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Developers of two solar projects are celebrating their conversions of unused land to sources of clean energy. 

Red Bank-based CEP Renewables and Luminace, of New York, announced Nov. 20 that the 10-megawatt BEMS community solar landfill project on the Big Hill Landfill in Southampton has begun commercial operations. 

In December 2022, CEP – along with Edison-based CS Energy – started construction on the project, which converted a previously limited use site into a solar power plant, allowing the township to recoup approximately $2 million in back taxes and interest, according to CEP. Luminace, a Brookfield Renewable company, is the project’s long-term owner and operator. 

The facility will produce enough clean energy to power 2,000 households, the majority of which are low to moderate income. The site is part of the state’s Community Energy Program, which became a permanent offering in August and allows residents to access clean solar energy, regardless of their living situation. 

“We are pleased to have converted yet another previously limited use site into a source of revenue as well as more affordable, clean energy for local communities,” CEP Executive Vice President Chris Ichter said in a statement.  

Ichter added that the BEMS project “builds upon the success of our redevelopment project in Mount Olive,” which is the largest solar landfill project in North America. That project was completed in the fall of 2022, and Jersey Central Power & Light began supplying power to the site this February. 

Both the BEMS and Mount Olive projects – which add to CEP’s more than 100 MW of solar production in New Jersey – were purchased through the redevelopment and tax lien foreclosure process.  

CEP said New Jersey is now No. 1 in the nation for both installed solar capacity per square mile as well as for the most planned community solar capacity serving LMI households. U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-6th District, emphasized the latter statistic Nov. 1 when he was on hand to connect the ceremonial cord on a new rooftop community solar project by Solar Landscape in Avenel. 

New life for Old Bridge site 

In Old Bridge, New York-based AC Power will host a ribbon cutting Nov. 28 to celebrate the 2.78-MW community solar project located on the site of the former Global Sanitary Landfill. 

Inactive since 1984, the landfill is a former municipal and non-hazardous industrial waste site that was designated as a Superfund site by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to AC Power. The company sold the project and 25-year lease to Wall-based NJR Clean Energy Ventures in April. 

“We are excited that this true ‘trash-to-treasure’ solar project is closer to powering 400 local homes with clean energy,” AC Power founder and CEO Annika Colston said at that time. Many of those homes are low- to-moderate income, the company noted. 

Additionally, the project will generate more than $1.2 million for the township over the next 30 years, according to a report AC Power team members penned for Renewable Energy World. Click here to read more about how the project came to be. 

The company also said this spring that it had partnered with Solar One and the County College of Morris to sponsor student enrollment in a workforce development program, which prepares them for careers in the industry. 

Expected to deliver remarks at the ribbon-cutting ceremony are Old Bridge Mayor Owen Henry, New Jersey Resources Clean Energy Ventures Vice President Robert Pohlman, and AC Power founder and CEO Annika Colston.

Both the Southampton and Old Bridge projects move the state a step closer to the Murphy administration’s goal of 100% clean energy by 2035.