The New Jersey Public Utilities Commission (NJBPU) has approved the launch of the third round of competitive solar incentive program (CSI) bidding. The CSI program aims to reduce the cost of solar energy development and encourage the development of grid scale and other eligible solar projects in New Jersey. The committee has determined that the third round of bidding for the CSI program will commence pre qualification on May 14, 2025, and the bidding deadline will be July 23, 2025. The CSI program has significantly increased the solar installed capacity in New Jersey, with a current installed capacity exceeding 5 gigawatts and reducing costs for taxpayers.

Today's action by the board of directors demonstrates the bright future of solar energy in New Jersey and reinforces the actions we have taken over the years to expand solar coverage in our great state, "said Christine Guhl Sadovy, President of the New Jersey Business Utility Association. In the past seven years, through our powerful solar energy projects, including Community Solar Energy (CSI) and Community Solar Energy, we have doubled the solar power generation of our grid. The growth of solar energy in New Jersey and the entire region has helped taxpayers save hundreds of millions of dollars in electricity bills. I am very much looking forward to how the next round of community solar projects will develop. ”

The development of clean energy in New Jersey and the entire PJM region has saved New Jersey taxpayers billions of dollars in costs. If there were no onshore wind and solar resources from PJM participating in PJM's 2024 capacity auction, the liquidation price would be about 60% higher, which would result in an additional loss of approximately $1.1 billion for New Jersey taxpayers in the coming year.

In the last CSI tender in 2024, the committee awarded over 310 megawatts of solar power generation capacity and 80 megawatt hours of energy storage capacity. These winning projects can provide sufficient electricity for 42000 households annually. This bidding highlights a significant policy achievement, which is the ability to develop large-scale solar projects in a competitive manner, thereby reducing costs for taxpayers in New Jersey. This is the cheapest solar project incentivized by the committee so far. Since 2017, New Jersey has helped taxpayers reduce solar energy costs by over 50%.

In the third bidding, in order to promote competition, the board of directors approved the proposal to adjust the capacity target of the existing power grid supply projects, allowing construction on industrial land and floating solar projects. The capacity target for the fourth batch of net metering non residential projects exceeding 5 megawatts has been reduced from 40 megawatts to 15 megawatts to encourage more companies to actively participate in bidding for other batches. The board of directors established a consistent bidding schedule and emphasized the improvement of interconnection processes to support project development, ultimately approving the targets of 300 MW of solar power generation and 160 MW of energy storage. In addition, the board's long-standing policy has been to prioritize solar power projects on land that is not suitable for other development purposes, such as warehouse roofs or repaired contaminated sites, as well as land far from important open spaces in New Jersey.