The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities holds a fund of 124 million dollars per year for solar and other technologies that save electricity.  The rebates are paid out of this fund.

The Board collects the funds from New Jersey’s 5 local electric utility companies.  The utilities obtain the funds from us (the rate payers ) in the form of a small tariff on the electric bill each month.

The New Jersey Clean Energy Program (NJCEP) was created in 2000 under the NJ Electric Discount and Energy Competition Act (EDECA) by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) to administer this program.  The purpose of the program is  to create a renewable energy marketplace in a de-regulated environment.  The program also provides education, information and financial incentives to promote solar energy.

JCP&L (First Energy) and PSE&G, our North and Central New Jersey utility companies, promulgated “Net Metering” procedures and “Interconnection Standards” as mandated under EDECA so your solar system is “connected” to the grid and get credit for the electricity your panels are generating.
 

GREEN TAGS

Also part of EDECA, the state mandates that utilities generate 4% of its electricity from renewable sources and comply with a “Renewable Portfolio Standards."  This is where the green tags or solar renewable energy credits comes in. Since the utilities cannot build the renewable source fast enough, they buy green tags from you, the solar generator to help them comply with EDECA.

You can list your green tags on the NJCEP website and wait for a utility to buy from you or sign up with Mainstay.

Depending on the size of your system you can get paid $1,000 to $4,000 over a five year period for your green tags.  Its simple, you e-mail in the production of the system and they mail you a check.  This benefit is on top of you only paying for 30% of the system.

At present, green tag rates are going up.. (more demand than supply) and the Rebate will likely go down in September – November of 2004.