The passage this week of rules allowing small clean generators to use the New Jersey power grid, and to increase renewable energy usage in New York, could turn the Northeast into a new hotbed of clean technology development, according to clean energy experts.
This past week, New Jersey passed the simplest state standards yet seen for connecting clean "distributed generation" units like fuel cells or solar panels to the grid, and letting their users get the same amount back from the utility for power going out as what they pay for power coming in. This came on top of existing, strong incentives for clean energy devices.
"Where once the customer might have to fill out an application that ran on for hundreds of pages, now it's a two-page application," noted Tom Leyden, Vice President of PowerLight Corporation, a large solar systems integrator.
"In the past, solar owners might be required to pay thousands of dollars in fees for utilities to study the impact of renewable systems on the grid network…that's been eliminated. " New York, in turn, approved a standard requiring utilities to provide one quarter of their electricity from renewable sources, and singling out behind-the-meter technologies for accelerated incentives.
"With the Federal government not moving on clean energy issues, it's a race among the states to see who can attract these industries," said Rhone Resch, Executive Director of the Solar Energy Industries Association. "New York and New Jersey have the vision, the workforce, and the manufacturing base to be at the center of all this." John Tuttle of DayStar Technologies had commented at their gala opening "Governor Pataki's demonstrated commitment to advancing renewable energy technologies is consistent with our fundamental objective. Further, the sophisticated academic and technology resources in Albany's Tech Valley played a major role in our decision to move to New York."
In just the past months, the Rochester Institute of Technology announced a new research agreement with BP Solar, a new Dutchess County factory opened by solar shingle manufacturer Atlantis Energy, and a major manufacturer of next-generation "thin film" solar cells opened in Halfmoon, NY by California emigrant DayStar Technologies. New Jersey is seeing similar growth, as large commercial solar systems sprout on building operated by Johnson and Johnson and others.
With the more than four billion dollar solar industry growing by a third each year, these states could be at the forefront of clean technology research visionary policies like those enacted over the last two weeks could parlay these old economy giants into new economy superstars.
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