April 14, 2011
DEP Grants PermitFor Wind Farm Off NJ Coast
ATLANTIC CITY — A major step forward Wednesday in making New Jersey a leader in wind energy.
The Department of Environmental Protection issued permits for Fishermen’s Energy to begin construction on a six-turbine wind farm off the coast of New Jersey.
The turbines will act as a test for future larger developments off the East coast.
Officials say the project should also generate hundreds of new jobs in the near future, and make Atlantic City a focal point in the alternative energy industry.
New Jersey Excels in the Solar Market
- New Jersey surpasses 300 MW of installed solar capacity and is on target to exceed Renewable Portfolio Standard goals this coming Energy Year -
TRENTON, N.J. – The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) announced today that New Jersey’s installed solar capacity has surpassed 300 MW, and that there are more than 8,000 projects statewide. Solar installations in New Jersey are coming online at an unprecedented rate. Newly installed capacity has averaged 15 MW per month since September 2010. This has increased the supply of Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SREC) eligible for use in meeting New Jersey’s Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS).
Through March 2011, New Jersey has a total of 305 MW of solar renewable energy capacity installed as a result of incentives available through New Jersey’s Clean Energy Program, net metering and interconnection regulations, RPS regulations, and the SREC financing model. The amount of solar capacity installed in 2010 exceeded the cumulative amount of solar installed since the beginning of the clean energy incentive programs in 2001.
“New Jersey continues to be at the forefront of the solar industry,” said BPU President Lee A. Solomon. “As the SREC market continues to grow, New Jersey will ensure that there is transparency and certainty for businesses in the renewable energy market.”
To read the more please visit: www.NJCleanEnergy.com
Not born to run: No truck idling in NJ after May 1
One of the East Coast’s most important trucking states is preparing to ban trucks older than the 2007 model year from idling altogether beginning on May Day. New Jersey, which has enforced a limited idling ban that allowed idling during federally required hours-of-service breaks for the last year, begins its 100 percent idling ban on May 1.
Gail Toth, executive director of the New Jersey Motor Truck Association, told Land Line she is asking members of her organization and all truck drivers to write letters to New Jersey Lieutenant Governor Kim Guadagno and state Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin to ask for an extension of the idling exemption for rest periods.
“We need to speak up,” Toth said. “We want our drivers to send hundreds and thousands of letters. I think this is awful and I think that we in the trucking community need to stand up. We can’t strike – that’s illegal – but we can voice our opinion.”
New Jersey’s idling exemption for older trucks was originally scheduled to sunset on April 30, 2010, but the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection decided to extend the idling exemption until May 1, 2011.
If you would like to read more please visit:
http://www.landlinemag.com/todays_news/Daily/2011/Apr11/041111/041211-06.shtml
NJ Energy Master Plan Due Shortly
EDISON, NJ – The long-awaited New Jersey Energy Master Plan will likely be issued with in “the next month or so,” but might be slightly different from just a month ago, said the state’s Board of Public Utilities president, Lee A. Solomon, at NAIOP NJ’s seminar on “Renewable Energy, Part II: Solar and Energy-Efficient Systems for Office and Industrial Buildings, held today at the Sheraton Edison Hotel.
One factor for the delay is the controversial Long-Term Capacity Agreement Pilot Program signed into law by Gov. Chris Christie in February, he said. The program encourages the development of new electric generation facilities in the state and establishes minimum capacity prices for payments to eligible generators. Some have questioned the program’s impact on renewable energy projects and capacity pricing incentives. “We didn’t think it was prudent to introduce this expensive a plan without the statistics of LCAPP,” Solomon says. “It is voluminous, intricate, involved, and will have to be assimilated into the master plan for it to be completed.”
Nuclear power, once considered an important element, is now being rethought in light of the crisis the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, which today was ranked as a level seven situation, the top of the scale. According to Solomon, 30% of New Jersey’s energy comes from nuclear power, the only non-carbon source of energy. “We cannot meet carbon reduction targets without nuclear,” he said. “But that requires deep consideration in light of what has happened in Japan. Those factors have put us behind.”
The Garden State has some of the highest energy rates in the nation, Solomon notes, a real competitive disadvantage given that energy is the second highest expenditure for any business in the state, after labor. “Frankly, states like Pennsylvania and West Virginia have been eating our lunch,” Solomon said. Unfortunately, he observed, the state’s density helps keep prices high.
If you would like to read more please visit: http://www.globest.com/news/1891_1891/newjersey/308969-1.html
New Jersey Green Association
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