SENATE ENVIRONMENT AND ENERGY COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

SENATE, No. 4944

with committee amendments

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  DECEMBER 11, 2025

      The Senate Environment and Energy Committee reports favorably and with committee amendments Senate Bill No. 4944.

      As amended, this bill would modify various provisions of the State’s renewable energy incentive programs and require electric public utilities to interconnect certain solar projects.

      Specifically, the bill would authorize the co-location of solar facilities that are either registered, or seeking registration or participation in, the SREC-II program, including the administratively determined incentive (ADI) portion and the competitive solicitation incentive (CSI) portion, the community solar program, the remote net metering program, or any combination of those programs.  As used in the bill, “co-location” means siting two or more SREC-II eligible solar facilities on the same property or on contiguous properties, such that the individual facilities are eligible for a higher incentive value than they would be if they were combined into one single facility.  The bill would also provide that there would be no size or power output restriction for solar facilities that are located on landfills, brownfields, contaminated sites, or mining sites for the purposes of eligibility for the community solar program or the remote net metering program. 

      The bill would provide that a project sited on a landfill, brownfield, contaminated site, or mining site that is participating in the community solar program or the remote net metering program would have no less than 33 months from the date of registration in the applicable program to achieve commercial operation.

      The bill would require electric public utilities to accept, process, and approve interconnection applications, upon receipt, for community solar or remote net metering facilities on any electric line that is sized 34.5 kilovolts or less.  The bill would also provide that any electric line maintained by an electric public utility that is sized at 34.5 kilovolts or less would be considered to be distribution lines, would be subject to Board of Public Utilities (BPU) jurisdiction, and would be eligible for interconnection by any project participating a State-sponsored solar electricity incentive program or battery energy storage program.

      The bill would amend a section of current law that provides that certain renewable energy facilities are permitted uses in municipal industrial districts, in order to include energy storage facilities within the definition of “renewable energy facility.”  Similarly, the bill would amend a section of current law that provides that solar facilities sited on landfills and closed resource extraction operations are permitted uses within every municipality.  The bill would broaden this section to include battery storage and other renewable energy facilities, and to extend to facilities sited on brownfields, contaminated sites, and mining sites.

      The bill would create an exemption for the purchase of remote net metering credits, similar renewable energy credits, or renewable energy production credits pursuant to a program administered by the BPU from the public bidding requirements of the "Local Public Contracts Law," P.L.1971, c.198 (C.40A:11-1 et seq.).

      Finally, the bill would amend the statute establishing the State’s remote net metering program, section 6 of P.L.2018, c.17 (C.48:3-87.12), to (1) raise the maximum size of projects allowed in the program from five megawatts to 20 megawatts, and (2) modify the types of properties suitable to host remote net metering solar facilities, which are listed in the statute.

COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:

      The committee amendments to the bill:

      (1) remove provisions that would have required certain developers that were approved to participate in the TREC program to register in the community solar program or the remote net metering program;

      (2) remove certain timelines and penalties that would have applied to utilities that have received an application to interconnect community solar or remote net metering facilities on electric lines that are sized 34.5 kilovolts or smaller; and

      (3) remove provisions that would have made certain renewable energy facilities eligible to receive previously awarded, but not utilized, TRECs.