The county of Union, N.J., has reached an agreement for 16 of its governmental entities to install photovoltaics (PVs) in 2011. The installations are expected to save the municipalities $6.3 million in electric bill payments over the next 15 years.

Under the county’s Renewable Energy Program, it will install approximately 3.4 megawatts of solar on community centers, fire houses, libraries, parking lots and other facilities throughout the county. The installations will be managed by Tioga Energy, Inc. under a 15-year power-purchase agreement (PPA). Participating facilities will pay Tioga Energy $0.068 per kilowatt hour, compared to an average of $0.145 per kWh under current local utility rates.

The project is modeled off of a similar project in Morris County, N.J., where Tioga installed 3.22 megawatts of solar on municipal buildings.

Under the program, Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SRECs) will be owned and monetized by Tioga, the developer of the project. The company considered the price of the SRECs when it developed the PPA, according to Tioga spokesperson Sebastian Delia.

“Tioga has proposed sharing a portion of the value of the SRECs: for 30 percent SRECs sold in years 11-15 of the program Tioga is willing to share any sums received over a base price of $200,” he said.

To pay for the installations, Union County is issuing bonds.

“By issuing bonds, the Authority has kept the cost of financing low, and the savings will be passed along to the participants,” said Dan Sullivan, Freeholder chairman of Union County. “Boosting our economy is the right priority and solar energy is creating new jobs, lowering utility costs for taxpayers, and helping to clean up our environment. What could be more important than that?”

This is the first round of projects. A second may be announced at a later period.

“The first pool of the program is closed at this time,” said Delia. “There may be a possibility of adding a site or two if one or more sites are ultimately removed from the program for unforeseen issues that come to light during the due-diligence period.”

According to Delia, There is currently no schedule for the second pool of the project.

Image courtesy of NREL.