Solar Landscape announced that it has energized its eighth community solar project awarded under New Jersey’s Community Solar Pilot Program Year One, marking the completion of the entire 20MW portfolio that the company was awarded in 2019.
The final installation is located at World Harvest Church in Pennsauken, New Jersey, just east of Philadelphia. Just like the rest of the company’s 20MW Year One portfolio, the electricity generated by the World Harvest Church project will provide energy primarily to low- to moderate-income households, a provision required by state law.
“This is a milestone for New Jersey’s progress in community solar,” said Solar Landscape CEO Shaun Keegan. “Together with our partners across the state, we are bringing affordable solar energy to thousands of people who thought they could never get it, either because they don’t own their home, they live in a place where solar panels aren’t an option or because they lack the financial resources to install them.”
Looking ahead, Solar Landscape’s 46 projects for Year Two of the program are now under construction and are expected to generate more than 50MW of power once operational.
Solar Landscape’s 50MW portfolio represents roughly one-third of all capacity awarded under year two of the community solar program. The program has also been subject to some changes in this second year, as regulators look to reduce time and costs for developers looking to enroll customers in the program.
The changes mainly focus on easing enrollment — simplifying the rules used to verify which customers qualify as low- and moderate-income residents. If the new rules are approved, developers will no longer have to obtain potential subscribers’ two previous years of federal tax returns.
In October 2021, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities announced that it would be making the program permanent, driven by the pilot’s success so far.
Scott Elias, senior manager of state affairs, mid-Atlantic for the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), said that the trade group is working with the state to develop a program that adds at least 150MW of solar energy capacity each year.
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