New Jersey solar installer marketing that quotes the SREC-II and net metering right

New Jersey still pays for the power home solar makes, through certificates called SREC-IIs. The rate dropped this summer. So an ad, proposal or sales script written before then may now promise too much.

The Board of Public Utilities cut the residential rate from $85 to $77 per megawatt hour. The new BPU rate applies to every registration received on or after July 27, 2026.

A system earns these certificates for 15 years from the day the utility lets it switch on. After that, it earns ordinary renewable certificates instead. A rate reset never touches a project that already holds a conditional registration.

Here is the change in dollars, by our arithmetic on the BPU's own model home. That home has a 9.8 kW system making about 1,280 kWh per kW in its first year, or about 12.5 megawatt hours. On the BPU model, $77 earns about $966 in year one, against about $1,066 at $85. That is roughly $100 a year less on the BPU model, before the panels age.

The proposal also has to say who collects the certificates. The rules let a system's owner assign its certificates to someone else by contract. In a lease or a power purchase agreement, the homeowner does not own the system. So one plain line should say where the certificates go.

That line matters more every month. When the federal homeowner credit ended, New Jersey registrations did not substantially slow in early 2026. Buyers moved to third-party owned systems instead. The solar marketing page covers the federal side.

A homeowner should be able to look up the company behind a solar ad. New Jersey decides which number does that job. It depends on whose license the work sits under.

The state's definition of home improvement names solar heating and water systems. So treat a home solar sale as home improvement work, registered with the Division of Consumer Affairs as a home improvement contractor, often called HIC. If you are unsure, ask the Division.

The registration rule says no one may advertise as a contractor in New Jersey without it. The rules count the internet as advertising. That covers the website, each landing page and every social ad.

Once registered, the number travels. The display rule puts it on every ad, business document, contract and letter to a homeowner. A lapsed registration means pulling the number from every ad and truck straight away.

Trucks count too. A 2004 state law adds the commercial vehicles a registered company uses for home improvement work.

Electrical contractors working within their license sit outside HIC registration. A company selling solar under that license follows the electrical board's ad rule instead.

That rule asks for the words "Electrical Contractor Bus. Permit #" followed by the business permit number. It also wants the licensee's street address. A sales company that signs buyers and hands the install to a crew should ask the Division which registration covers its own ads.

Contracts carry their own duties. A law approved in January 2024 requires a copy of your liability insurance certificate and the insurer's phone number in each home improvement contract. The same law will also license individual contractors, but that part waits on the new board's rules. So do not advertise a personal license yet.

New Jersey hands out incentive room in yearly blocks, first come, first served. A signed job can also stall on its paperwork. So the marketing calendar has to match the registration calendar.

The BPU opened the residential block for Energy Year 2027 on June 1, 2026, at 300 MW. It stays open until it fills or until June 1, 2027, whichever comes first. A year earlier, 246 MW had registered with five weeks still to go.

The pace swings through the year. The same order puts weekly registrations at about 3.8 MW in quiet periods and 6.1 MW in peak months. BPU staff also reported a completion rate of about 69% for recently registered projects.

The clock starts before the crew does. A project needs conditional registration before construction starts, or the build goes ahead at its owners' risk.

Then the registration rule gives a home project one year from that notice. In that year it needs the utility's permission to operate and a filed post-construction package. A missing disclosure form, or a missing signature on it, is a major deficiency. The registration is then cancelled, and it can be refiled only while a block is open.

For marketing, that means two things. Ads and proposals should say the incentive depends on an open block. And someone should stay in touch with each signed buyer until the system switches on, because roughly three in ten registrations never get there.