ACE, JCP&L and RECO have an SREC-Based Financing Program that is available to solar project developers. The utilities are expected to issue three RFPs (requests for proposals) per year available to solar developers in these territories for projects under 500kW with 10-15 year contracts. In theory, the program is intended to promote solar by providing reasonable assurances regarding the prices of SRECs, however, the RFPs, run by NERA Economic Consulting have not reached the targets set by the program. In the first solicitation, only 8 bids were received, the most recent one reached 44. The firms intend to increase the targets for future RFPs in order to meet the original goal of the program. As seen below, the average prices tend to be around $400/SREC, while the lowest price bid by a developer was well under $300/SREC! Although these RFPs aren’t viable for the majority of the prospective developers out there, it should serve as an indication of the long term contracts that are out there.
TweetThe New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (“Board” or “BPU”) has approved the results of the second solicitation of the SREC-Based Financing Program for ACE, JCP&L, and RECO, which was held in December 2009. The results are as follows:
Forty-four (44) bids were received, totaling 7,009.628 kW.
Thirty-nine (39) awards were made, totaling 6,521.798 kW.
Five bids (5) were rejected because pricing was found not to be competitive, totaling 487.830 kW.
The simple average NPV of all accepted projects was $2,864.93 (corresponding to an average price of $405.15/SREC for a ten-year project).
The low NPV of all accepted projects is $1,926.53 (corresponding to an average price of $272.44/SREC for a ten-year project).