For the first time, New Jersey nabbed the top spot this year in terms of installing photovoltaic (PV) capacity, surpassing California, the country's longtime solar energy leader. Public Service Electric and Gas Co. (PSE&G), New Jersey's largest utility, has already built a hefty portion of that capacity and, by early 2013, will wrap up a four-year program to install 40 megawatts of power via telephone pole-mounted solar units. The distributed solar program, which will provide enough energy to power 6,500 homes, is the largest of its type worldwide.
"Everything we do connects straight to the distribution system," says Andrew Powers, program manager of Solar 4 All, PSE&G's program that aims to add 80 MW of solar electric generation capacity to its system by next year. The pole-mounted program will provide half of that goal with installations in more than 300 New Jersey towns that the utility serves.