Farmland Solar Out to Pasture: BPU Approves SRECs for only 3 out of 57 New Grid-Supply Solar Farmland Projects
May 14, 2013
By: Kenneth J. Sheehan, Esq. and Cynthia L. M. Holland, Esq.
At its April 29, 2013 public agenda meeting in Trenton, the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) approved only 3 out of 57 new grid-supply solar farmland projects pending approval for solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs). The BPU issued its Order memorializing the fate of the remaining 54 projects yesterday, May 13, 2013. The BPU’s detailed Order represents final agency action denying SREC eligibility to 34 projects and deferring decision on SREC eligibility for 20 projects.
The BPU denied seven (7) projects for failure to have a PJM System Impact Study. The BPU also denied 27 applications because they “lack[ed] sufficient progress” and had “not secured all final unappealable approvals.” The BPU then found that 20 applications were not “sufficiently advanced to support [Staff’s] recommendation for approval,” but had “timely PJM issued SIS and had secured all final unappealable federal, state, and local approvals by the application deadline.” For those 20 deferred projects, the BPU found that more information was required and “additional milestones must be achieved to enable a recommendation for approval or denial based upon the project’s prospects for completion.”