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The market for New Jersey Solar Renewable Energy Certificates SRECs has moved up significantly in the last month. Prices on Flett Exchange for the 2009 vintage SRECs reached a record price of $545.00 per SREC on September 22. The current market is $523 bid, $547.50 offer with a trade done today at $540.00. This represents the immediate purchase and transfer of SRECs via the New Jersey Clean Energy Program website.
Prices for SRECs generally trend upwards during the energy year which runs June to June. This year has been particularly interesting since the SRECs generated now apply to the first year in which the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has made major changes the program. When the SREC program was first introduced a few years ago the State of New Jersey gave out money to entities who installed solar. The money was in the form of a rebate and it funded somewhere in the range of 60% to 70% of the installation cost. These entities were also eligible to sell SRECs with a cap of $300.
The Board of Public Utilities transitioned the SREC program away from relying on rebates and SRECs to SRECs only for the energy years 2009 going forward. To ensure a continued investment into solar in New Jersey they raised the cap to $711 in 2009.
The rise in value during the first 2 months of trading in the 2009 vintage SRECs is in the right direction. During the planning of the SREC program and the establishment of the new cap of $711 it was estimated that prices of SRECs would need to rise to at least above $500 with a goal of approximately $611 to keep solar installations on track.
The SREC program in New Jersey is a result of a tireless effort on the part of the Board of Public Utilities. The BPU staff spent years and countless hours in designing rules to ensure solar power generation in New Jersey at the lowest cost to the consumers.