Q&A

Q. How is Built Environment defined? How do new land uses expand this?

A. The Built Environment is defined as “the surface of one or more existing, serviceable structures or serviceable, improved and impervious roadways built for a substantial purpose other than to facilitate solar development.” This project type may compete in Tranche 2. For the third CSI Program solicitation, the Board has not changed the definition of built environment; however, the Board will allow three additional land uses to compete in Tranche 2 with built environment sites, on a project cost basis. These land use types are:

1. Industrial and commercial complexes, which may have well-kept lawns and landscaped areas on which solar may be installed, ample parking areas and common roadways connecting buildings.
2. Extractive mining sites, which includes stone quarries, gravel, sand and clay pits. These sites are characterized by disturbed ground usually with depth, extractive machinery, buildings and roads for and with heavy equipment. While not considered part of the built environment, these sites do have disturbed or degraded areas where the installation of solar facilities would provide a positive environmental impact.
3. Floating solar sites

The definitions for “industrial and commercial complexes” and “extractive mining” sites may be found in the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Land Use/Land Cover classifications: https://www.nj.gov/dep/gis/digidownload/metadata/lulc15/anderson2015.html

Q. How can I determine if my project is sited on one of these new site types, or if my project is sited on a prohibited land use type?

A. To assist in identifying sites optimal for solar developer as well as those sites that may be on a prohibited land use, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection has created a Solar Siting Analysis Version 3.0 tool that includes an interactive web mapping application. This tool incorporates the prohibited land uses under the CSI Program and may be found here:

• https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/b47cb6b017da4e83a15899e9e592325e
• A video overview on how to use this tool may be found here: https://youtu.be/KZ0RA306Ths

Q. How can I determine if my CSI-eligible facility is located on prime soils or soils of statewide importance in agricultural development areas?

A. The Solar Siting Analysis 3.0 tool developed by the NJ DEP provides a data layer for state agricultural development areas.

Q. What is the available acreage of covered agricultural lands for this solicitation? How is the acreage calculated?

A. For the current round, the numbers are stated on this website. Appendix C of the Board Order launching the CSI Program lists how the available acreage is calculated for the 2.5% Statewide threshold and the county-by-county 5% development limit. A running total will not be calculated during the solicitation; following awards in this solicitation, available area totals will be updated before the next solicitation.

Q. Will the agricultural land numbers change if a county decides to reduce their ADA acreage?

A. Yes, however these numbers will only be updated between procurement rounds to reflect the latest ADA acreage.

Q. Can you please confirm a waiver is not needed for prime agricultural soils in this third round?

A. As long as thresholds for covered agricultural land are not exceeded, a waiver is not needed for projects on prime agricultural soils. For more detail, see the discussion of “Solar on Agricultural Land” in the Board Order.

Q. The Order launching the CSI Program notes “that the definition of land subject to the per county limit includes the “unpreserved” qualifier, while the statewide restriction does not. Thus, the statewide cap is proposed to be calculated by looking at preserved and unpreserved farmland, while the per-county cap is proposed to be calculated on the basis of unpreserved farmland only.” What does this mean?

A. It means that, when calculating the Statewide limit, the 2.5 percent will be applied to all farmland, both preserved and unpreserved , while for calculation of the county concentration limit, the five percent will be applied to the unpreserved farmland only; preserved farmland is excluded from the calculation. This follows the statute. Prospective bidders must consider that the specific project does not exceed the numbers provided both Statewide and county limits.Note that the numbers have been updated for this solicitation to reflect recent changes in Land Use Land Cover data.

Q. “Preserved” farmland is completely off-limits, correct? Is this part of the acreage total under the 2.5% statewide cap?

A. Both statements are correct. Preserved farmland cannot be built on, but it is included in determining 100% of “prime soils and soils of Statewide importance within ADAs” used for calculating the Statewide cap. In other words, raising the limit from 2.5% to 100% is not possible, since some of the 100% is prohibited outright.

