N.J. solar initiative getting noticed

At first it was just one or two. But within weeks they were everywhere: outside the supermarket, the tire store, the park.

When Joe Orman left his Cherry Hill tobacco shop last week, the parking lot was empty. When he arrived Monday, a 5-by-3-foot solar panel had been attached to the utility pole at the corner of his property.

"I don't know what the hell is going on," he said. "I saw one go up across the street and wondered how they got permission to put a solar panel on a utility pole."

But it wasn't Orman's neighbor who was responsible.

Over the last month, Public Service Electric & Gas, New Jersey's largest power company, has been installing solar panels on streetlights and utility poles across its distribution network in an effort to meet a state mandate that 20 percent of electricity come from alternative energy sources by 2020.

PSE&G has plans to install 200,000 panels; about 5 percent are up so far, mostly in central New Jersey, a company spokesperson said.

"It should take about two years," she said.

As contractors move south, the addition of solar panels to already cluttered streetscapes is drawing the gaze of passing motorists.

In Cherry Hill, where panels are prominent everywhere, on busy roadways and quiet residential neighborhoods, township offices have received a number of calls from residents, said spokesman Dan Keashen.

"Mostly, people are just curious," he said.

Lori Braunstein, founder of Sustainable Cherry Hill, an environmental group, has been inundated with e-mails from friends and acquaintances praising the panels.

"To me, they're beautiful," she said. "It's what they symbolize. We have something really creative and forward-thinking in our town, and it helps me to think we're on the right track."

Elsewhere, some people consider the panels an eyesore.

In Gloucester City, Mike Stanton was outraged to see the panels go up downtown, where historic lighting and new sidewalks were just completed.

"Is this really the best place to put this? Why not put them out in the industrial areas first?" he asked.

All PSE&G-owned poles with a clear view to the south are eligible for panels, as long as they can support the weight and do not have more than one transformer, according to a company news release.

New Jersey is among the nation's leaders in alternative energy, with a solar generating capacity second only to California's.

The panels will feed electricity into the grid, creating about 40 megawatts of power. That represents about a 40 percent increase over New Jersey's current solar capacity, largely created over the last four years through state and federal rebates on solar installations for businesses and homeowners.

With the 2020 mandate in mind, power companies are working on a variety of projects across the state.

But with the new technology comes bigger electricity bills. The program to put solar panels on utility poles is expected to raise residential bills up to 34 cents a month.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, which regulates power companies, estimates that energy spending in the state will climb 56 percent by 2020 through a combination of increasing fossil-fuel costs and the implementation of alternative energy technologies.

That is a sore point for Orman, who has watched his shop's electricity bill steadily climb to $500 to $600 a month since he opened Churchill's Tobacco on Kings Highway in 1984.

"They play. We pay. That you can quote me on," he said.