Two years after New Jersey eclipsed Connecticut as the hotspot for solar energy installations in the Northeast, new incentives could move Connecticut out from the shadows ”“ and not a moment too soon for its small array of solar panel companies.
As part of a law authorizing the creation of a Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, legislators approved new funding for at least 30 megawatts of solar capacity. A new Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority is also required to identify barriers to the development of a permanent Connecticut-based solar workforce.
California and New Jersey were the runaway leaders in photovoltaic system installations in 2010, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association”™s annual review of the sector published in May, with New York and Connecticut not cracking the top 10.
Nationwide, the solar market grew to reach $6 billion in 2010, up from $3.6 billion the year before. Non-residential installations were slow to recover from the financial crisis and remained somewhat tepid through the first half of 2010, SEIA stated, but as new incentives came online and conditions for project finance improved, so did the non-residential sector. In the fourth quarter, non-residential installations reached 127 megawatts, a near doubling over the first quarter pace.
Still, SEIA adds that it expects a significant impact from the expiration of some federal incentives under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
A year ago, former Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed a midnight effort to pass an energy bill introduced days before the scheduled end of the 2010 legislative session, on grounds the bill would ultimately increase energy bills in Connecticut. Less than a year later, a field engineer with Wilton-based Alteris Renewables testified that the lack of new funding forced the company to let go half of its installers in Connecticut, even as business boomed in New Jersey.
“In 2010 the number of commercial installations dropped to zero,” Alteris”™ Robert Miller said. “We let go all of our temp workers. We also let go half of our installers; I kept my three best installers.
“At the end of 2010 with no new projects residential or commercial being sold (in Connecticut), even this core workforce was broken up,” he said. “One went into the service department; one went to New Jersey to supervise installations there; the third was laid off ”¦ Most of our work is now in New Jersey or Massachusetts.”
Alteris is one of 14 companies approved by the state to install solar paneling on residences in Connecticut, along with Brookfield-based Ross Solar Group whose employee Stephan Hartmann expressed it plainer yet in his own testimony.
“Connecticut is my home, but New Jersey has become my livelihood,” Hartmann said.
The boom-or-bust cycle criticized by Miller and Hartmann appears to now be swinging to boom times again ”“ and not just for residential installers. Even before the new law was in place, the owners of Matrix Corporate Center in Danbury were laying the foundation for rooftop panels to supply about 5 percent of the energy needs of the 1.2 million-square-foot office building, according to Aaron Smiles, director of operations for the company. He said Matrix Corporate Center would have ordered more panels, save for a provision in the rules of the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund that restricts the amount of incentives that can go to any one entity.
The park has also considered installing geothermal systems, Smiles said.
