Solar Panels on New Jersey's Power Poles
Here’s a blurb on New Jersey’s project to install solar PV panels on 175,000 of its power poles.
Why fuss with roof-top solar when you can use pole-tops instead? New Jersey’s Public Service Electric & Gas will soon conclude the installation of 175,000 solar panels on its power poles in New Jersey. The $200-million project will eventually supply 40 MW for the utility.
“The beauty of the panels is that there are no capital costs – we already own the poles,” said PSE&G President and COO Ralph LaRossa to the Wall Street Journal. The utility must generate 3.5% of its electricity from solar by 2021 to meet a requirement set by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.
Ahem. “No capital costs?” How about: “There are no capital costs for the land and part of the mounting?” Even with all this “beauty,” the project comes in at $5 a Watt, and with the capacity factor of PV in New Jersey, I’m sure the levelized cost of energy is extremely unattractive. It’s really not something that I would order up if I were objectively trying to do the right thing for the rate-payers. While I’m happy to have 40 mW of clean energy, I would think that if the state really wants 40 mW of PV, it could consider allocating the roughly 75 acres of land needed, instead of building 175,000 mini solar installations and sending its people up 175,000 poles to install them, not to mention maintaining them over time.
Craig,
The LCOE gets really interesting when you consider the potential lifespan. A “pole-top solar panel” is not too different from a “kite” if the winds rise too high. It’s a truly bizarre decision right after the entire state was pounded by near-hurricane force winds for nearly 24 hours just a couple of months ago.
BTW – if you consider NJ to have an average insolation of ~4 kWh/day, then the LCOE for a 20-year installation would be ~$271/MWh. If these pole-top panels were to get blown down in 5 years, then the LCOE would be ~$1084/MWh, or more than $1/kWh.
Some things are not good ideas for some regions.
The utility just wants to own the generation asset and ask the public utility commission to allow them to charge rate-payers to pay for it. A very inefficient project to be sure. Aren’t there any wind farms nearby? 175,000 solar panels coud be mounted on the south side of the wind turbine towers to increase the output of the wind farm. Most of the infrastructure is already there.
Good idea!
New Jersey (as with next-door New York City and State) is still still a terrible Green Performer. There’s no Garden State campaign to reduce energy consumption for consumers, and no slogan effort to remove anti-Green litter/debris from public roadways for NJ cities, townships, counties. Both nearby NYC and Philadelphia are on the top AMERICA’s DIRTIEST CITY (TRAVEL+LEISURE) list. Garden State mayors and public servants were exposed, even arrested, for allowing scandalous, backwards, poor environmental quality planning and service deliveries, with more grueling exposures of anti-Green fiascos after superstorm Sandy.