New Jersey Approves $446 Million Solar Investment

        New Jersey state regulators had approved a proposal brought up by the utility company, Public Service Electric & Gas (PSE&G), which the plan triggered permission granted to go ahead on two projects increasing the involvement and usage of solar power. The two projects will both be financed by an incremental increase in customers' utility bills.
         According to Associated Press reports, the first project consists of offering nearly $200 million in loans to commercial and residential areas to install solar power systems in their buildings. The second project will help finance an extension of the utility's Solar4All program through 2016 that helps to develop solar installations primarily on unused landfills and former industrial sites, known as brownfields.
          However, the state-appointed advocate for utility customers has criticized the landfill decision as creating an unfair market advantage for PSE&G since the company is expected to recover its costs through rate increases. In return, New Jersey had, instead, approved the proposal under the conditions that adjustments be made in PSE&G's utility rates such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, raising electric bills for residential customers by $11.45 a year and costs to the same gas customers by $2.18 annually.

India is installing Solar Power

            Mercom Capital Group, a clean energy consulting company, has announced that India is most likely installing 1300-1400 megawatts of solar power this year. They also claimed that India has installed 980 megawatts last year than the expecting number of 1,090 megawatts. Mercom Capital Group's CEO and Co-Founder Raj Prabhu has said "the difference was largely due to delays in Gujurat  to commission 144.5 megawatts of photovoltaic projects."
           The installations accumulating in India currently is said to be over 1,200 megawatts and if Mercom's predictions are correct: India is likely to add to the number 1,300 to 1,400 more megawatts of solar power. The Indian solar power installations, however, has been arranged and overseen by Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSU), which also holds a goal to install 20,000 megawatts of solar power by 2022, and various state policies and state RPOs (renewable portfolio obligations). Renewable portfolio obligations are regulations that requires increased production of energy from renewable energy resources such as wind, solar, biomass and giothermal.
         Meanwhile, global solar installation numbers for 2012 are likely to be in the 30-32 gigawatt range and in 2013, solar installations may possibly hit 34.5 gigawatts of solar power. Prabhu also notes that "based on current forecasts, it looks like the significant share of installations in 2013 will come from emerging markets like China, Japan, and India."

Villagers inspect solar panels at the Gujurat Solar Park in Charanka village, in Gujurat state. Research suggests that the state, along with Rajasthan and Karnataka, is flooded with enough sunlight to accommodate large solar power plants.