The sprawling site is being reincarnated as a solar farm that will power 2,000 homes annually. The 12.93 megawatt-dc L&D Solar Farm spans more than 50 acres across the Burlington County towns of Eastampton, Lumberton and Mount Holly. It will be the largest solar farm that PSE&G has built to date when it goes into service later this year.
Working with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU), PSE&G has made reclaiming otherwise unusable space the recent focus of our Solar 4 All® program. This allows the state to add renewable energy resources while helping preserve our scarce open space. In fact, PSE&G has converted more than 150 acres of landfill or brownfield space into clean energy producing solar farms. With more than 140,000 solar panels, together, these sites generate 45 megawatts-dc of solar power or enough energy to power about 7,500 homes annually.
At the height of the L&D Solar Farm construction, more than 180 people were working at the site, including engineers, electricians, heavy equipment operators, carpenters and laborers. These workers are part of the 2,000 jobs Solar 4 All has created since its inception in 2009. But the benefits of the L&D Solar Farm exceed its size and boost to New Jersey’s economy. The L&D project is a great example of community-based solar. By building community solar projects like this one, and connecting it directly to the PSE&G electric grid, we are ensuring that all of our electric customers truly share both the costs and the benefits of solar power – not just those with solar panels on their roofs.
Grid connected community-based solar facilities also produce power that is up to 40 percent cheaper than the average cost of power from a residential rooftop installation. And community solar energy is one way to bring the benefits of solar energy to customers at all income levels.
We have immediate plans to add an additional 8 megawatts-dc of landfill solar and by the end of 2016, PSE&G will have 125 megawatts-dc of community solar in service. This will include more than 50 megawatts-dc on landfills and brownfields, fulfilling the targets approved by the BPU. This is a great win for the environment and for customers.
As New Jersey’s oldest and largest electric and gas utility PSE&G will continue to support state policy makers. We have identified dozens of additional landfills that are suitable for community solar development and we stand ready and willing to continue our Solar 4 All efforts and return more of these sites to productive use.
Joe Forline,
Vice President-Customer Solutions
PSE&G