Trump may kill dozens of NJ clean energy projects already delayed for years

New Jersey is poised to add a significant amount of clean energy to the electrical grid in the coming years. But those projects are now in jeopardy due to long delays by the regional grid operator and the Trump administration’s efforts to kill financial incentives for the solar industry.

New Jersey currently has 33 large-scale, shovel-ready solar projects awaiting approval by PJM, the electrical grid operator that decides which projects are able to connect to the grid. The projects would provide more than 500 megawatts of power, enough to power at least 10,000 homes.

But the earliest some projects will be approved is the end of next year, PJM told Gothamist. Many could take a year or 18 months longer to get approval.

That poses a financial problem for the solar energy companies behind the projects. President Donald Trump’s tax-and-spending law mandates that large-scale solar projects like the dozens waiting for PJM approval have to start construction by the end of 2026 or miss out on a lucrative 30% tax credit.

Lyle Rawlings, president and CEO of New Jersey-based commercial solar installation firm Advanced Solar Products and cofounder of the Mid-Atlantic Solar and Storage Industries Association, said solar projects that can’t start before Trump’s deadline could be imperiled.

“If you cut out 30% of the support of the cost of the project, that's going to make most projects unviable,” he said. The mood among other solar company leaders he’s in contact with is “ominous” and “very gloomy," he added.

New Jersey electricity prices skyrocketed 20% this summer and are expected to rise even higher next year. An analysis by think tank Energy Innovations projected Trump’s law would increase utility bills in the state by 5% over the next decade.

State policymakers and industry insiders agree the key to driving down costs is boosting energy supply. Gov. Phil Murphy and eight other governors from states where PJM operates have called out the grid operator for running an inefficient approval process they say is driving up costs for consumers.

PJM spokesperson Jeffrey Shields declined to comment on how Trump’s policies could impact the viability of the New Jersey projects. The state is facing increased demands for electricity from both residential and industrial customers at the same time as the grid authority has been slow to green-light new supply.

Anything that prevents new energy generation won’t help the grid operator meet increasing electricity demand, Shields said.

“PJM has been very consistent in our position that we need every megawatt of generation we can get right now to balance supply and demand,” he said.

The Trump administration did not respond to a request to comment on the tax-and-spending law's impacts on New Jersey solar initiatives.

How much NJ energy is waiting in the queue?

A total 77 projects in New Jersey are awaiting PJM's approval, according to the company’s publicly available data. More than half — 47 — are clean energy initiatives.

Those include both solar and proposed offshore wind developments. The rest are either battery storage or natural gas facilities.

Only one of the projects is scheduled to complete the approval process by the end of this year, according to PJM’s timeline for clearing its backlog. If all 77 were approved, they would add more than 15,000 megawatts of energy to the grid. That’s enough to power about 10% of PJM's entire regional footprint — 13 states plus Washington, D.C. — on a hot summer day.

More than 11,000 of those megawatts are for offshore wind, which faces its own unique barriers given the constraints Trump has placed on the wind energy sector. In January, the president issued an executive order pausing federal leases and permitting for offshore wind power projects.

Shields said it’s unlikely all of the projects will be approved, in part because of a more rigorous vetting process PJM implemented in recent years to prevent unrealistic and speculative projects from being submitted.

Out of 140,000 megawatts' worth of projects systemwide that have been reviewed in recent years, he said, only 18,000 megawatts' worth were approved. He said projects that weren’t approved either were voluntarily withdrawn or failed to meet the milestones in the company’s process.

It is really frustrating that consumers are paying the price for poor planning.

Clara Summers,  Consumers for a Better Grid campaign manager

Another 33 projects have been green-lit but have yet to be completed, according to a list of ongoing energy projects in New Jersey that PJM shared with Gothamist.

They’re projected to add nearly 2,700 megawatts to the grid, though it’s unclear when any will be up in running. According to PJM, 20 of the projects are in the “engineering and procurement” phase, which means they have yet to begin construction. Five are currently suspended for reasons PJM did not disclose.

If the company sticks to the timeline and does not finish vetting all 77 projects until late 2026 or beyond, it will have taken at least four years — and in some cases up to six — for each project to complete the company’s approval process.

Why is it taking so long?

Kyle Mason, an associate planner with the nonprofit Regional Plan Association, said a proliferation of clean energy projects over the past decade tripled the number of project applications in PJM’s queue between 2018 to 2021.

“That caused a breakdown of the queue itself, leading to a pause of new applications,” he said.

PJM has been trying to clear the logjam since 2022. But some energy advocates say the grid operator is not working fast enough.

“ These developers have been waiting for years to get the nod from PJM to start building, and uncertainty is a project killer,” said Alex Ambrose, an energy policy analyst with progressive think tank New Jersey Policy Perspective.

Clara Summers,  campaign manager for Consumers for a Better Grid, cited a recent Natural Resources Defense Council study showing that if 30% of the renewable projects stuck in the interconnection queue for at least five years were operational, they would add 7 gigawatts of supply to the grid.

“ It is really frustrating that consumers are paying the price for poor planning decisions by PJM,” Summers said.

Some industry players say the protracted approval process — while not ideal — is manageable.

Grant Glazer, senior manager of regulatory and market affairs at solar and battery storage firm MN8 Energy, said his company has multiple projects awaiting approval by PJM. Glazer said the grid operator has stuck to the schedule it outlined to clear the backlog.

“Do I wish that the process could go faster? Yes. But I don't know how,” he said. “PJM has, frankly, followed, for the most part, best practices in designing the new [approval] process.”

But, Glazer added, getting that approval is just one step in a long process.

”That basically kicks off a three- to sometimes up to six-year construction process,” he said.