The letter from Mr. Kamal and his team about the proposed solar microgrid (The News, October 17) shows that they lack pertinent information about leasing the township-owned tract of land next to the municipal complex to a private for-profit company. I am not an attorney, but state law appears to be clear on this subject. In my letter of February 14, I cited NJSA 40A:12-15, “Purposes for which leases for a public purpose may be made.”
Subsection (l) of this statute reads: “Except as otherwise provided in subsection (k) of this section, in no event shall any lease under this section be entered into [by a county or municipality] for, with, or on behalf of any commercial business, trade, manufacturing, wholesaling, retailing, or other profit-making enterprise.” Subsection (k) allows public land to be leased for simply transmitting (not generating) electricity across the lines of a public utility, which is common practice. Another exception is that public land can be leased to a farmer who was leasing it before the government acquired it (NJSA 40A:12-14.1). Unless a court decision can be cited to the contrary, the statute would rule out leasing township land to PSE&G, or indeed any private for-profit company, for the purpose of generating power.
The writers claim that PSE&G awarded Solar4All funding to another township, in effect “costing West Windsor a valuable grant.” They did not identify the township in question, the type of land involved, nor the terms associated with this funding.
The Solar4All program is now focused on using brownfields and abandoned landfills, which is land that cannot readily be otherwise used. See https://issues.solarindustrymag.com/article/pseg-solar-initiative-focuses-on-landfills-and-brownfields, written this February by Todd Hranicka, Director of Solar Energy at PSE&G. As he says there, “In November 2016, the New Jersey BPU approved a second extension to the Solar 4 All program that authorized PSE&G to invest up to $80 million over the next three years to build an additional 33 MW of solar farms exclusively on landfills and brownfields in PSE&G’s electric service territory, in keeping with New Jersey’s established public policy of targeting these types of properties for solar development. PSE&G expects that the 33 MW will be enough capacity for three or four additional solar farms. By 2020, Solar 4 All will have 158 MW in service, of which more than 85 MW will be built on landfills and brownfields.”
The NJ Municipal Land Use Law has been updated to make using such low-value land for solar fields an easier process than had previously been the case. But the land next to the municipal complex is clean, productive farmland that does not fall into this category.
We all know that solar power can be attractive and economical at the right place, the right time, and under the right financial circumstances. This has already been shown in the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district. The town would now have to appropriate significant consulting funds to get enough data to determine whether or not entering into a third-party arrangement, as has been proposed by Gabel Associates, would likely be beneficial to West Windsor in the long run.
Such an analysis would have to include complete technical and economic data, including the above consulting costs, all the sunk staff costs to date, and future staff costs to manage the system. The limited backup time for the batteries, the complexity of the entire arrangement, projected cash flows, and the tangible and intangible costs associated with the loss of use of this land for other and perhaps more desirable purposes will be considered in 2018.
A different approach would be for West Windsor to install its own fully-owned and operated solar power facility, but without a battery system. East Windsor has done this for its police station, and we already have roof-mounted panels on the Senior Center. Developing technology could make this a better approach than current panel systems. It’s worth exploring.
— John A. Church, West Windsor
