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Since Kyoto, Denmark and Germany have cut their greenhouse gas emissions by roughly one-fifth. The United Kingdom also has achieved significant reductions, and France marginal ones.

Meanwhile, China and Japan, which created their own boom in solar power, lead the world in production of solar cells. China has exported 98 percent, but earlier this year, it and India each announced plans to build 20 gigawatts worth of solar generating capacity, the equivalent of 20 nuclear plants, by 2020.

More countries have followed the lead of the United States, the global leader in pollution, which has actually increased its emissions by about 20 percent. The lack of action to develop renewable energy in Florida, with its advantageous weather, puzzles Crider.

Despite its "Sunshine State" moniker, Florida "only has about three megawatts of solar power installed, he said. "While our program will add four megawatts a year locally."

If there's one part of America that New Jersey can look to for solar, it's California. The most populous state currently provides two-thirds of the nation's roughly 800 megawatts of solar connections.

A century and a half after its Gold Rush, the state is undergoing a sun rush. Underlining the point, a recent call to the Fairfield, N.J., office of Akeena Solar, one of the nation's largest solar power installers, instead was answered at the company's Los Gatos, Calif., headquarters.

"We just moved all of our operations to California," a spokeswoman said, because "it's where the action is."

But California is large enough that, like the U.S. as a whole, its energy market is fragmented. Even there, some communities see policy gaps. Berkeley approved a $1.5 million bond issue to provide loans to residents installing solar systems. In Colorado, Boulder has approved a similar program.

Envisioned as a pilot project, the Berkeley program taps into existing interest in renewable energy in the city, said Nils Moe, an assistant to Mayor Tom Bates. While some already had installed solar cells on their homes or businesses, others were excluded by costs of $20,000 and more, he said.

"The thing we heard constantly from our residents, many of whom wanted to buy solar panels, is that the up-front costs were a limiting factor," Moe said.

While the systems may pay off in the long run, in a country where people move frequently, the original buyers might not be the ones to benefit, he said. So the city will make loans for the purchases, and recoup it over 20 years through a property tax surcharge, he said.

Supporters of such local initiatives point out that grassroots efforts in Germany led to its "1,000 roofs" campaign in the 1990s, which quickly turned into the successful "100,000 roofs" campaign, loans to install solar arrays in that many locations. When coupled with feed-in tariffs guaranteeing high returns for producers, solar energy surged.

With American energy regulation is still in the hands of states and cities, advocates look to places like New Jersey to help America catch up with other technology advanced countries.

To create "green energy" jobs, "New Jersey has got to stay aggressive," said Neal Lurie, marketing and communications director for the American Solar Energy Society of Boulder, Col.

There are signs that is happening. In June, the owners of a power plant in Cape May proposed turning a small golf course onto their property into a sort of solar farm.

RC Cape May, a subsidiary of Rockland Capital, acquired the 447-megawatt B.L. England power plant in Upper Township in 2007. The facility currently operates with three burners, two coal-fired and one oil-fired, although one coal burner only runs in peak season.

The company wants to cover 26 acres of the nine-hole course with rows of solar panels, enough to generate four megawatts of cleaner power. That's a small fraction of the overall output, but still enough to power 4,000 homes, said Stephen Ross, spokesman for the group.

"We're interested in bringing the B.L. England plant into the 21st century, and at the same time, help meet the state's renewable energy goals," Ross said.

The company would turn the remainder of the course into a public park, he said. While fenced off, the solar arrays could be designed to accommodate school field trips or similar supervised activity, he said.

While the Jersey Shore is considered a likely area for wind turbines, Ross said that technology might be better suited offshore.

"On land, wind power requires a lot of space and the wind turbines are quite a bit larger ... more disruptive to neighbors," he said.

Similarly, solar panels flat in a field are less noticeable than a tower or other configuration, and so raise fewer aesthetic issues, he said. In a small state, "it's easier to find enough land" for such a facility, leading to the course, Ross said.

The company does expect to make use of the state's new program to promote private investment in solar power through trading in renewable energy certificates, he said. The idea is for investors to buy certificates for solar power, allowing producers to finance expansions, and profit when utilities buy more clean energy.

"That's going to be the vehicle that allows us to recover our costs" of installing solar cells, Ross said. "Certainly if the state wanted to mandate companies to develop renewable energy projects, it's worked in our case."

Part 1: New Jersey now a true solar power.