Country Clean Paper Supplies in Ocean Township made the leap to solar energy a year ago, hoping it would eliminate its $1,800 monthly electric bill and receive credits that would provide a return on its investment.
It wasn’t long before the the credits’ value dwindled. And as much as the company has embraced the environment, its president last week sounded like he had buyer’s remorse; it will take him six years to repay what he borrowed to install the system.
“Down the road, when the loan is paid off, I’m saving $1,800 a month,” Frank Pavia said. “But I’m six years older.”
In a rare, bipartisan display, New Jersey lawmakers last month enacted a law designed to make Pavia’s investment worthwhile. It hopes to pump up demand in solar energy and help the state maintain its leadership in an industry that has reduced its dependence on fossil fuels and created thousands of jobs.
It shed light, however, on a market that nearly collapsed under the weight of its own success. It attracted more solar providers than the market could bear, forcing the state to step in and continue to subsidize the industry.
The law in a roundabout way could cost ratepayers $6 billion over the next 16 years, said Stefanie A. Brand, director of the Division of Rate Counsel, a state agency designed to protect utility customers.
Brand said she supported the law because the solar industry is relatively new and worth giving time to get its footing.
But “I don’t think it’s fair for the developers to assume that they’re going to continue to get subsidies and that ratepayers are going to ensure that (the solar industry) will never lose money,” she said. “At some point we have to take the training wheels off and let this industry move on its own.”
The Garden State’s ties to solar energy run deep; some of the biggest milestones in the industry’s development happened at Bell Labs and Fort Monmouth, said Lyle Rawlings, vice president of the Mid-Atlantic Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group.
Source:http://www.app.com/article/20120805/NJBIZ/308050010/NJ-solar-power-boom-has-been-fueled-by-ratepayer-subsidies
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