With residents in eight school districts voting on whether to pay the up-front costs for solar power installations at schools tomorrow, I’m viewing the day as something of a "status report" on the popularity of solar power in NJ. (Hat tip Courier Post.)

The day is particularly important because NJ has been one of the national leaders on solar power, fossil fuel prices have declined (which reduces the returns on investment of a new solar project), and we’re in a recession that makes people less willing to make any investments at all (even those that save money). We already know that so far in 2008, only 38% of the dollars in the 30 previous school-construction proposals (not just solar) have been passed, the lowest in the 12 years since the New Jersey School Boards Association has been tracking referendums. Regarding solar specifically, more than half of the referendums in 2008 listed as including "solar" have passed, according to the NJSBA, which will be tracking solar projects even more closely in the future. Tomorrow’s vote is the biggest of the five scheduled referendum days this year.

I haven’t conducted a survey, but despite the vital movement toward clean & sustainable energy, some voter skepticism (often cynicism) toward solar proposals is still easy to detect. Courier Post reader comments, for instance, decry the low perceived return on investment (ROI) of the projects, though clearly ROIs could be much higher, or even negative, depending on the direction of regular utility prices. (And don't forget the ROI calculations for solar don't include the enormous reduction in the long-term cost of global warming and "dependence on foreign oil".)

I’ll also be interested in how effectively the school districts “sold” the project proposals to residents. For instance, I don’t know if the districts seeking solar panel approval did a full energy audit of their facilities, and thus were able to assure voters that they're pursuing the highest-ROI efficiency projects. We’ll see what tomorrow’s votes and conversations bring us.

NJ school districts seeking voter approval for solar panel projects tomorrow include:

Greater Egg Harbor Regional (Atlantic County)
Upper Saddle River (Bergen)
Lumberton Township (Burlington)
Palmyra (Burlington)
Brick Township (Ocean)
Lacey Township (Ocean)
Manchester Township (Ocean)
Oxford Township (Warren)

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