By NEWARK, N.J. — Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) today announced that its L&D Solar Farm is interconnected to the grid and supplying solar power to PSE&G electric customers. The 12.93 megawatt-dc solar farm is PSE&G’s largest to date and one of the largest landfill solar farms in the United States. It is comprised of 41,720 solar panels that cover 53 acres of landfill space spanning the towns of Eastampton, Lumberton and Mount Holly, NJ. The L&D Solar Farm will generate enough electricity to power 2,000 average-size New Jersey homes annually.
Waste Management of New Jersey, Inc. owns the L&D Landfill and PSE&G owns and operates the solar farm as part of its Solar 4 All® Program. The engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the L&D Solar Farm is juwi, one of the world’s largest and most experienced renewable energy companies.
“The L&D Solar Farm is another great example of how landfill-based community solar can increase renewable energy in New Jersey while also giving new purpose to land that would otherwise have very limited development opportunities,” said Courtney McCormick, vice president – renewables and energy solutions for PSE&G. “We have identified dozens of additional landfills that are suitable for solar development and stand ready and willing to return more of these sites to productive use through solar development.”
The L&D Solar Farm is the 28th grid-connected centralized Solar 4 All project and the eighth built on a landfill or brownfield site. The Solar 4 All program has now utilized 170 acres of landfill and brownfield space by installing more than 150,000 solar panels, capable of generating 45 megawatt-dc of solar power, which is enough to power about 7,500 homes annually.
“Waste Management is proud to be part of this project with PSE&G,” said Tara Hemmer, vice president of Waste Management’s Greater Mid-Atlantic Area. “The L&D Solar Farm is an environmental and economic asset for the region that expands the use of clean, renewable energy in New Jersey.”
Since 2009, PSE&G has invested more than $500 million on the Solar 4 All program and created more than 2,000 jobs. At the height of construction, there were approximately 190 people onsite working on the L&D solar project in a range of jobs, including electricians, engineers, carpenters, heavy equipment operators and laborers.
“We are excited to have deployed our engineering and construction expertise to a significant landfill redevelopment application,” said Michael Martin, CEO of juwi. ” juwi, Waste Management, PSE&G and other local stakeholders worked diligently and in harmony to maximize this project on landfill space in a manner that honors important environmental considerations and requirements.””
Solar 4 All is a 125 MW-dc community solar program that utilizes rooftops, parking lots, utility poles and landfills/ brownfields for large-scale, grid connected solar projects. There are currently 114 megawatts-dc of the 125 MW-dc total in service.
About PSE&G
Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) is New Jersey’s oldest and largest regulated gas and electric delivery utility, serving nearly three-quarters of the state’s population. PSE&G is the winner of the ReliabilityOne Award for superior electric system reliability. PSE&G is a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (PSEG) (NYSE: PEG), a diversified energy company.
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