Nope Robert, you are wrong on this one.....this one was the 4th light of PSE&G in after the change over of southern NJ electric company found on Kings Hwy
I would guess the solar panel is powering a wireless traffic camera, and this allows them to be placed on any pole without the hassle of arranging a power feed, as backhaul is on a cellular modem. Here there are a few, with both solar and wind power to charge the batteries. Normally the pole is smooth for the first 10m, then there is a razor fence to prevent vandalism, then the lower platform that you need a bucket truck to reach. They all have LED anti collision lights on them, as they are pretty tall.
No I don't think those Solar Power are related to traffic or phone related...I believe it is used for electrical since they ONLY are found on the Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) power lines in that area of NJ and nowhere else in NJ powered by other companies....
I also found an article related to it. Here is the article They are pretty much all over and all pretty much point at one direction too!
40W times 1000 poles at 60% conversion is 24kW at best peak. so $$$ to reduce the load by maybe the equivalent of 5 houses.
More likely it is a monitor of sort, and is either relaying control info, or is powering a switch that is not powered by the line it controls, or is doing backhaul of smart metering info for either gas or electric supply.
The article says "The PSE&G Solar 4 All™ program will add 80 megawatts (MW) of solar electric generation capacity to the PSE&G electrical system by the end of 2012. That is enough solar energy to power about 12,500 average size New Jersey homes."
If the panels are all that size, are there nearly 2 million poles in the PG&E area to mount them all? How much do they cost, here solar power panels cost close to $250 for a system of panel, battery and controller with a pair of lamps similar in size to that panel, so will it be economical for a utility to install them by the container ship full. Not to be cynical, but a house roof full of solar will make roughly 15kW peak power, less in winter and morning/afternoon and definitely nothing at all at night.
I also found an article related to it. Here is the article They are pretty much all over and all pretty much point at one direction too!
More likely it is a monitor of sort, and is either relaying control info, or is powering a switch that is not powered by the line it controls, or is doing backhaul of smart metering info for either gas or electric supply.