When it comes to sustainable energy initiatives in the United States, New Jersey is "an oasis of enlightenment against a backdrop of a total void in energy policy direction," said the president and founder of a Boston-based solar energy engineering and architecture firm.
Steven Strong, the creator of Solar Design Associates, spoke in the Rutgers Student Center on the College Avenue campus Tuesday on the importance of solar power as the future of energy not only for the state and the country, but also for the entire planet.
His speech - part of the RU Sustainable's "Rutgers Going Solar" program - touched on the pitfalls of America's ever-increasing thirst for oil, while providing an argument in favor of making the transition from petroleum to what he sees as the most viable alternative: solar energy.
"Solar energy has the likelihood - not just the chance - to change the course of this nation and by extension, the world," Strong said in his opening remarks.
For some three decades, Strong has been a leader in the American solar energy industry. Through consistent innovation, Strong and his company have continually pushed the envelope in developing new technologies and designs to help spread the use of renewable energies throughout the nation.
During those 30 years, Strong has compiled an impressive resume of solar energy success stories. Strong started SDA in 1974, less than a year after photo-voltaic cells, the silicon modules used to generate solar-powered electricity, first gained notoriety as a possible solution to powering satellites and other space vehicles.
In 1978, he and his company completed construction of a photo-voltaic system on a high-rise apartment building in Boston, the first in America outside of a government building to be integrated into a public power-grid.
SDA completed the first entirely electric house, known as the "Carlisle House," in 1980.
In 1996, SDA built a solar array that heated the Olympic pool facilities in Atlanta, setting off what Strong described as "a wholesome tradition one-upsmanship where each Olympics since has tried to 'out-green' the last."
While the list goes on, including retrofitting the presidential pool house at the White House under the advisory of first lady Laura Bush and numerous buildings on universities throughout the nation, Strong said it is the European markets that have dominated this burgeoning field of solar development.
Europe and Japan, Strong said, "are at least 10 years ahead of us."
"The Japanese have made a stated goal to dominate the world [solar energy] market, and they have achieved that goal," he said.
Michael Crockford, coordinator of Tuesday evening's event, said Europe is far ahead of America in terms of renewables.
"The Netherlands' goal is 50 percent renewables by 2020," he said.
Strong, Crockford and Lance Miller of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities' Clean Energy Program, who also spoke on Tuesday night, agree that the lagging development of renewable energy resources in America is not due to technological or even financial barriers, but rather bureaucratic ones.
But the Board of Public Utilities is leading the charge to change that, Crockford said.
"What Lance Miller and the Board of Public Utilities are doing is what the feds should be doing," Crockford said.
Crockford was referring to the board's subsidization plan, which pays 70 percent of the installation bill for solar units 10 kilowatts or smaller in size and 60 percent of units greater than 10 kilowatts.
Currently, Miller said, a 10 kilowatt solar system, which would provide about twice the energy needs of a typical residential home, runs about $50,000 to the average consumer. After you factor in New Jersey's subsidies, though, the actual cost to the homeowner is only about $15,000, a sum that Miller said "pays for itself in about six to seven years' time."
With such progressive programs in place statewide, Crockford thinks it is crucial for the University to "take advantage of the incredibly generous climate surrounding renewables."
Preliminary reports suggest that is exactly what University officials are doing.
Crockford said Strong and members of RU Sustainables met yesterday behind closed doors to discuss what Crockford referred to as "the nuts and bolts" of a $3 million proposal designed to install a 500 kilowatt solar system - enough energy to power roughly one-third of Livingston campus, on University grounds.
When will the system be installed?
"It's really too early to tell," Crockford said, though he went on to point out, "I think it's something that's going to happen. It's past the persuasion stage."
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