Petra Solar, Inc. may be an unknown company to many investors. But an announcement from it and Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (NYSE: PEG) may soon change that. The companies both released data on an approval from the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to invest $515 million in 80 megawatts of solar projects.
Petra Solar is a South Plainfield, New Jersey-based company which designs and manufactures the SunWave™ solar electric system for utility, commercial, and residential installations. These systems scale from a single panel to multi-megawatts, and the company calls this “the most deployable, cost effective and intelligent solar solutions in the industry.” Petra said that the contract is about $200 million to it over a three-and-a-half year period with PSE&G, and it will make the units for the 200,000 poles under the agreement.
This effectively doubles New Jersey’s solar capacity. The agreement was reached in its” Solar 4 All” filing, and PSE&G noted that it expects to complete the installations by the end of 2013. It shall come in two segments of 40 megawatts each. The first segment consists of installing a solar unit on some 200,000 utility poles in PSE&G’s service territory, including New Jersey’s six largest cities and roughly 300 rural and suburban communities.
Petra Solar will be producing 200,000 smart solar systems for installation on the PSE&G utility poles and street light poles. This is said to be the largest pole-attached solar installation in the world. Petra is creating more than 100 green jobs from this pact. The company called this a transformational contract that will triple its size.
Interestingly enough, this is a grid-connected solar system that will more easily enable PSE&G to delivery of electricity to customers.
JON C. OGG
JULY 29, 2009
