Jesse Grossman

In a few days, Americans will select a new president while international leaders act upon the Paris Climate Agreement at the UN’s COP22 conference negotiations in Morocco. While both events raise uncertainty and concerns about how new policy decisions will affect our energy economy, the business and policy outlook for renewable energy has never been sunnier.

America’s solar industry is enjoying some of its brightest days, and no matter what happens in one presidential election or one UN conference, we should be bullish on renewable energy. Solar prices have fallen 80 percent since 2009 and are beating fossil fuels on cost in many states and countries around the world, putting America on track to add a record-breaking 10 gigawatts’ new solar capacity in 2016.

Solar power is also shining here in New Jersey. I speak from my experience as the CEO of a solar company founded in New Jersey in 2006 when renewables were just a glimmer on the horizon. The state is expected to add 343 megawatts of new generating capacity this year, nearly twice 2015’s total. We’re home to more than 480 solar companies employing more than 7,000 people, providing enough power for nearly 300,000 homes, and are now one of just four states with more than a gigawatt of installed solar capacity.

Solar power has come of age during a decade where divisive political rhetoric on energy policy was at a steady boil. But over those 10 years, the world’s markets have embraced solar while America and states like New Jersey established smart programs and policies that have pushed solar prices down and demand up for clean energy across the country.

New Jersey enjoys a 24-percent-by-2028 renewable energy target, and maintains programs encouraging progress on solar innovation, helping low-income communities add solar, empowering utilities to flexibly use solar generation, and ensuring businesses and homeowners who own solar receive the full value of electricity they produce and contribute to the grid.

State policies have helped bridge the gap between R&D and full-scale adoption of renewables, despite anti-renewables actions taken by Gov. Chris Christie. His pandering to national conservative politicians by withdrawing New Jersey from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative or raiding the clean energy fund to balance the budget were unfortunate, but they didn’t slow solar’s growth.

Gone are the days when one bad policy decision by one politician could cripple the solar industry. Solar is the cleanest, cheapest option for homeowners and businesses who want to cut power costs along with utilities who want to ensure a reliable grid. Whenever anti-renewables policy has provided a setback, we have seen our industry move on to new technology and cost innovations. To borrow a phrase from my friends working on climate policy: the solar industry is resilient.

Look beyond our state, and the outlook gets even better. In Paris a year ago, 191 countries came together and agreed to contain global warming to safe levels by transitioning away from fossil fuels. This decision sent the mother of all market signals to investors that renewables will keep experiencing massive global growth. Add that to the constantly falling costs of solar and wind, and we know the future will be powered by clean energy.

The movement toward clean power is bigger than one country, one election or one governor. As we have seen over the last few years, there will always be partly cloudy days, but the future is overwhelmingly bright when it comes to a world running on renewable energy.

Jesse Grossman is CEO and co-founder of Soltage LLC, a renewable energy provider based in Jersey City.