Many businesses, organizations, and real estate owners are considering solar energy for their buildings as a way to reduce their energy bill or create a new revenue stream while marking their environmental and social commitment to their communities and stakeholders.

Solar energy incentives come and go, and are, more often than not, positioned with an extremely urgent message such as “this is the last chance!”, inducing anxiety and distrust among potential buyers. 

However, the upcoming change to New Jersey’s current solar energy program is not a “boy who cried wolf” situation. While solar energy in New Jersey will still offer great value after the change, we advise those considering solar in the next 12 months to seriously consider acting now. Here’s why:

• New Jersey offers the most advantageous solar program in the country and regulators are now working to reduce it (make it less advantageous) to align with the cost reduction of solar panels
• The current New Jersey TREC program offers nearly free electricity, and/or 3-4 years return on investment
• The new program will be announced in late June/ early July and will go into effect 30 days after the announcewment. 
• It will offer nearly 50% lower returns than the existing TREC program
• Organizations with 100,000 square feet of roof or ground space could be leaving $75,000 in annual passive revenue on the table

Even better: It’s not too late to start the application process before the deadline. But, buyer beware! 

If solar energy installers are pressuring prospective clients to sign quickly, we advise against falling for these sales techniques.

Having a single provider apply on behalf of the business, organization, or real estate owner will commit them to work directly with that solar provider who may not be the best fit for their project needs, not offer the best system price, share fallacies of “losing the incentive if you switch installer”, or, worst of all, leverage their exclusivity into price increases down the road. 

Instead, organizations and real estate owners can easily apply for themselves or use a third-party consultant to own the application, keeping the ball in their court. All that’s needed to apply to the program is a solar system design and a few technical forms filed with New Jersey Clean Energy Power. The cost of the application is free.

If you are interested in learning more, please contact Holt Gollatz at 484-632-4300/ holt.gollatz@solarkal.com