By Steve Gelsi
Jersey City, N.J., may be an unlikely place to find a
utility-scale solar farm, but Petra Solar has found a way to
generate electricity from the sun even on hard-paved urban
streets.
Bolted onto street-light and utility poles across Jersey City
and other urban and suburban areas of the state, a five-foot by
two-and-a-half-foot solar panel is attached about 15 feet above the
ground, tilted south toward the sun.
Each new solar panel from the privately held South Plainfield,
N.J., clean-energy technology firm generates about 225 watts of
power, adding to generation capacity and helping utilities meet
renewable-power requirements.
"It allows you to deploy quickly and cost effectively because
you don't have to invest in land, you're not building substations
or transformers," said Petra Solar Chief Executive Shihab
Kuran.
Under a contract with Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PEG)
-- New Jersey's biggest utility -- Petra Solar is now about halfway
through its $200 million commitment to provide 40 megawatts of
solar power in six cities and 300 rural and suburban communities in
the utility's service area. So far, it's put up about 95,000 of the
panels with a total generation capacity of 20 megawatts, enough
power for 3,250 homes.
Petra Solar sells the panels to utilities, which are responsible
for maintaining them during an expected life span of 25 years.
Petra Solar says it takes just 30 minutes to install one of its
panels, which feeds its electricity directly into the utility's
power lines. Included in the gear are devices that hook up to an
AT&T (T) communications network to allow utilities to remotely
monitor their electricity lines.
The network gear helps old-school copper power wires behave more
like an Internet-based information-technology system.
"The panels help create distributed energy, which takes stress
away from central generation stations," Kuran said. "When you
generate power closer to the load, it's more effective. Also, the
smart-grid technology lets utilities have their eyes and ears open
to what they're delivering to their customers and that allows them
to deliver the right amounts of power."
Kuran said he came up with the idea to use utility poles when he
asked a prospective employee during a job interview to brainstorm
about ways to apply solar technology.
"I was challenging the candidate to think outside the box in
order to tackle the challenges we faced in New Jersey, where land
is expensive...and the labor rate is high," Kuran recalled in a
phone interview with MarketWatch. "I looked outside my window and
saw a pole. I said, 'How about if we put (the solar panel) on the
pole?' "
Panels Draw Complaints, Praise
While the panel program continues to fan out across Public
Service Electric and Gas Co.'s service area, the utility has drawn
aesthetic complaints from some residents and municipal
officials.
Robert Cotter, a director in the Division of City Planning for
Jersey City, said municipal officials held a meeting with PSE&G
to complain about Petra Solar panels upsetting the integrity of
some historic blocks. Cotter said the city has no plans to mount
any legal challenge because they would almost certainly lose.
"They agreed to remove five or six of them, but we're stuck with
them," Cotter said. "Some folks do think they're beautiful because
they help create more sustainable power. I just don't notice them
any more."
Steven Fulop, a city council member in Jersey City, said he's
heard complaints about the panels.
"It certainly distorts the streetscape and in particular the
historic districts that we have worked to protect," Fulop said. "We
have always been told the poles are owned by the power companies
and we have very little ability to stop them."
Fran Sullivan, a spokesman for PSE&G, said about 1,200 solar
panels are being put up per week under the Petra Solar
contract.
PSE&G maintains that it doesn't need a building permit or
other paperwork to put up the panels since they're placed onto
existing light and power poles.
PSE&G obtained an approval to put up the Petra Solar panels
in 2009 by a vote of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, said
John Reinert, a spokesman for the board.
In Tenafly, N.J., concerns were raised about the panels in a
historic district, and PSE&G agreed to take down some of the
units, Sullivan said.
In Wyckoff, N.J., the local building department sent out a cease
and desist letter to PSE&G on the grounds that the panels may
violate local zoning laws against communications antennas on
residential rights-of-way.
Sullivan said the company has stopped putting up solar panels in
Wyckoff and that its legal team is reviewing the letter.
"Our position is that state law provides us with the authority
to install the units," Sullivan said. "We plan to pursue this issue
with Wyckoff but hope to reach an amicable solution with them."
At the end of 2010, PSE&G counted 117.4 megawatts of solar,
including the Petra Solar panels, the utility said in a June 10
release.
Newark, N.J.-based PSE&G placed third behind Pacific Gas
& Electric (PCG) and Florida Power & Light in a ranking of
230 utilities in the amount of solar power in its service
territory, according a survey by the Solar Electric Power
Association.
-By Steve Gelsi, 415-439-6400; AskNewswires@dowjones.com