School and government buildings in Morris County in solar energy leader New Jersey will be fixed with solar panels with capacity totaling 3.2 megawatts this year under county government support.

Tioga Energy, the project developer, will own, operate and maintain the solar power projects in 19 county locations. The company will sell electricity from the projects at a fixed price to Morris County under a 15-year power purchase agreement. SunDurance Energy L.L.C. will design and install the solar systems.

To finance the project, Morris County issued $22.3 million in low-interest bonds to Tioga. The lower cost of the bonds, coupled with federal tax incentives available to Tioga, is expected to benefit the state in the end through energy savings worth over $2 million.

"Through this program, our participating schools and county facilities will be able to significantly cut their energy bills without incurring any direct out-of-pocket expenses," said Morris County official William Chegwidden.

In June, 2009, the Morris County Improvement Authority, which is leading the project, was allowed to issue $30 million in bonds to finance a renewable energy pilot program by New Jersey’s local finance board.

Morris County considered initiatives such as those for solar installations built on the grounds of public schools and municipal facilities.

Tioga Energy, based in San Mateo, California owns and operates renewable energy systems through the SurePath™ solar power purchase agreement.

SunDurance develops, designs, builds and operates megawatt-scale solar power solutions. It is an affiliate of the Conti Group, a civil and industrial infrastructure company.