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New Jersey set new single-month records for installed solar capacity and number of installations in June, according to the state’s Governor, Chris Christie.

The achievement brings the State’s installed solar capacity to more than 380 MW generated from over 10,000 solar arrays statewide, a new milestone.

“Reaching 10,000 solar installations in New Jersey demonstrates this Administration’s commitment to continue to promote and expand the state’s solar industry and is a critical element of our long-term energy strategy,” said Governor Christie.

“This ground-breaking achievement is the latest example of New Jersey’s leadership as one of the largest and fastest growing solar energy markets in the United States.”

New Jersey is second in the nation in both installed solar capacity and number of installations; only California has more.

New Jersey has 10,086 solar energy array projects installed across the state providing over 380 MW of installed capacity, due in large part to the State’s Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC) Registration Program.

Projects
During June 2011 alone, 520 solar projects totaling over 40 MW of capacity were installed, representing the most projects and the largest amount of solar capacity installed in one month.

 “Solar energy is more than just a form of clean distributed generation. These projects provide an opportunity for the involved business to improve its bottom line and grow in New Jersey, stimulating economic development,” said Lee A. Solomon, President, New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.

Recognizing the critical nexus of environmental and economic benefits, Governor Christie has called for more solar projects on landfills and brownfields as an important element of his draft 2011 Energy Master Plan.

Last year, he signed legislation exempting solar panels from certain land use restrictions, identifying solar energy developments as an environmentally important land use.

Market
New Jersey had one of the strongest growth markets for solar energy installations in 2010 and in the first quarter of 2011.

For the first quarter of 2011, New Jersey installed 42 MW of solar, representing 49 percent growth over first quarter 2010. The state has primarily become a market for non-residential projects over 100 kW and most growth over the past few quarters has been in larger projects over 1MW.

In addition, New Jersey has the nation’s most robust and mature SREC market, along with the best availability for long-term SREC contracts, which make project financing much easier to obtain.

“Solar energy—along with clean, in-state power generation from offshore wind, natural gas and nuclear, and new technologies such as alternatively fueled vehicles—is a key component of a greener, more affordable vision for New Jersey’s energy future,” said DEP Commissioner Bob Martin.

“The draft 2011 Energy Master Plan reinforces the Christie Administration’s commitment to promoting solar where it makes both environmental and economic sense, expanding implementation of commercial and industrial solar projects.”

Original article – Solar Energy News

American Capital Energy, Inc. (ACE) was awarded a landfill contract to construct $85 million, 18.2 MW of solar generating facilities by Cape and Vineyard Electric Cooperative.

The project will convert town owned property and landfills in six Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard communities into solar farms which will produce approximately 25% of the energy needs of the participating communities.

Mark Sylvia, commissioner of the Mass. Department of Energy Resources, said, "This is a significant game-changing model."

The project is projected to save participating towns $1.42 million in energy costs in the first year.

Across the USA, every city and town has vacant capped landfills and brownfields which could be converted to solar facilities to produce solar electricity to power the grid, reduce carbon omissions and cut corporate and municipal energy costs. American Capital Energy, a Massachusetts based company and leading solar expert has completed over 35 large scale utility and brownfield projects since its founding in 2005.

Selected from more than 150 submissions ACE was the Engineering Procurement Construction firm that recently completed the Silver Lake Solar Facility for Western Mass. Electric Co.

Silver Lake is the redevelopment of 8 acres of brownfield floodplain land into a renewable energy facility.

The 1.8 MW Silver Lake facility is located in Pittsfield, Mass. accommodates a variety of complex permitting restrictions and is a shining example of what a public-private partnership can accomplish.

Silver Lake is the largest utility scale solar project completed to date in Mass. and consists of 6,500 ground mounted photovoltaic panels covering 8 acres.

As cities and towns across the country struggle with energy consumption and costs the conversion of these polluted open sites, brownfields, will produce not only much needed power but also help communities balance their budgets.

NERJ

...by Warren Kirshenbaum

As part of $3.5 million in Brownfields grants that EPA is making available for Massachusetts communities, EPA has provided $600,000 for Somerville to clean up the former Kiley Barrel Property site. The funding is part of more than $76 million in EPA Brownfields investments across the country announced this week by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to protect health and the environment, create jobs and promote economic re-development in American communities.

EPA Brownfields grant money assists work to reclaim sites including old textile mills, sites containing hazardous substances and petroleum products and other abandoned industrial and commercial properties.  EPA’s Brownfields program encourages redevelopment of America’s estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites.

