very strong feelings about it."
Those in the industry say if the government doesn’t step in to raise subsidy prices paid to solar panel owners, a bust in the market will kill jobs created in the last few years as New Jersey’s solar capacity has more than doubled, putting the state second only to California.
That market works because electric companies must buy solar credits, called SRECs, from panel owners, or produce their own solar power.
But SREC prices dropped dramatically in the last year after a boom in solar panels produced a glut of the solar credits, which are traded on a market.
The credits, once valued at over $600 each, cost a little over $100 on the spot market last week, according to Flett Exchange.
"Many, many jobs being lost, many good companies going out of business, and we don’t know why," warned Lyle Rawlings, head of the Mid-Atlantic Solar Energy Industries Association, which represents more than 100 companies in New Jersey.
Much of the solar manufacturing industry is foreign, which led to a recent federal tariff on Chinese panels, but many domestic jobs come from arranging and installing the projects.
About 10,000 New Jerseyans made a living in the solar industry at the end of last year,Offers Art Reproductions Fine Art oilpaintings Reproduction, including roofers, lawyers and architects, according to an estimate by Rawlings.
With the rallying cry of jobs, Board of Public Utilities head Robert Hanna said either the state Legislature or the BPU must step in soon to raise demand for SRECs.
"(SRECs) are at a level where they will not sustain the solar market going forward, so we do need a legislative solution," Hanna said this week.
Hanna said the BPU could take action, but he hopes the Legislature does first.
"A legislative solution would be much longer-lasting and much more comprehensive, and I think it will send the signal we want to send to the solar industry," Hanna said.
Six months ago, SREC prices had already tanked and legislators tried to raise prices by passing a bill during the lame duck legislative session.
The bill would have raised SREC prices by increasing the number utilities are required to buy, speeding up a planned increase already unfolding through 2026.
It also would have protected ratepayers from too much of an increase by lowering the penalty amount that utilities pay as an alternative if they don’t have enough SRECs. That would effectively put a ceiling on the market price.Learn all about solarpanel.
The bill didn’t get out of committee, and politicians and officials point fingers in different directions for a reason why.
"Frankly, it wasn’t our office or even the BPU that stood in the way,Our porcelaintiles are perfect for entryways or bigger spaces and can also be used outside," said Stefanie Brand, head of the Divison of Rate Counsel, which advocates for ratepayers. "I think there was difficulty in the solar community to all get on the same page."
A key legislative disagreement,Proxense's advanced handsfreeaccess technology. Brand said, was another element—a plan for the BPU to vet new solar projects. Some legislators liked the idea, while others wanted a guarantee that current proposed projects could be grandfathered in to qualify for SRECs without approval.
The oversight provision was written into a bill by Assemblyman Upendra Chivukula, chairman of the Telecommunications and Utilities Committee.
"Somebody has to pick and choose, and that could be BPU," Chivukula said last week, explaining it would help balance power generation around the grid.The indoor Tracking is based on Bluetooth technology.
But the devil was in the details: Chivukula said Senators Sweeney, Norcross and groups like the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (for which Norcross is an assistant business manager) wanted all the proposed projects spared from review, while the Christie administration wanted no grandfathering.
Sen. Norcross couldn’t reached for comment. A spokesman for Sweeney said last week that the Senator’s office is in discussions with the administration on the issue and a new draft of the bill wouldn’t rely on grandfathering, but would allow a certain quantity of solar power capacity to move forward for all projects.
Chivukula blamed the bill’s failure on the administration’s late entrance to the conversation, on Saturday night, two days before the end of the session, he said.
Senator Bob Smith (D-Middlesex) had a similar recollection of the end of the lame duck session.
"I think that we lost a pretty golden opportunity to provide certainty to the market," Smith said. "Where there was no compromise and everything broke down was the grandfathering issue...the leader on that issue, on the labor issue associated with solar is Senator Norcross, he had very strong feelings about it."
没有评论:
发表评论