Gov. Mikie Sherrill was joined by NJBIA President & CEO Michele Siekerka, as well as labor, business and environmental leaders for an official ribbon-cutting on Friday for a state-run community solar project in Phillipsburg that allows residential customers who subscribe to save up to 25% on their electric bills. 
“Utility rates are too high, and they’re going up, and we don’t have enough (power generation) capacity, which is why we’re trying to build that out as quickly as possible,” Sherrill said standing outdoors before an array of 8,000 solar panels at Active Solar Development LLC, located on a former landfill site in Warren County. 
“I declared a state of emergency to freeze utility costs and utility rate hikes, but we also need more capacity so we can drive down costs over time, and this solar project is a great way to do that,” Sherrill said. “We’re going to keep building out capacity. We’re going to modernize our natural gas. We’re going to explore new opportunities for nuclear. But the quickest, cheapest, cleanest way to get more capacity right away is solar and battery storage.” 
Cutting government red tape that has stalled clean energy projects and caused unnecessary delays in bringing them online is also key to this effort, Sherrill said.  
“Some of our solar projects have been waiting eight months or more for permitting, and so that’s why I made an executive order declaring that we are going to take major steps to expand energy production and to drive down permitting and bureaucracy,” the governor said. 
Sherrill noted that just this week, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities opened applications for 3,000 megawatts of new community solar projects that will enable homeowners who cannot install solar panels on their roofs, renters and people in muti-family housing buildings to subscribe and receive savings of 15% to 25% on their electric bills. 
Siekerka noted NJBIA’s support for a comprehensive overall energy policy that includes clean energy projects such as community solar and battery storage, as well as natural gas and nuclear power. NJBIA has also long advocated for permitting reform to cut the regulatory red tape, allowing for the expeditious connection of grid-scale solar and battery facilities.  
“Today’s announcement shows that clean energy and economic growth are not mutually exclusive, but rather working complements, strengthening our economy, driving business growth, creating good jobs, empowering communities and showcasing the power of strong public private partnerships,” Siekerka said. “It’s a win, win, and a win.” 
Frank McCleneghen, founder of Active Solar, said 100% of the subscribers at the Phillipsburg site are residential customers, and all are getting a 25% discount off their electric bills. 
“We had 80 union workers and 11 apprentices working on this job from the various labor unions,” McCleneghen said, adding that workers were paid $1.88 million in wages and benefits. 
“This is a great testimony to what we can do with these projects,” McCleneghen said.  
BPU President Christine Guhl-Sadovy said New Jersey residents who want to find out more about how to lower their electric bills by subscribing to a state-run community solar project in their area can go to the BPU’s Community Solar webpage for more information. 
 
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