Out of a total of $360.8 million in clean energy funding approved Wednesday by the Board of Public Utilities, just $2 million is allocated for renewable energy, according to state budget documents.
David Giambusso reports in Politico New Jersey
The board voted Wednesday to approve the straw budget proposal presented last month by the Office of Clean Energy. While the amount for renewables seems paltry in comparison to the total, energy efficiency, which is often considered a form of clean energy, got the lion’s share of funding, with a total of $184.7 million.
State officials seemed to anticipate criticism over the low amount of renewable funding and addressed it in the May budget proposal.
“The funding requested in this [budget] for renewable energy programs in New Jersey is a fraction of the total contribution made by ratepayers to support the development of renewable energy,” state officials said. “It does not include other costs, such as the cost of compliance with NJ’s [renewable portfolio standard], as well as the value provided through net metering of customer-sited renewables and utility managed [programs].”
Distributed energy programs, which usually take the form of microgrids and energy storage, often also include renewable resources, such as solar energy. Those programs received $23 million in funding from the state.
Administration of the clean energy program received $12.5 million.
Like this? Use form in upper right to receive free updates
See popular posts from the last 30 days in right column — >>
