POWER September 2023 - 22

TOP PLANT
POWER POINTS
Winning Attributes
✔ Turning a former Superfund site into
a clean energy, revenue-generating
asset.
✔ Allowing the town of Mount Olive
to recoup $2.3 million in taxes.
✔ Overcoming technical challenges
to safeguard the fragile landfill
protective cap.
1. Terrasmart, the racking and mounting provider for Mount Olive, had experienced rising costs
for concrete, so the tilt of the solar array at the site was minimized in order to reduce the
amount and size of the ballast blocks. Courtesy: CS Energy
budget and energy production goals, all
while ensuring the sensitive landfill cap
was protected in order to prevent any release
of hazardous contaminants.
Terrasmart value-engineered the racking
solution around three considerations:
the market cost for concrete had increased
by 10%; low tilt angles would
be needed to minimize the weight of
the ballasts; sufficient tilt was needed to
allow for the snowpack to slide off the
racks. By optimizing its GLIDE ballasted
racking, Terrasmart delivered a 50% reduction
in the cost of the blocks. In addition,
CS Energy, an industry leader with
more than 12 years of landfill solar installation
experience and the lead contractor
for Mount Olive, leveraged Toshiba Mitsubishi
Electric Industrial Systems Corp.
(TMEIC) and partner Lindsay Precast to
help reduce on-site labor and streamline
schedules, while maintaining a high level
of quality through its steel skid manufacturing
and integration.
Innovative Equipment and Quality
Control
Solar farm projects atop landfill sites often
require innovative fixed-tilt, ballasted
mounting solutions, another solution to
lessen the risk of damaging the landfill
cap. Lindsay Precast, a company that has
deployed more than 4,500 prefabricated
solar skids, was hired by TMEIC to integrate
TMEIC's Solar Ware Ninja inverters
and medium-voltage transformer onto
Lindsay's non-penetrating galvanized
steel skids.
Lindsay Precast's scope of work included
the design and engineering of
the steel skid, equipment storage/integration,
wiring/terminations,
and testing,
all of which took place in a Lindsay
weather-controlled facility (the company
has nine such sites). TMEIC and CS Energy
leveraged Lindsay's capabilities to
22
Redevelopment and Tax Structure
CEP's team of landfill and brownfield experts
negotiated a novel public-private
partnership with the local community and
www.powermag.com
reduce on-site labor, streamline delivery
schedules, and improve quality control
to positively impact the project. Lindsay
Precast has completed several projects
with Terrasmart, and Mount Olive marks
the company's seventh project with CS
Energy, including the Cuyahoga Landfill
solar project that came online in 2018
and was the first-of-its-kind in Ohio.
Boviet Solar, a module manufacturer,
supplied 57,000 450-W panels for the
Mount Olive project. Jersey Central
Power & Light (JCP&L), a subsidiary of
FirstEnergy Corp., completed the grid
connection for Mount Olive in February
of this year. CEP Renewables is leasing
the site to NJR Clean Energy Ventures,
which will own and operate the facility
long term, with the electricity delivered
through FirstEnergy's transmission lines.
" FirstEnergy and JCP&L are committed
to supporting the global energy transition
to renewable resources, and we
are pleased to have worked with CEP
Renewables to connect this innovative
solar project to the grid and enable the
delivery of clean energy to local communities, "
said Jim Fakult, president of New
Jersey operations for FirstEnergy, when
the project was connected to the grid.
" NJR Clean Energy Ventures is committed
to building a clean energy future
with projects like the Mount Olive solar
field, " said Steve Westhoven, president
and CEO of New Jersey Resources. " By
repurposing landfills and other underutilized
spaces to produce clean, renewable
energy, NJR is helping to power a bright,
sustainable future, today and delivering
clean energy innovations that drive New
Jersey toward our clean energy goals. "
✔ Delivering on budget amid market
cost pressures through ingenious
engineering.
the New Jersey Department of Environmental
Protection (NJDEP) that enabled
CEP to purchase the landfill as part of a
redevelopment and tax lien foreclosure
process. In the agreement, CEP agreed
to pay the back taxes to the Mount Olive
Township, in Morris County, over time in
addition to redeveloping the land into a
tax revenue-producing solar field.
Officials said the project enables the
township to not only recoup about $2.3
million in back taxes, but also benefit
from future taxes related to the property.
The landfill operated for about 15
years, but in the early 1980s the owner
went bankrupt, the property was
abandoned, and the landfill closed.
The township wanted to redevelop the
site, but commercial developers balked
at a purchase due to environmental
restrictions and state environmental
requirements. The NJDEP eventually
determined it would be feasible for a
solar farm, and the township put together
a redevelopment plan that permitted
a solar array. Mount Olive is
among several landfill or brownfield
solar projects either in service or being
developed by CEP Renewables, which
has been working on landfill solar projects
for more than a decade.
" With global expertise and proven remediation,
engineering, and permitting
strategies, CEP Renewables is a premier
solar developer, " said Robert Pohlman,
vice president of corporate strategy at
NJR Clean Energy Ventures, also known
as CEV. " NJR Clean Energy Ventures has
long supported state policy to prioritize
underutilized land and bring complex solar
projects-from conception to energization-to
the marketplace. " ■
-Darrell Proctor is a senior associate
editor for POWER.
POWER | September 2023

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POWER September 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER September 2023