Q. I don’t see anything about “preserved” farmland in the statewide methodology. And, in the county methodology, step 1 is to include “preserved” farmland and other excluded areas and step 2 is to “remove” it. Can you explain this further?

A. There is no specific step to account for preserved farmland in the methodology for calculating the Statewide limit, since Preserved farmland is not excluded. The exclusion of preserved farmland for the county-specific limit is what triggers the extra definition step.

Q. Do agrivoltaic projects count towards the 2.5% statewide threshold?

A. The Siting Rules for Grid Supply and Large Net Metered Solar Facilities specify that “Facilities approved by the Board as dual-use solar facilities, in accordance with the provisions at N.J.S.A 48:3-87.13, will not be counted towards cumulative solar development.” (N.J.A.C. 14:8-12.4(d)). A link to the Siting Rules may be found on the “Documents” tab of csisolar.nj.gov.

The Board has recently launched the Dual Use Solar Pilot Program to study the co-benefits of farming and solar generation. More information on Dual Use Solar Energy Pilot Program may be found on the Board’s Clean Energy website https://njcleanenergy.com/renewable-energy/programs/dual-use-solar-pilot-program or under Docket No. QO23090679 on the Board’s Public Document Search tool. Interested parties are encouraged to subscribe to the Renewable Energy listserv.

Q. For projects seeking a Board waiver to site on prohibited land uses, when can we submit a petition?

A. The waiver process runs on a schedule that is independent of the CSI solicitation process. Waivers must be granted before a Prequalification Application is submitted. Waivers for land use require Board determination issued by Board order; projects proposed for the built environment may receive an administrative waiver from Board Staff. A petition for a waiver may be submitted at any time, through the Board’s website https://www.nj.gov/bpu/agenda/efiling/

Q. What information should be submitted to support a petition for a land use waiver from the Board?

A. Petitioners for a land use waiver must provide sufficient evidence that a project serves the public interest, and the unique factors that make the project consistent with the character of the specific site. A petitioner may include evidence of community support; approval(s) from an overseeing agency at the State or Federal level; considerations of alternative siting, compensatory mechanisms for any detrimental effects, and/or resiliency benefits to critical infrastructure, services or communities; a valid letter of interpretation or other determination of resource value classification; and/or considerations for and avoidance of the net loss of environmental resources. For a contaminated site or landfill sited on prohibited land uses, a petitioner may also include maps and/or details on the status of applicable compliance and/or remediation requirements.

Q. Can you provide guidance on siting restrictions for forested land?

A. The Board Order establishing the CSI Program lays out the classification of forested lands, following NJDEP’s definition. For an area to fit the definition of forest, the area must be one acre or greater in area, and have trees at a width of 120 ft. or more over a length of 363 ft.

In addition to not being forested currently, a site cannot have been forested in the past 10 years. Below are links to several resources that may provide useful historic aerial data that an applicant may use to confirm that a site was not forested in the past 10 years:

• NJGeoWeb: https://njdep.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=02251e521d97454aabadfd8cf168e44d
• NJ Geographic Information Network Imagery: https://njgin.nj.gov/njgin/edata/imagery/index.html
• NJ historic aerial photos: https://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=0d55ac76c7264242b7b97ac6d2847b6e
• USGS EarthExplorer – hub for aerial imagery/Landsat satellite data: EarthExplorer (usgs.gov)

For site-specific questions about land classification, please contact njcsi@daymarkea.com.

Applicants may be asked to provide additional site information to assist in land classification questions; please do so in a timely manner.

Q. Where can the pollinator standards, per N.J. Admin. Code § 14:8-12.8(f), be found?

A. Pollinator standards are available on the Documents page of this website, as well as published by NJ Department of Environmental Protection at https://dep.nj.gov/wp-content/uploads/cleanenergy/dep-solar-act-standards-pollinators-august-2023-final.pdf

Q. What are the megawatt targets for this solicitation? Are all MW targets in AC or DC?

A. The Megawatt targets for this solicitation are:

All MWs referred to in CSI documents are DC, unless otherwise specified.

