New Jersey hosts a floating solar park of 8.9 megawatts (MW) – the largest floating solar installation in North America.
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NJR Clean Energy Ventures owns and operates the floating solar farm, which covers 17 acres of Canoe Brook Reservoir in Short Hills, New Jersey. NJR CEV and New Jersey American Water held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the project yesterday.
The floating solar park consists of 16,510 solar collectors and the clean energy they produce is enough to power 1,400 homes annually. It will provide about 95% of the electricity needs for the Canoe Brook water treatment plant of New Jersey American Water.
The floating solar park consists of photovoltaic panels mounted on rafts. The water keeps the solar panels cool, thus increasing efficiency, and the panels also reduce evaporation to almost zero.
Robert Pohlman, vice president of NJR Clean Energy Ventures, said: “Floating solar technology creates new opportunities for untapped bodies of water, allowing space that would otherwise remain vacant to enable renewable , which helps bring the benefits of clean energy to even more customers.”
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The Canoe Brook solar facility became fully operational in January 2023. In addition to providing sustainable, clean energy, the array also provides other benefits. The solar energy is equivalent to removing 8,121 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere compared to traditional energy sources.
Since 2009, CEV has invested over $1 billion in commercial and residential solar projects. As one of the largest owners/operators of solar energy in the state, it now maintains 65 commercial solar assets across four states and a portfolio with installed capacity of over 440 MW.
Canoe Brook is the second floating solar project in CEV's portfolio. The first, a 4.4 MW array located in Sayreville, New Jersey, was put into commercial operation in 2020.
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source of information: electrek.co