 “This EPA funding will help strengthen the economic foundation of these communities,” said Curt Spalding, regional administrator of EPA New England’s office. “Cleaning and revitalizing contaminated sites helps create jobs, providing a solid foundation for a community to create new businesses and neighborhood centers, while making our environment cleaner and the community healthier.”

"These federal funds will help transform the Kiley Barrel site, eliminating old contaminants and revitalizing it so that the land can be used for future development. Brownfields grants have had a tremendous impact here in Somerville and all over the country, giving communities the resources they need to revitalize old industrial sites," stated Congressman Michael Capuano.

The $12.55 million in grant and Revolving Loan Fund money awarded by EPA to a variety of New England communities and organization will provide substantial help around the region.  The EPA funding leverages over $46 million of other money to pursue brownfields cleanup and revitalization work. In New England, these projects have created 98 clean up jobs this year as well as 135 redevelopment jobs.

As of June 2011, EPA’s brownfields assistance has leveraged more than $16.3 billion in cleanup and redevelopment funding, and helped create more than 70,000 jobs in cleanup, construction and redevelopment. These investments and jobs target local, under-served and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods – places where environmental cleanups and new jobs are most needed.

Since the beginning of the Brownfields Program, in New England alone EPA has awarded 268 assessment grants totaling $67.1 million, 61 revolving loan fund grants and supplemental funding totaling $65 million and 174 cleanup grants totaling $39.3 million.  These grant funds have paved the way for more than $1.3 billion in public and private cleanup and redevelopment investment and for 8815 jobs in assessment, cleanup, construction and redevelopment.

Some of the money announced today falls under EPA’s brownfields revolving loan funding.  Since 1995, EPA RLF recipients have provided 53 loans and 63 grants in New England totaling more than $29 million for brownfields cleanup. The loan funds have paved the way for more than $189 million in public and private cleanup and redevelopment investment and for 1034 jobs in cleanup, construction and redevelopment.

Information released by the EPA 

by...Warren Kirshenbaum

On an island where the Mill River flows through New Haven sits English Station, a defunct electric power plant once teeming with contaminants.

The 9-acre plant embodies every municipality’s struggle with sites known as Brownfields, abandoned plots where commercial and industrial businesses once operated, mostly at a time when environmental laws were less stringent. Throughout New Haven County, urban and suburban areas alike are grappling with the costly process of reclaiming these eyesores, cleaning up the environmental and health hazards lurking there and finding new uses for the parcels.

English Station is one of 27 Brownfields on a list that cities and towns in Greater New Haven identified to the Connecticut Brownfields Redevelopment Authority as priority sites for reuse. Many are situated near major routes, highways and existing commercial hubs. Some are more isolated.

“It’s really a positive to be on the list because it attracts developers,” said Cynthia Petruzzello, vice president and redevelopment project manager for CBRA.

English Station was once owned by United Illuminating Co. and burned coal and oil from the 1880s until it was decommissioned in 1992. In 2000, UI paid Killingworth-based Quinnipiac Energy $4.25 million to take the plant off its hands.

Quinnipiac Energy set up a $1.9 million fund for remediation but that money has been spent.

The current owner, Evergreen Power, last summer was in talks to sell the plant to First National Development of Bridgeport. At the time, developer Garfield Spencer said his vision for the property was a mixed-use development with 200 rental units, boat slips and street-level retail space.

Spencer did not return a phone call and email seeking comment for this story and land records in the city clerk’s office show no sale has been made.

CBRA is a division of the Connecticut Development Authority. CDA President Marie O’Brien said CBRA is a starting point for entities interested in brownfield reuse projects and works on them with the state departments of Economic and Community Development, Environmental Protection and Public Health.

New Haven Economic Development Director Kelly Murphy said urban centers typically have numerous brownfield sites. Even a dry cleaning business that closes down would be considered a brownfield because of possible chemical contamination.

“The laws of brownfields have changed even since I started my career,” she said.

Robert Bell, assistant director of the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Remediation Division, said the state has 10 to 15 different laws that address the cleanup of hazardous materials.

“Not all contamination is equal,” Bell said, adding that some material stays where it is, other hazards can travel, especially if they leach into groundwater, but others might cause little to no public health risk.

Original article and a list of the Brownfields sites in the Greater New Haven Area can be found at The Register Citizen
By ANGELA CARTER