“In today’s age of state mandated caps and falling revenues, it is important that towns look for ways to save money,” said Mayor Acropolis.  “These solar panels will reduce the amount of money we spend on utilities at Town Hall.  Every dime we save on our electric bill is one more dime we can put towards maintaining services.”

 “What is great is that between the savings on utilities and the revenue it will generate through solar renewable energy credits this system will pay for itself in a matter of years,” said Mayor Acropolis.

Solar renewable energy credits (SRECs).  According to New Jersey Clean Energy Program’s website, each time a system generates 1,000 kWh of electricity, an SREC is earned and placed in the customer's electronic account.  SRECs can then be sold on the SREC tracking system, providing revenue for the first 15 years of the system's life.  The Township anticipates generating about $80,000 a year in revenue through SRECs alone and another $30,000 or so from savings on our electric bills.”

Knollwood Energy was awarded a 3 year contract to purchase the SRECs from the Township.  At the June 29th, 2010 council meeting Knollwood  presented the Township with a $22,274 check is payment for 37 SRECs produced from the time the system went operational in earlier this year until May 31, 2010.  The Town expects to receive about $80,000 a year over the next three years from the sale of SRECs and produce another $30,000 in savings annually on electricity at the municipal building.

“This is a great investment for our community and for our taxpayers,” said Council President Anthony Matthews.  “It is another example of the administration and council working to make sure that our taxpayer dollars are being used wisely and in ways that are going to provide our community with the best return for their hard earned dollars.”

The solar photovoltaic project was born out of the township’s comprehensive Sustainable Energy Master Plan (SEMP) that was developed by Birdsall Services Group with input from the MACRE.  Future projects that are part of the SEMP 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 solar field at the site of the French’s Landfill.

“The solar field project is one of the most exciting I have been involved with,” said Mayor Acropolis.  “The field will generate about $2.5 million in net revenue every year for the next 15 years, a total of about $37.5 million.  That is money that we can use to maintain services and try to reduce the tax burdens our citizens face everyday.”

The Township and Birdsall Services Group are also working on a solar plan that includes an impermeable cap for the landfill and a 24-acre, 7.5 megawatt solar PV field.  When completed, this project along with our other solar PV projects and wind turbine project will make Brick Township one of NJ’s renewable energy leaders.