HAMILTON TOWNSHIP, N.J.,
Nov. 22, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Public
Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) today marked the first
phase of construction at its Yardville Solar Farm on South Broad
St. in Hamilton Township, N.J. The
4.4-megawatt facility is one of four ground-mounted solar farms
that the utility is developing as part of its $515 million Solar 4 All™ program. Through the
program, PSE&G expects to develop more than 20 solar projects,
which represents an investment of more than $140 million that will create almost 300 jobs and
provide New Jersey with 30
megawatts of solar-generated power.
"The Yardville Solar Farm exemplifies PSE&G's environmental
commitment and its leadership position in renewable energy," said
Al Matos, PSE&G's vice president
of renewables and energy solutions. "Projects like this will
help move Hamilton Township,
Mercer County and New Jersey toward a brighter future."
"This is one of many projects that PSE&G is developing as we
invest more than $750 million to
increase access to solar energy in New
Jersey," Matos said. "Clean energy investments are key to a
sustainable future. In addition to being good for the environment,
these investments are creating jobs and helping New Jersey to build a new, green sector that
will strengthen the skills of the workforce and our state's ability
to compete globally."
The Yardville Solar Farm will be comprised of 15,750 solar
panels covering 15.75 acres of PSE&G property and will be
connected directly to the electric grid for the benefit of all
PSE&G electric customers. The solar farm will produce enough
electricity to power about 720 average-size homes.
PSE&G is developing the four ground-mounted solar farms on
PSE&G-owned properties in Linden (3.2 megawatts), Edison (2 megawatts) and Trenton (1.3 megawatts). Each will be among
the largest solar farms developed in New
Jersey. All four sites will utilize crystalline solar panel
technology and have monitoring and communications functionality. In
addition, PSE&G is building a 1-megawatt solar system on the
roof of its Central Electric headquarters in Somerset, N.J., and a 700-kilowatt solar
system at its Edison Training and Development Center facility in
Edison, N.J.. There also are
four solar systems built on the grounds of five Newark Public Schools as part of the Solar 4
All program.
The 20 projects under development will produce enough energy to
power about 4,900 homes and eliminate 23,000 metric tons of CO2
emissions – the equivalent of removing nearly 2,800 cars from the
road for one year.
PSE&G is using leading solar energy companies to help deploy
solar farms across the state to help drive New Jersey's economic growth in this sector.
American Capital Energy, a premier developer of solar energy
projects, is responsible for the deployment of the Hamilton Township project.
State regulators approved PSE&G's Solar 4 All program in
July 2009. The program involves a
$515 million investment in 80
megawatts of solar power, creating green jobs and vastly increasing
the amount of renewable energy capacity in the state of New
Jersey. The program's first segment consists of installing up
to 40 megawatts of pole-attached smart solar units in neighborhoods
on utility poles in PSE&G's service territory, which includes
the state's six largest cities and roughly 300 rural and suburban
communities. This is the largest pole-attached solar
installation in the world, with the smart solar units connected
directly into PSE&G's electric distribution system.
The second segment of the Solar 4 All program focuses on 40
megawatts of centralized solar facilities, such as the Yardville
Solar Farm and other solar sites on PSE&G owned or leased
properties.
The financial benefits that Solar 4 All produces – federal tax
investment credits, sale of the energy and capacity, as well as
monetizing the solar environmental credits (SRECs) – are returned
to PSE&G electric ratepayers to reduce the overall cost of the
program.
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 (www.pseg.com).
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SOURCE Public Service Electric & Gas Company (PSE&G)