The latest NJBIZ panel discussion, held Oct. 24, focused on a topic that affects all businesses and the state’s economic future – energy.

The panel was moderated by NJBIZ Editor Jeffrey Kanige and featured Michael Boches, CEO, Geoscape Solar; Eric DeGesero, executive vice president, Fuel Merchants Association of New Jersey; and Robert Streker, associate, Bohler.

While the topic of energy is one that is of great importance at all times, issues regarding the use of fuel and production of power have been in the headlines quite a bit more recently – due to everything from geopolitical issues, volatile prices and the debate over how to properly transition to a cleaner energy future.

The discussion began with energy costs, especially in the Garden State – and whether they were indeed higher here and if that was a deterrent for businesses.

From there, things turned to what ways currently exist for businesses to reduce energy costs.

“Because I can tell you that when I talk to business owners and executives, there is not a lot of agreement on what the future of energy should entail,” said Kanige. “But they all agree that it should be cheaper, and it should not be as expensive as it is now. I’m curious as to the notion of reducing costs now and what businesses can do. From those of us old enough to remember the OPEC embargoes of the 70s – conservation, better efficiency, all of those things were drilled into us that they had to be done. Is that still happening now? Are we still seeing those kinds of efforts at reducing consumption and trying to not use as much gas as we used to?”

“Heating oil consumption used to be about 1,700 gallons per person annually in the 70s,” said DeGesero. “It is down to under 700 gallons annually per home now. We as an industry have done a lot to incentivize reduction of the product that we sell. And that is the same way with propane and, also, natural gas.”

“Thinking of efficiency of building and selecting the proper equipment storage opportunities for energy – high-efficiency in terms as simple as lighting switching over to LED or climate controls within the building,” said Streker. “All of those are items that will help improve efficiency.”

“I wonder if you’ve ever experienced that kind of resistance in your business – to doing some of the things that we are talking about?” Kanige asked.

“There’s always resistance to doing things where it is mandated. But the essence of it is Economics 101,” Boches explained. “Higher demand with a static supply leads to higher prices, period. The economy is growing. Business is booming. There is demand for energy. If you do not implement energy efficiency measures, you are going to consume more energy tomorrow than you are today and more than yesterday. So, efficiency is, by far, the biggest low-hanging fruit. At end of the day, all of these things – whether it is efficiency, whether it is renewables, whether it is subsidies that come from the government – it is going to take money to work on the infrastructure and the demand side of the equation. In order to balance against what is a limited supply of fossil fuel energy and renewable energy. You can lower your ultimate cost, but there is going to be some kind of investment.”

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Kanige noted that while there have been those kinds of efforts, there has also been a backlash by people who do not want to be told what kind of light bulbs to use and what kind of cars to drive – steering the discussion to Boches, who works in the solar sector.

“Staying on the subject of new technologies and better equipment, are there things that, for example, truckers, trucking companies, fleet owners can do now – putting aside the question of going to electric vehicles? What is available now?” Kanige asked. “What kinds of things can those businesses do in regard to employing new technologies, more efficient vehicles?”

“The one thing that we would like to do is have government be a partner with us as opposed to our adversary,” DeGesero said. “One of the places, where especially for heavy industry and heavy vehicles, is the Hydrogen Hub being built and what the contribution there could be. I think that we could have a much more productive discussion as a society if we were willing to say that electrification is a part of the answer – as opposed to where we are now, where for many individuals, for many policymakers, it is the only answer.”

The discussion then shifted to that hot-button topic: Gov. Phil Murphy’s lofty clean energy goals.

“Have you seen any movement on the part of the administration to pull back on some of the goals that they have been setting?” Kanige asked DeGesero. “Where are you now in terms of where you think the administration is going. You have alluded to the fact that we have a discussion with the Legislature. Are those discussions taking place? And if not, what needs to happen?

“I hope those discussions will happen after the election when the Legislature reconvenes in November,” said DeGesero. “This is not a Democrat/Republican issue. This is an institutional issue of the Legislature on one side and the Executive on the other. And the Executive has been running roughshod for the past couple of years.”

DeGesero believes the transition to renewables and implementation of goals have been too heavy-handed and that the public should weigh in. “That is what is needed,” DeGesero explained. “And, hopefully, that will happen after the election when the Legislature will hopefully engage on both vehicles and on buildings.”

“Rob, what I have heard is that the conversion to electricity is expensive in itself – to retrofit a building – that is something that is going to add cost to the system,” said Kanige. “How significant is that? Is that something that business owners should be worried about?”

“Any time you are talking about retrofitting a building and switching out one of the primary operations – that is a tremendous cost. Little different and planned better if you are doing it from the beginning,” Streker explained. “When we start talking about electrifying everything, I start thinking about – how are you going to get the power there? Where is it coming from? And how does it physically travel?”

“Michael, you are involved in harnessing the power of the sun. So, tell us where you are with that,” said Kanige. “You mentioned the percentage of electricity we get in New Jersey from solar now – that it has been fairly steady. How long will we have to have this sort of all of the above strategy? How long before alternative sources like solar, like wind start to come online in a bigger way?”

“I think the reality of the energy market, period, is there are a lot of bronze and silver bullets – but there is no gold bullet,” said Boches. “Solar does not offer the gold bullet, nuclear doesn’t, to oil and gas. Through subsidies, through electrification, we are trying to help accelerate the inevitable decrease in cost of these technologies. Are we going to be ready by 2036 to replace a nuclear power plant worth of baseload? I don’t know. That is a lot of development and a lot of costs coming down.”

Boches said that we are clearly not going to be able to do that with distributed solar energy – that is, power generated at the point of use. “But will we get to a point where we have the efficiency and the cost-scale to generate a solar facility with storage? The only way that solar cannot be an intermittent source and be a base source – is when you can take it, store it, use it when it is needed,” Boches explained. “So, definitely a lot of technology and cost-efficiencies need to happen before we can go and take one or two or three nuclear power plants offline.”

The panel continued to delve into topics such as getting the electricity where it needs to go; energy storage; maintaining the ability to meet grid capacity especially while transitioning to these alternative options; training and developing the energy workforce of the future; the potential for AI in the industry, and much more – as well as taking some questions from the audience who were tuned in virtually.

“We are presented with a very unique problem – as a society – of how we are going to handle ourselves moving forward,” said Streker. “We rely on legislators and leaders in the state to guide us in a way that makes the most sense. But it comes down to a practical standpoint at the end of the day. You have to be able to put the energy in people’s hands – in a way that makes the most sense and does not cripple them in their lives.”

“Thanks to all of our panelists. This was a fascinating discussion,” said Kanige as he closed out the discussion program. “And, as I mentioned at the top, a vitally important one for the state’s economy.”