Cherry Hill Township taking three big steps to support solar and deal with residents' electric bill sticker shock.

A program aimed at promoting solar energy in Cherry Hill as a cheaper alternative to skyrocketing PSE&G electric bills was unveiled by Township Council at its Monday meeting.

"Electricity bills are soaring across the state," Brian Bauerle, chief of staff for Mayor David Fleisher, said in an interview on Tuesday with 70and73.com. "We view ourselves as a leader in sustainability and looking for opportunities" for energy conservation, he added.

The Township's initiative includes encouraging more of the owners or renters of the 30,124 housing units in town to sign up to become solar energy customers.

Council also passed on first reading an amendment to Township zoning laws that would make Community Solar projects a permitted use as long as they are connected to an existing use, such as a building or parking lot. The zoning law change now goes to the Planning Board and then back to Council for a public hearing and final approval, likely in December.

"We are taking a very thoughtful three-pronged approach to implement Community Solar in Cherry Hill," Fleisher said in a statement.

"Educating our residents on the existing solar programs, updating our zoning ordinance to better support Community Solar projects and exploring our own municipal-led Community Solar program are important pieces to helping our residents realize energy savings," Fleisher said.

Informing residents about solar options

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities now has a Community Solar energy program that allows homeowners and renters in the state to apply to have their electricity provided by Community Solar companies.

The Community Solar Program, limited to electricity customers who do not have a solar array on site, draws power from solar projects across the state and not necessarily in the communities where its customers are located. "We want to encourage residents to make themselves aware of the BPU solar program," Bauerle said. 

Low- and moderate-income customers are targeted with the program, but all customers may apply. 

Exploring a municipal solar program

Council on Monday night agreed to bring in consultant Gabel Associates of Highland Park to help determine the feasibility of setting up a municipal solar program, which would provide lists of customers in town to solar energy providers. Cherry Hill would be among the first municipalities in the state to offer the program, Bauerle said.

Bauerle said the Township believes the municipal program could count on even greater savings than offered by the BPU program. The one-stop-shopping for customers would be more efficient than the BPU program, where customers sign up to be contacted.

"This initiative, designed to benefit low- and moderate-income households, would provide identified eligible residents with automatic enrollment in Community Solar projects and direct savings on their monthly electric bills," according to the Township. The program "will also actively encourage residents who may not qualify as LMI households to explore current enrollment opportunities in private community solar project available through the BPU website."

The cost of Gabel Associates' consulting and the program itself would be financed by the participating solar energy companies and not the Township, he said.

Bauerle said he expects the feasibility study and requests for proposals from solar companies will take a few months.

Encouraging Community Solar projects in town

Cosmas Diamantis, the Cherry Hill municipal attorney and former director of community development, said the proposed zoning law change reflects the interest of Community Solar companies in adding solar panels to buildings and parking areas in the town.

So far this year, the Township has ruled favorably on 12 different use variance applications from Community Solar developers who had to go through the approval process because it is not a permitted use in the zoning law.

"We wanted to remove a barrier to those Community Solar projects," Diamantis said. If recommended by the Planning Board and adopted by Council at the second reading, the developers would not need Township approval to add solar panels to both private and public buildings for Community Solar.

However, the solar panels cannot be a principal use for the property. In some communities, solar farms with vast expanses of solar panels have cropped up on vacant land.

"There's a lot of opportunity around the township" for Community Solar, Diamantis said in an interview.