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On October 23, 2024  the New Jersey BPU issued an order establishing a dual-use solar energy pilot program.  The pilot program will provide adder incentives on top of SREC-II incentives within the SuSi program via a competitive solicitation process.  The adder incentive will reflect the costs specific to the agricultural or horticultural aspects of the project.  The pilot program will open on January 6, 2025, for expressions of interest (EOIs) from dual use projects with a minimum 500 kW DC. The Board also approved a rulemaking proposal regarding this dual use solar energy pilot program. After this proposed rulemaking is published in the New Jersey Register, stakeholders will have 60 days to file comments. In the meantime, the Board will move ahead with implementing the dual use solar energy pilot program pursuant to the order issued. 

Of note: (1) the program is open to: qualifying grid supply projects paired with a storage facility; and net metered non-residential solar projects” less than 5 MW; (2) projects are not eligible for the Community Solar Energy Program, but BPU defers determination of whether projects are eligible for the Remote Net Metering Program while Staff analyzes recent modifications; (3) projects must be between 500 kW and 10 MW; (4) BPU “approves a capacity target of up to 200 MW total for the duration of thirty- six (36) months for the Pilot Program and an annual capacity target for Program Year 1 of” 50 MW, with capacity project capacity awarded “in addition to the capacity otherwise awarded under the SuSI programs”; (5) SREC-IIs will “be provided to eligible projects upon selection through a competitive procurement,” with values “established through the solicitation as recommended by Staff,” except that CSI-eligible facilities must instead “submit an incentive value for the CSI component of the project using the Board’s highest awarded bid approved for the Basic Grid Supply Tranche (Tranche 1) from the most recent CSI Program solicitation for each application period”; (6) “the applicable definitions in the CSI Siting Rules shall be incorporated in the Dual-Use Pilot Program,” and “projects to be located on preserved farmland are prohibited by the Statute from obtaining a waiver”; (7) EDCs must “process interconnection applications for potential dual-use projects in the order in which they are received, including those received prior to the effective date of [the] Order”; (8) compensation for projects will be based on the ADI or SCI program incentive, with “an adder that covers the incremental costs incurred as a result of participation in the Pilot Program, specific to the agricultural or horticultural aspects of a dual-use project”; and (9) each project must establish and update annually a Construction, Operations, Monitoring, and Project Research Plan to “establish the terms and conditions for maintaining eligibility for the SREC-II adder.”

qualifying grid supply projects; (ii) “net metered non-residential projects with a capacity greater than” 5 MW; (iii) (BPU Docket No. QO23090679)