New Jersey awards 16 farm-solar projects totaling 52 megawatts with farmland, soil and wetlands conditions
On August 12, 2026 the Board of Public Utilities conditionally approved 16 dual-use solar projects in eight counties and denied one on wetlands grounds. Awardees face 30- and 90-day filing deadlines, a state permitting meeting, and 15 years of annual farm reporting.
On August 12, 2026 the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU), in Docket No. QO23090679 and related project dockets, conditionally approved 16 projects totaling 52.06 megawatts (direct current) in the first solicitation of the Dual-Use Solar Energy Pilot Program, which implements the Dual-Use Solar Energy Act of 2021, P.L. 2021, c. 170, and the Board's rules at N.J.A.C. 14:8-13. The order records 17 applications. It denied one, a 4.99 MW project in Hunterdon County (NJDURE1562046741, Docket QO25020042), because, as the order records, the project did not provide sufficient information to show that the proposed area was not wetlands as mapped by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP), and the applicant provided neither a letter of interpretation nor a waiver petition.
N.J. Bd. of Pub. Utils., In re Dual-Use Solar Energy Pilot Program, Docket No. QO23090679 and related dockets (Aug. 12, 2026); P.L. 2021, c. 170; N.J.A.C. 14:8-13.6(b), 14:8-13.9(e)(6)