Q. Does the BPU have the ability to go beyond the initial 300 MW target for the second solicitation, or beyond the targets for individual tranches?

A. From the Board Order Launching the CSI Program: “Staff recommends that awards for each tranche proceed through the last project that does not exceed the procurement target for a given tranche and if a final award cannot be made that will exactly meet a procurement target, Staff recommends that the Board exercise its discretion in deciding whether the incremental project or projects will benefit New Jersey sufficiently to warrant exceeding the targets.”

Q. Is the CSI Program only for new projects, not existing projects?

A. The CSI Program is open to new facilities that have not yet commenced commercial operation and to facilities that were registered in either the TI or ADI Program, but failed to commence commercial operations and/or submit the post-construction certification package by the applicable expiration dates.

Q. It seems this program is intended more for utility-scale-size projects than Distributed Generation. Could you please confirm that?

A. Confirmed. Projects not eligible to participate in the CSI Program solicitation may be eligible to apply for incentives under the Administratively Determined Incentive (ADI) Program, established as part of the SuSI Program to support residential solar, smaller net metered solar projects (<5 MW), and Ccommunity Solar projects.

Q. Can Remote Net Metering projects greater than 5MW qualify for the CSI program?

A. No. The Board has recently updated the Remote Net Metering program pursuant to L. 2023, c. 190. Remote net metered facilities up to 5 MW (dc) shall receive incentives through the ADI Program. The Board will target providing SREC-IIs to 50 MW per year of RNM facilities for each of the five years following the establishment of the market segment in the ADI Program.

Q. Has there been any consideration for giving floating solar its own tranche in the future?

A. For the third CSI Program solicitation, floating solar projects may compete in Tranche 2: Built Environment on a cost basis. NB: The definition of Built Environment has not been changed.

Q. Are all Utilities in NJ participating in / subject to this program?

A. Yes.

Q. If a project participates in a solicitation but does not receive an award, is it prohibited from participating in the following year’s solicitation?

A. No, there is no such prohibition. However, if a project receives an award, defaults on the award, and then wishes to participate in a future solicitation, they have to skip a procurement cycle.

Q. Can a bid be withdrawn from the solicitation?

A. For this solicitation, a bid may be withdrawn up to one month after the bids are due. A project that withdraws a bid will have no penalty, and can participate in the next solicitation cycle. These conditions may be updated for subsequent solicitations.

Q. If your project does not qualify due to timing issues of readiness, are there other programs available that can be applied for?

A. The CSI Program is New Jersey’s only program offering incentives to grid scale solar and large net metered non-residential projects greater than 5MW. The enabling statute provides that the CSI Program solicitation will award 300MW per year for 5 years, ending no earlier than 2026. Projects that are not ready to apply to this round may apply in subsequent rounds.

Q. Can we build a <5 MW system for incentive in the ADI Program, then later expand it to an 8 MW system, discard the first incentive and bid for a CSI incentive?

A. Yes, a project registered with the ADI Program may withdraw their registration, expand the solar generation facility, and bid into the CSI Program with a project greater than 5MW.

Q. Can we build a 6 MW system for incentive in the CSI Program, then later expand it to an 8 MW system, discard the first incentive and submit a new bid for a CSI incentive?

A. Once awarded, a project cannot increase its size by more than 25 kW; a trivial amount in most cases. As the December 2022 Order states, the Board requires projects that have previously received a CSI award to wait at least one CSI solicitation cycle after their COD deadline before resubmitting the same, or substantially the same project. However, there is no prohibition against co-location, and additions to systems can be bid into subsequent rounds of the CSI Program, as long as they comply with the Program rules.

Q. When will the next solicitation window open?

A. The third CSI Program solicitation will open to prequalification applications on May 14, 2025 and close to bids on July 23, 2025.

