Since 2021, Public Service Electric & Gas (PSE&G), New Jersey's largest utility, has added 30,000 electric vehicles (EV) to its system, in part by offering rebates and other incentives. Before January 2026, the growth rate was double digit, but is now flat, becuase of the loss of the federal EV tax credit and changes in the market.

Dawn Neville, senior manger of electric transportation at PSE&G, describes the program's successes and challenges. How to get more chargers installed at multi-family housing complexes? How much do demand response programs for EV drivers help out in the summer? And how might a new time-of-use rate that varies from 9 cents/kWh (off peak) to 60 cents/kWh (on peak) help save money for people who charge at home?

About the guest:

Dawn Neville, an environmental engineer who transitioned from working on hazardous waste sites to transportation electrification at PSE&G's EV charging program

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Elliott Steele, a researcher at the UC Davis Wild Energy Center, is now studying how a floating solar array at the Nelson Family Vineyards in Mendocino County, Calif. affects birds. He's also studying how a 6-MW floating solar array–Califronia's largest– in Sonoma County is influencing wildlife. In Florida, he says, alligators and other animals hang out on the solar systems.

Wildlife can also affect the floating solar panels, by defecating on them, for example, and lowering the solar output.

This is a follow up to my last podcast episode about Nelson Family Vineyards' floating solar array.

Guest:

Elliott Steele, Ph.D, solar postdoctoral scholar, Wild Energy Center

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Nelson Family Vineyards in Mendocino County, Calif., will soon power up its floating solar system, deployed on pontoons on an irrigation pond, expecting to cut utility costs, which jumped 180% over the last three years, by about $90,000 annually.

Researchers at the University of California Davis are studying how the system will affect wildlife–the focus of our next podcast, which will touch on how songbirds at the farm are affected by the system–and how alligators in Florida climb onto these systems.

The Nelsons are looking into selling or transferring a 30% investment tax credit to help pay for the system.

Guests

Tyler Nelson, vice president, Nelson Family Vineyards

Tate Tussing, business development manager at Noria Energy.

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