Registration sets a fifteen-year entitlement
The Administratively Determined Incentive Program is a sub-program of the Successor Solar Incentive Program, covering net metered residential projects of 5 MW dc or less. The incentive value varies based on project type and size and is guaranteed for a term of 15 years, which the programme calls the project's Qualification Life.
The rate is set by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities rather than being traded on a market. That makes it predictable, which is genuinely valuable, but it also means the Board revises it, and the figure that governs your fifteen years is the one applicable when you register.
So ask two questions before you sign anything: what is the current residential incentive rate, and what determines which rate my system receives. Get the answer from New Jersey's Clean Energy Program or in writing from your installer rather than from an article, because published figures go stale quickly and several circulating numbers disagree.
Then ask your installer who handles the registration, when they submit it relative to permission to operate, and how you will receive confirmation. Registration is normally handled through the installer, which is convenient right up until it is not, so ask to be sent the confirmation rather than told it is done.
The milestone to ask about is not the installation date
Ask for the expected date of permission to operate and the expected registration date, not the installation date. Panels on a roof are not yet a system that earns anything, and in New Jersey there are two separate things that have to complete before the money starts.
A project can sit between installation and interconnection, and again between interconnection and registration, without anyone telling you. Establish who is responsible for moving each step and how you will know it happened.
Ask what happens if the timeline slips past a change in the incentive rate: is the quote re-modelled, and who carries the difference. This is a foreseeable event rather than bad luck, and an installer who works New Jersey seriously will have a position on it.
Keep the confirmations. The registration confirmation is the document proving when your fifteen years started and at what rate, and it is worth filing somewhere you will still be able to find it in a decade.
What a New Jersey savings figure is built on
New Jersey systems earn two ways: full retail net metering credit on your bill, and the SREC-II incentive paid on gross generation. That is why the state pays back faster than its sun hours suggest, and also why a quote here has two places to be optimistic rather than one.
So ask what incentive rate the projection applies and for how many years, and ask what happens to the numbers after year fifteen when the Qualification Life ends. A twenty-five year projection that carries incentive income all the way through is describing something that does not happen.
Ask what production estimate sits underneath, and whether it was modelled for your roof rather than a regional average. Because the incentive pays on generation, the production number drives both revenue streams at once, and an optimistic estimate inflates the result twice over.
Then ask to see the figures with the incentive removed entirely. That is your floor: what the system is worth on bill savings alone. A project that only works with a generous incentive assumption is a more fragile purchase than it appears.
Two exemptions, and only one of them happens by itself
New Jersey exempts solar energy equipment from state sales tax, but the exemption has a procedure. Under N.J.A.C. 18:24-26.4 the purchaser must issue to the seller an Exempt Use Certificate, Form ST-4, or other approved form. The certificate should indicate on its face that the purchase qualifies for exemption as a solar energy system, and the purchaser must insert the address of the property where the system will be installed.
Note that this happens at the point of purchase, with the seller, rather than being claimed back afterwards on a return. Ask your installer how they handle it and confirm the certificate has been issued rather than assuming the price you were quoted already reflects it.
The property tax exemption is separate and is not automatic either. Qualifying renewable energy systems are exempt from real property taxation under N.J.S.A. 54:4-3.113a to g, but Form CRES, the Certification of Renewable Energy System, must be filed with your local municipal tax assessor, and the system must be certified by the local construction code official.
The annual exemption is the difference between the total assessed value of the property before and after the system has been installed. Nobody files Form CRES on your behalf by default, so ask whether your installer assists, and put it on your own list either way. An exemption you qualified for and never claimed is the most avoidable cost in a New Jersey solar project.