Q. When will the BPU announce the procurement targets for the next year’s (2024) solicitation?

A. For future solicitations, the Board will maintain a consistent prequalification window for all solicitations, opening in mid-February and closing mid-April, with awards announced before the end of the energy year (May 30). During the solicitation window, the solicitation administrator will be available to meet with applicants who submit a pre-qualification application, to answer clarifying questions and ensure full understanding of the application components.

Q: Recognizing that the last solicitation was the first of many competitive procurements under the SuSI program, is there any data around MW cleared or insight around pricing based on year one?

A: The SREC-II awards made in the second CSI Solicitation may be found in the Board Order dated April 17, 2024. A link to the Order is available on the “Documents” tab of csisolar.nj.gov.

Q: How do you plan to approach the confidential price caps this time around?

A: a. This is addressed in the Board Order dated April 23, 2025. A link to the Order is available on the “Documents” tab of csisolar.nj.gov.

Q: Are there any opportunities for floating solar?

A: For the third CSI Solicitation, floating solar projects may compete in Tranche 2: Grid Supply on the Built Environment on a cost basis. The Board made this determination in the Order dated April 23, 2025, which may be found on the “Documents” tab of csisolar.nj.gov.

Q. ​Please expand on what “compete on price” means to the BPU for the ultimate awarding in these tranches.

A. For pre-qualified projects, awards will be made within each tranche based on SREC-II price. Bids will be awarded individually, resulting in different SREC-II prices for each project.

Q. When will we know if our bid has been selected for an award?

A. There will be a Board Order to announce the awarded bids after the solicitation. As the internal process for getting a Board Order through the system will be the limiting factor, the typical timeline would be 2-3 months.

Q. Will winning bids be posted?

A. For winning bids, the following elements of the bid will be made public: Bidding party name, bid price, project capacity in MWdc, and any covered farmland area.

Q. Will the registration form be available before the solicitation awards?

A. Yes, the form will be released before the Board issues any awards, but not necessarily before bids are due.

Q. What information will be collected in the registration form?

A. The information collected will follow the registration requirements in the adopted CSI Program Rules at N.J.A.C. 14:8-11.

Q. Will the BPU allow for revisions to registration application if there are issues with the initial submission (i.e., clerical errors, unintentional misinterpretation of the requirements)?

A. Generally yes. SuSI rules specify the process for registrations that are found to have minor issues and also for those found to have major issues. If the program administrator does not flag these and something needs to be corrected after registration, this will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Q. If a project received an award in a previous solicitation and is unable to complete the registration, can the project participate in the next solicitation?

A. The requirement to wait for a year after the registration expires would only go into effect after notice of conditional registration has been issued by the Program Administrator. If a project neglects to register so that no such notice issues, that project may participate in the next solicitation cycle.

Q. Will the Board Order awarding incentives through the CSI program establish any additional requirements for the EDCs?

A. No. The requirement to purchase all SREC-IIs that will be generated is already in place, as set forth in the Solar Act of 2021 and the administrative codification at N.J.A.C. 14:8-2.3 and N.J.A.C. 14:8-11.8.

Q. When does the 3-year Commercial Operation Date (“COD”) clock start?

A. The 3-year COD clock starts once the project has submitted all registration documents for the program and receives a letter giving notice of conditional registration. The letter will provide a project registration number and a project expiration date by which the project must reach commercial operation.

Q. What if the project doesn’t reach COD when the developer indicates?

A. The CSI Program allows for one 6-month extension. All extension requests are required to be submitted in the CSI registration portal on or before the expiration date noted in the letter of conditional registration. Extension requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis based on consideration of extenuating circumstances for the delay in completing the installation. Timely submissions of the CSI Milestone Reporting Form will be considered during the extension request review. If the extension request is granted, the project will be given a 6-month extension from the expiration date noted in this notice of conditional registration.

