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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Morris County, New Jersey Creates First of its Kind Regional Approach to Renewable Energy Development |
MORRIS COUNTY, NJ, AUGUST 7, 2009 -- /WORLD WIRE/ -- The Morris County Improvement Authority, with the assistance
of its legal counsel, DeCotiis, FitzPatrick, Cole & Wisler, LLP,
and its financial and energy consultants, ACACIA Financial
Group, Inc., Gabel Associates and Metro Energy Solutions,
have developed the first regional renewable energy program
in New Jersey.The Authority's Program allows municipal governments, school districts, branches of County government and independent local government entities within the County (i.e., sewerage authorities), to receive the benefits of renewable energy.  DeCotiis has engineered the Authority hybrid Program to allow the
Authority to utilize its low cost financing to provide a lower
cost of capital to private solar developers to design, permit,
construct, operate and maintain solar panel systems on structures owned by local government entities participating in the Program. In exchange for housing the solar systems, the local government entities will receive electricity generated by the systems at a price below current tariff rates for a period of fifteen (15) years. This infusion of clean renewable energy will satisfy approximately twenty-five percent (25%) of the energy needs of the participating local government entities facilities and will provide some budgetary certainty to an aspect of facility operations that has been notoriously unpredictable.
The hybrid Authority Program combines the low cost County guaranteed Authority issued bonds with certain Federal tax incentives available to private developers, but otherwise unavailable to government entities, and New Jersey's Solar Renewable Energy Certificates to generate below tariff rates. The Authority has received overwhelming interest from government entities within the County wishing to participate in the Program. To date, the Authority has received expressions of interest from over forty-four (44) government entities totaling seven (7) million square feet of roof space. Similarly, the Authority has also fielded inquires from numerous local and national firms interested in participating on the private solar developer side of the Program. On July 16, 2009, the Improvement Authority issued a Request for Proposals seeking a private solar developer for the first pool of participating government entities, consisting of sixteen (16) government facilities estimated to be able to support solar systems capable of generating 3..3 MW. A copy of the Improvement Authority's Request for Proposals can be viewed at http://www.co.morris.nj.us/improvement/. At a pre-proposal conference held by the Improvement Authority on July 27, 2009, thirty-five (35) private firms attended to pose questions concerning the Program and express their interest in submitting proposals. The Authority will be receiving proposal on August 31, 2009. Contact: John Bonanni County Administrator County of Morris Administration & Records Building P.O. Box 900 Morristown, NJ 07963-0900 (973) 285-6040 jbonanni@co.morris.nj.us Stephen B. Pearlman, Esq. / Ryan J. Scerbo, Esq. DeCotiis, FitzPatrick, Cole & Wisler, LLP. Glenpointe Centre West 500 Frank W. Burr Boulevard Teaneck, NJ 07666 (201)-928-1100 SPearlman@decotiislaw.com www.decotiislaw.com |
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