Final NJCEP 2006 Budget and September 2006 CORE Queue Greater Than 10 kWp Solar Rebate Applications

First, on September 14, 2006, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) approved the final NJCEP 2006 Budget allocating an additional $48.5 million for new commitments to the CORE Queue GT (Greater Than) 10kW for Private Sector Installations. However, the new funding is not reflected in this queue release.

I decided to take a closer look at the September 15, 2006, release of the CORE (Customer On-site Renewable Energy) Rebate Commitment Queue GT 10 kW thinking this would be a simple exercise. My initial impression that the queue was being maintained in a cumulative fashion was wrong. About 109 solar rebate applications were removed from the queue versus the last release on May 3, 2006. I believe these applications were either withdrawn or resized per a CORE policy capping rebates to the first 10kWp of system capacity for residential single family homes. Per a note at the header of the CORE Queue, once resized, the solar rebate applications were moved to the CORE Queue LT (Less Than) 10kW.

As a result, the total number of solar rebate applications in the September 15, 2006, CORE Queue GT 10kW is 199, down from 306 in the May 3, 2006, release. Only five (5) applications in the queue have been approved: GT10PVT-0002, GT10PVT-0003, GT10PVT-0018, GT10PVT-0019, and GT10PVT-0031. Although these rebates were approved in November 2005 and January 2006, the approvals were not indicated in the May 3, 2006, version of the CORE Queue.

Thirteen (13) new applications were added to the end of the queue. Two applications of mysterious origin were inserted earlier into the queue: GT10PVT-0031 and GT10PVT-0236A. I can only guess these applications were corrections or reclassifications. Three (3) additional applications were cancelled, and twenty-four (24) applications were denied.

I decided to postpone a more rigorous analysis of this CORE Queue until the new funding is allocated in the next CORE Queue release.

And one can in fact subscribe to New Jersey's Clean Energy Program™ (NJCEP) Newsletter for information on NJCEP programs, news, and website updates. Unfortunately, the last newsletter posted on the website appears to be from February 2006 so I can't confirm if a newsletter was issued in September 2006.