Q. Are there obligations or rights on withdrawal or termination of a project from the program?

A. If a project withdraws from the program before it reaches COD, a project that is substantially the same cannot bid into a CSI until one year after the original conditional registration would have expired.

Q. Are there obligations or restrictions on any of the energy, ancillary services, and capacity products that a generator could sell if it receives an award?

A. No. There are no obligations or restrictions on the sale of these products.

Q. If a project is sold after it receives an award but before COD, does the award go away? What about after COD?

A. The award will remain in place if ownership of the project changes. This applies to ownership changes both before COD and after. Changes in ownership will have to be submitted to the program administrator and/or SREC-II administrator as applicable.

Q. Are there penalties if the finished project isn’t as large as proposed in the bid submission?

A. In the case of solar projects, no. However, SREC-II payments will only be made based on actual MWh generated. For storage projects for which the ratio of storage to solar capacity is reduced from the bid, the awarded adder will be adjusted down proportional to the reduction in relative capacity.

Q. If a project were to receive an award under tranche 5 of the solicitation, but then the storage portion of the project does not reach COD or is unable to be constructed, does the solar portion of the project still retain its award (adjusted to remove the storage adder)?

A. Yes. To compete, projects will first be considered as solar-only projects in the appropriate tranche; awarded projects will then be considered as part of tranche 5, grid supply plus solar. The solar award stands if the storage does not get constructed.

Q: Regarding the site plan requirements for pre-qualification and conditional registration: during the allotted 36 months between conditional registration and permission to operate, can you confirm that changes are permitted to the site design that do not impact the general footprint or project size? For example, reconfiguration of arrays, access roads, landscaping, etc. Ongoing changes to design and/or equipment are common throughout the development and permitting process.

A: Yes. The long timeframe will lend to optimization of design and the types of changes itemized above are permitted, but general site design and footprint that are submitted are locked.

Q. Can you confirm that we first submit a prequalification application and then a bid? Will we receive confirmation that the project is prequalified? How soon after prequalification are we able to bid?

A. Correct – the process is that you would first submit a prequalification application, and once you have received your Project ID and are satisfied with your application, you may submit a bid. If you submit your prequalification application by June 27th, we will review your materials by July 11th to notify you whether your application prequalifies – if it does not, you will be given feedback as to what parts of your application were deficient and given a link to edit your application. During the third solicitation, developers will also have the opportunity to schedule a meeting with the solicitation administrator to address any questions or concerns with the prequalification application and bid process. Please allow up to one week to arrange for a mutually convenient meeting time.

Q. Can you clarify the June 27th pre-qualification date?

A. Bidders may submit new bids until the final deadline of July 23rd; however, bidders who submit prequalification information by June 27th, will be guaranteed that their applications will be reviewed for deficiencies by July 11th and that they will be given the opportunity to cure these deficiencies prior to the final bid deadline. Bidders who submit their prequalification information closer to the final bid deadline may not have time to cure deficiencies and may not successfully prequalify to bid. After the final bid deadline, no changes to bids or prequalification information will be accepted.

Q. In the form, it asks for the Bidder Name. Should we enter the Project Entity that is bidding or the individual that is filling out the form?

A. The requested contact information, including name and position title, is for the person submitting the form so that we know to whom to direct our correspondence. We have added a separate question that asks for the project entity to avoid confusion.

Q. We don’t have addresses for a number of our projects. Should we just use our company address?

A. Coordinates of the proposed project also provided in the application will suffice as an alternative to an address. The intent is to have a location for the project. If there is no full address, the town and “close to XYZ Road” or something of that nature is better than the company address

Q. In the Pre-Qualification section of the portal, what information is the BPU looking for in the “Project Description” box?

A. The description box of the application is requesting a brief overview of your project. Since many of the project’s aspects are captured throughout the application, it needn’t be extremely detailed. You may also use this field to include details that might not have been captured in the other portions of the application, but that might add clarity in understanding your project.

Q. Please confirm the minimum interconnection requirement for projects connecting to the transmission system to participate.

