SENATE BUDGET AND APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

[First Reprint]

SENATE, No. 4944

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  DECEMBER 15, 2025

      The Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 4944 (1R).

      As reported, 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.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      The Office of Legislative Services concludes that this bill will have an indeterminate impact on State revenues and an indeterminate effect on energy costs for the State and local governments.

      The bill is expected to accelerate solar energy development by removing regulatory barriers, streamlining interconnection processes, and expanding project eligibility, which could generate additional State tax revenues.  The magnitude of any State revenue increase cannot be quantified due to insufficient data regarding how many additional projects will result from the bill’s provisions.