New Jersey's energy consumption
New Jersey's energy consumption is primarily driven by natural gas and nuclear power, with the state ranking as the fourteenth-largest natural gas consumer in the U.S. Despite its significant population of approximately 9.2 million, New Jersey utilizes less natural gas per capita compared to many other states. In 2022, the state consumed a total of 2,014 trillion British thermal units (Btu) of energy, with a notable portion used for transportation, as many residents commute to nearby metropolitan areas like New York City and Philadelphia. A substantial 42% of New Jersey's electricity comes from nuclear power, making it a critical component of the state's energy landscape. Additionally, New Jersey has ambitious renewable energy goals, aiming for 22.5% of its electricity to come from renewable sources by 2021, though only 8% had been achieved by 2022, predominantly from solar energy. The state boasts a favorable net-metering policy to encourage the growth of renewable installations, such as solar panels. While New Jersey has no fossil fuel reserves, it is a key player in petroleum refining and has several operational oil refineries. Overall, New Jersey's energy profile reflects its dense urban development, significant industrial activity, and ongoing efforts to transition toward renewable energy sources.
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New Jersey's energy consumption
Summary: New Jersey relies on natural gas and nuclear power for nearly all its energy. It is the nation's fourteenth-largest natural gas consumer. However, because of its large population, the state uses less natural gas per capita than many other states.
The most densely populated state in the country with an estimated 9.2 million people in 2022, New Jersey was also the wealthiest state in 2023, with a per-person income of $69,883. New Jersey is located at the center of the Boston-Washington megalopolis, the heavily urbanized area covering the northeastern seaboard that is the financial center of the country and home to most of the Ivy League universities. New Jersey itself boasts more scientists and engineers per square mile than any other location in the world.
New Jersey’s economy is fueled by energy-intensive industries: pharmaceuticals and chemicals, telecommunications, electrical equipment, publishing, and food processing (it is a leading producer of blueberries, cranberries, and spinach). Major pharmaceutical companies located in New Jersey include Johnson & Johnson, Merck, and Sanofi-Aventis. Shipping is a major industry along the coast. Much of New Jersey serves as a bedroom community for either New York City or Philadelphia, and the Newark Liberty International Airport is one of the busiest in the world. Despite its dense population, half of the state is heavily wooded; the oak from the northern forests is used in New Jersey’s shipbuilding industry. In 2022, New Jersey consumed 2,014 trillion British thermal units (Btu) of total energy, including 187.7 million barrels of petroleum, 745.8 billion cubic feet of natural gas, and 0.9 million short tons of coal. A disproportionate amount of jet fuel was consumed because the Newark airport, the site of most of that consumption, is located in the state. Most homes, 74.4 percent, were heated with natural gas. In 2015, the average commute time in New Jersey was the third-longest in the country, after Maryland and New York; as a state of bedroom communities, it consumes most of its energy for transport. New Jersey is also one of the few states that require the use of gasoline reformulated with ethanol.
New Jersey has no fossil fuel reserves but is a major petroleum-refining state, with three operable oil refineries along the Delaware River and the New York Harbor. Most of the oil processed in New Jersey is imported from overseas.
Nuclear Power
Despite the energy-intensiveness of its industries, New Jersey’s energy consumption accounted for about 2 percent of the national total; more significantly, it contributed only 89.1 million metric tons of the country’s carbon dioxide emissions in 2022, about 1.8 percent of the nation's total. The latter advantage is due to New Jersey’s heavy reliance on nuclear power: in 2022, it drew 42 percent of its electricity from its two nuclear power plants.
The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station had been the oldest operational nuclear power plant in the United States, coming online on December 1, 1969, and was licensed to continue operations until 2029. However, the plant was decommissioned and shut down in 2018.
There had been some safety concerns with the Oyster Creek reactor; in May 2011, General Electric notified Oyster Creek of a mathematical error that could have resulted in the reactor fuel reaching higher temperatures than reported. In August 2009, two separate tritium (radioactive hydrogen) leaks were discovered, contaminating groundwater on site. The following May, the leak had spread to a nearby aquifer.
The Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station and Salem Nuclear Power Plant are both located on one site in Lower Alloways Creek Township. Hope Creek is a single boiling-water reactor that produced 1,268 megawatts of electricity. Salem includes two pressurized-water reactors that generated 2,365 megawatts. Hope Creek has been operational since 1986 and was licensed to operate until 2046; Salem’s reactors have been online since 1977 and 1981 and were licensed to operate until 2036 and 2040. As New Jersey sought to increase its share of wind energy in the 2020s, environmental groups pushed for the shutdown of the Salem reactors. However, in 2024, the company that operated the plants, PSEG Nuclear LLC, announced that it would seek to have the three reactors’ licenses extended further, with Hope Creek extended to 2066 and the reactors at Salem to 2056 and 2060.
Two other nuclear power plants have been proposed in New Jersey in the past, without fruition. The Forked River plant, planned in the 1970s, was eventually canceled after years of construction because of financial difficulties following the accident in 1979 at the Three Mile Island facility, owned by the same parent company. The Atlantic nuclear power plant, proposed in the 1970s, would have been a floating plant on human-made islands; it was canceled in 1978 following protests.
Renewable Resources
New Jersey’s renewable portfolio standard required that by 2021, 22.5 percent of New Jersey’s electricity must come from renewable resources, and at least 2.12 percent of electricity was supposed to come from solar power. However, by 2022, only 8 percent of the state’s electricity was generated by renewable sources. Most of that, 87 percent, did come from solar power, the majority of which were small-scale projects, such as rooftop solar panels. The state’s solar power capacity was 3,620 megawatts in 2023.
There are numerous incentives for renewable energy in New Jersey. It has one of the most favorable net-metering laws in the country. Net metering refers to the practice of charging for electricity based on the net amount of electricity used and refers to the handling of customers who own renewable energy systems—such as home fuel cells, solar arrays, or wind power—and thus can often “bank” excess energy as future credit against their power bills, thus deducting the energy they generate from the energy they draw off the grid. Although US energy law requires public utilities to make net metering available, quotas and other limitations are in place in most states, but New Jersey is one of the few parts of the country to actively encourage net-metering customers.
Solar Power and Wind
Electricity suppliers must have enough solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs) to meet state targets, or they will be fined. SRECs were adopted in 2004, and the total number of suppliers must have increases every year. An SREC is generated every time a megawatt-hour is produced by a solar power system; electricity suppliers may either generate their own solar electricity or purchase SRECs from those who do. There is no mandated price for an SREC; market forces determine the price, shaped by the gap between the state’s requirements and the suppliers’ ability to meet those requirements and bound by the fine for noncompliance. Solar power systems must be certified by the state in order to produce SRECs. A benefit to electricity suppliers for purchasing SRECs is that SRECs save them the start-up costs of building their own solar farms.
The state’s first and only operational wind farm, the Jersey-Atlantic Wind Farm off the coast of Atlantic City, came online in 2006 and had the ability to produce 7.5 megawatts of electricity from its five turbines. In 2022, wind power accounted for 0.4 percent of the state’s total renewable energy production.
Bibliography
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