A.  All participants in the CSI Program must submit documentation demonstrating sufficient project maturity. Projects in the Expedited Process of PJM’s interconnection process may use PJM’s Feasibility Study as a maturity marker. Projects in Transition Cycles 1 or 2 of the PJM interconnection process may submit a completed Phase 1 System Impact Study (“SIS”) as the accepted maturity marker. No preference is given to projects with more mature interconnection queue positions, as long as the minimum requirement is met. A project may otherwise submit written authorization from the EDC, such as a Level 3 agreement, providing conditional approval to construct a qualifying facility with their prequalification package, demonstrating sufficient project maturity.

Q. What is required for prequalification for those projects wishing to connect at the distribution level?

A. Per the adopted CSI Program Rules at N.J.A.C. 14:8-11.10, such projects must provide “written authorization from the EDC providing conditional approval to construct.” EDC signature is not required but approval may be indicated by email. Note that this information is also required for registration in the program for those projects that receive an award.

Q. What are the accepted file types for shape files?

A. Please upload a .zip file from your project, which should include, at a minimum, the .shp, .shx, .dbf, and .prj components of the shapefile. A shapefile with polygons outlining the development area is preferred, but other spatial files such as .kmz can be uploaded as an alternative.

Q. How should we represent our project geospatially?

A. The best way to represent your project would be by using a polygon that encompasses the proposed development area, which should correspond to your proposed acreage for development inputs into the prequalification form. If there is a disconnect between our acreage evaluation and your inputs, we will need to rectify those before approving your prequalification application.

Q. If Tranche 5 is selected, will the application process lead you to fill in a Tranche 1 bid as well, per the rules of the order?

A. If you select tranche 5 (for storage), you will not be able to submit the form without also filling in the required information for a solar project in Tranches 1, 2 or 3.

Q. Can I save and return to my form later?

A. Yes, for both the prequalification application and bid submission, there is an option to save and return later. If you select ‘save’, you will receive an email with a link to continue your saved form.

Q. Can someone else finish my form?

A. Anyone who has access to the edit link may return and complete the form.

Q. What if the individual submitting the bid is not an authorized signatory for the bidder — is there another way to provide signature?

A. Yes. There is an option to print and sign a paper form and attach an image of the form as an electronic file.

Q. Is the application fee $1,000/MW AC or DC?

A. It is $1,000/MW DC.

Q. The application fee has been identified to be “free” for public projects. Does that include power purchase agreement projects on state / county / municipal land in which the developer is receiving the incentive as part of the PPA?

A. Yes. To qualify for the exemption of the application fee, a project built on state / county / municipal land that benefits a public entity will need to show proof of this through a letter on official stationery of the public agency under signature of a bona fide officer, elected official, or employee of the public entity attesting to the status of the public entity.

Q. If we pre-qualified last solicitation and didn’t make any project changes, will we pre-qualify this time? Did any of the prequalification rules change?

A. Your project will likely still pre-qualify, but you will still need to submit a pre-qualification application prior to submitting a bid to receive a new Project ID for the second solicitation.

Q. What if we can’t find our project ID from the solicitation?

A. Please reach out to us at njcsi@daymarkea.com; we should be able to locate the ID for you.

Q. If we drop the storage component from our prior bid, can we still use the same ID number to identify our first solicitation project?

B. Yes, regardless of major or minor changes in the project, please refer to the same ID number. However, once you submit your pre-qualification application, you should refer to the newly generated ID upon bid submission, not the ID from the first solicitation.

Q. Does the NJCEP publish the current wholesale rate of electricity that a CSI project would be eligible for? Is there a link that you can provide to a website that would provide this information so that we can determine the revenue the project will generate?

A. BPU does not publish the wholesale rate. Wholesale electricity prices vary by hour and location and can be difficult to predict. Developers will need to calculate their own wholesale revenue projections; we recommend they utilize information like that available at https://www.pjm.com/markets-and-operations/energy.aspx