Sunny days boost solar electricity output in NJ

All the sunny weather this summer has been good for solar power. It’s been a boost for a New Jersey utility that has installed small panels all around the state.

All the sunny weather this summer has been good for solar power. It’s been a boost for a New Jersey utility that has installed small panels all around the state.

PSE&G has installed about a fifth of the 200-thousand solar panels it plans to put atop utility poles by the end of 2013. Company vice president Al Matos says electricity output from those panels is about ten percent higher than expected thanks to all the sunny days in recent weeks.

“It would not be fair to say that the small amount of solar that we’re creating right now is actually helping maintain the grid, but in a very small way it is by maintaining voltage and maintaining reliability so that we don’t have to import a lot of electricity from the West for example.”

Most of those utility pole solar panels are now in south and central Jersey. Plans call for them to be installed as far north as Bergen County. While the cost of installing the panels is higher than traditional fossil fuels, Matos says their price is down about 30 percent since September.