Mayor Stephen Acropolis and the Brick Township Council are proud to announce that the New Jersey Society of Municipal Engineers has named the Brick Township Municipal Building Solar Panel System the Municipal Construction Project of the Year.  The award will be presented during the Society’s luncheon during the annual New Jersey State League of Municipalities Conference in Atlantic City on Wednesday, November 17, 2010.

“We are honored to win this award and be recognized for doing what is best for our taxpayers,” said Mayor Stephen Acropolis. “Using renewable energy to cut energy costs and produce invaluable revenue makes sense and we are going to work to continue to use it in the future. I thank our engineers from Birdsall Services Group for their outstanding work on this project and for their guidance.”

Earlier this year, the installation of a 125kW roof-mounted solar photovoltaic system and a 12kW ground-mounted solar photovoltaic system at Brick Township Municipal Complex was completed.  The system will produce about 158,511 kWh annually.  The project cost $765,000, approximately $235,000 under what was budgeted.  It was funded through the 2009 Capital Budget.  Birdsall Services Group was the engineer on the project and oversees the management of the Township’s Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) program.

In May, the Township awarded a contract to Knollwood Energy for the purchase of SRECs from the Township.  In June, they presented a check in the amount of $22,274 for the first SRECs sold by Brick Township.  The Township anticipated annual revenue of about $77,000 a year from the sale of SRECs and has been exceeding the estimates since the summer.

The solar photovoltaic project was born out of the township’s comprehensive Sustainable Energy Master Plan that was developed by Birdsall Services Group with input from the Mayors Advisory Committee on Renewable Energy (MACRE).  Future projects that are part of the plan include the installation of a wind turbine at the Drum Point Sports Complex that could generate 30,000 kilowatts of electricity and the construction of a 24-acre, 7.5 megawatt solar field at the site of the French’s Landfill.