Official Site of The State of New Jersey
Landfill to Solar Incentive Programs
Landfill to Solar Incentive Programs
Step One: Determine if your municipality has eligible landfill sites
Visit the Department of Environmental Protection's Solar Siting Tool to see if you have potentially eligible landfill sites in your municipality. You can search by your municipality and select the "Solid Waste Landfills" component layer to see the location of all landfills in your area. You can also view other prefered siting areas such as brownfield development areas using the tool.
Step Two: Learn about the incentive programs available to you
Interested municipalities with landfill sites may be able to combine two of New Jersey’s incentive programs to fund solar development projects on these sites. The Brownfields Redevelopment Incentive covers remediation costs while the Community Solar Energy Program supports the costs of developing new solar facilities for projects up to 5MW or co-located projects up to a total of 10 MW in size, on uncapped municipal landfills.
For Uncapped Landfills...
The Brownfields Redevelopment Incentive provides a one-time transferrable tax credit to incentivize environmental remediation, abatement, and demolition activities that will allow for the redevelopment of brownfields sites.
Pursuant to the Brownfields Redevelopment Incentive Program Act, covered remediation activities include work needed to cap landfill sites, and solar projects are eligible to receive tax credits in the amount of 100% of the costs of remediating and capping the landfill, up to a maximum of $8 to $12 million.
If your project is less than 5 MW in size...
The Community Solar Energy Program (CSEP) provides incentives to eligible community solar facilities to enable the continued efficient and orderly development of solar electric generating sources throughout New Jersey. One of the eligible site types for this program is landfills.
The CSEP is open to projects up to 5 MW in size. Pursuant to the proposed rules and Board order issued August 14, 2024, the CSEP allows co-location of community solar projects (as well as community solar and remote net metered projects) on uncapped municipally-owned landfills up to a total combined size of 10 MW.
If your project is greater than 5 MW in size and connected to the transmission system…
The Competitive Solar Incentive (CSI) Program provides incentives to larger solar facilities. The CSI Program is open to qualifying grid supply solar facilities, non-residential net metered solar installations with a capacity greater than five (5) megawatts (“MW”), and to eligible grid supply solar facilities installed in combination with energy storage. One tranche of the CSI program is reserved for projects located on landfill and other brownfield sites, meaning that these projects do not compete on price with projects located on open space or the built environment.
Step Three: Apply for these incentive programs
Submit a separate application to each of the Brownfields Redevelopment Program and the Community Solar Energy Program or Competitive Solar Incentive program through their respective sites. Please note that the application periods for these incentive programs vary. You can determine if these programs are currently accepting applications at the links below.
Visit the application page for the Brownfields Redevelopment Program
Determine your Eligibility
Visit the application page for the Community Solar Energy Program
Apply Here
Visit the application page for the Competitive Solar Incentive Program
Apply HereQuestions or want to learn more
Have questions? Need more information? Reach out to us.
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