Following an outcry of frustration and financial scrutiny from residents as well as council members, West Windsor is hoping to put the brakes on a $38 million solar field project scheduled to begin this month at Mercer County Community College (MCCC). While Council is aware that the project is beyond the township’s jurisdiction, it hopes it can pressure the college to change its plans to reflect the residents’ concerns.
On Tuesday, May 1, Township Attorney Michael W. Herbert drafted a resolution seeking a courtesy Planning Board review of the MCCC solar field project. The night before, on Monday, April 30, a total of 60 people attended Council’s business session to tell the mayor and council of the college’s refusal to cooperate or inform residents — their neighbors along a quiet street at the south end of West Windsor — about plans for an industrial-sized, 10-megawatt solar project being undertaken by the developer, SunLight General Capital.
After one hour of listening to residents’ personal stories and concerns, Councilwoman Linda Geevers suggested asking MCCC for a courtesy review of the project by the West Windsor Planning Board.
Councilman Bryan Maher was clearly moved by the plight of South Post Road residents, whom he visited together with Geevers on Thursday, April 19. At the council meeting Maher demanded that the administration find out the names and titles of the proponents pushing this project along.
“I feel that MCCC has flagrantly disregarded the concerns of residents, the taxpayers, and I think that they should be held accountable for such treatment of our residents. I feel that as a township we are being bamboozled by the college and the county as well,” Maher said.
Earlier in the day on April 30, Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh sent a letter to MCCC President Patricia Donohue outlining each of the concerns raised by residents. After meeting with a handful of residents ten days earlier, Hsueh asked them to provide a list of questions for him to sign and send to Donohue’s office. He sent a Donohue a letter that made reference to the following concerns:
– Stormwater runoff and chemicals, standing water and
– NJ DEP review
– Esthetics and landscaping, and the removal of trees. Hsueh’s letter states “the solar field should be screened off in a residential-friendly way.”
– Potential for noise pollution.
– Possible electrical fire and release of harmful gases. A Sunoco pipeline runs through the MCCC property.
– The financial impact on taxpayers should the firm in question, SunLight General, which was founded in 2009, go bankrupt. Mayor Hsueh’s letter referenced “payment obligations under county guaranty.” The mayor also poses a direct question on financing to Donohue.
“Given the participation and partnership with the Mercer County Improvement Authority (MCIA), what are the precautions you have built in to the financial strategy for funding the project?” Hsueh’s letter stated.
The next order of business for the mayor and administration in this case will be attempting to have MCCC and county officials who are overseeing the project provide a courtesy planning hearing at the West Windsor municipal building. On April 30, Business Administrator Robert Hary suggested that the presentation be held at the college. Linda Geevers objected and said that residents should be accommodated, so Mayor Hsueh then asked for a show of hands from those in attendance. The response was emphatic — residents want MCCC to come show the plans to everyone at town hall, in conference room A, before they build the solar structures and impact the township.
Christine Bator of 6 Whealston Drive, chairperson of the West Windsor Republican Club, spoke first during public comments. Bator has extensive experience in solar energy planning as she was previously an energy regulatory commissioner for the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. Bator currently teaches courses at Rutgers and Seton Hall law schools concerning energy law, economics and the environment.
“There is no planning board approval needed for these kind of projects, but continuous land owners need to have the right to challenge a project of this size. They need to be heard so we can implement mitigating measures and management, so while there may not be a law on West Windsor’s side, whatever Council can do to encourage discussion with the land owners is important,” she said.
Bator then spoke about the financial viability of the project, explaining the SREC (solar renewable energy credit) market that was developed to encourage renewable energy sources to be built [one example would be rectangular solar panels that adorn PSE&G utility poles]. Bator said that the project, which has been allocated $40 million in funding, is supposed to generate money from the SREC credits — payment for every kilowatt hour that it generates.
“When the program first started in 2010 those SREC payments were about $600 per kilowatt hour, now it’s about $100. I think that the MCIA (Mercer County Improvement Authority) should look at the current financial projections before it issues bonds for the project,” Bator said.
From early March onwards Maher had called the financial impact of the project “ridiculous.” At the April 30 Council meeting the explanation of the tumble in SREC values disturbed him even more.
“Who is it that is pushing this agenda and is unwilling to take their foot off the gas pedal? No public or private entity would ever undertake this under the current financial situations, specifically with the SRECs’ decline. I find it appalling that if somebody comes up with an idea one or two years ago and the financial situation changes that they then would not change what they do, instead proceeding down a course that is flawed materially because you want to save face and not back-pedal on a decision that you made. That’s childish at best,” Maher said.
Nicole Miller of South Post Road spoke about the plan for SunLight General to lease the land and sell electricity back to MCCC for three cents a kilowatt, then collect the solar credits from the state.
“SRECs are two-thirds of the revenue that they hope to cash in on. They conceived this plan over 14 months ago, when the SRECs were valued over $600. Company officials have said publicly that they cannot make money with SRECs so low now,” Miller said.
Bator added that currently the New Jersey State Legislature is “in its infinite wisdom” considering legislation to prop up the price of SRECs. Meanwhile, Miller brought up another planning problem.
“When it comes down to it they are building this on land instead of building it over their parking lot,” she said.
Maher agreed. “It is very problematic that open space and farm space that we have paid for with our hard-earned tax dollars will now be converted into an energy plant to benefit a company that is not even residing in this community. It’s outrageous that this is what’s happening to our open space money,” Maher said.
Sandra Donovan of 20 Sapphire Drive, who has extensive business experience in the financing of capital projects, including one that cost $1 billion, spoke about the economic details of the project that were reported in various newspapers.
“According to these figures, in order for this project to be financially viable the numbers really should be at least 10 times stronger,” she said.
Teresa Lourenco of 408 South Post Road provided Council with a detailed timeline of the events and correspondence between MCCC officials and herself as she attempted to follow-up several times a month over the past year.
“The first invitation was sent to us last spring, but the meeting at that time was just schematic. The project was going out for bid, and MCCC did not offer any clarification on it. I requested another residential meeting with MCCC to discuss construction, property access, and fire hazards,” Lourenco said.
She detailed MCCC’s two meetings with residents and gave examples of the quick, uninformative answers the college provided. Lourenco also said MCCC had promised a courtesy review by the West Windsor Planning Board would take place. Later in the meeting Mayor Hsueh said that perhaps residents were confusing the township planning board with the Mercer County Planning Board, which in fact approved plans for the project on Wednesday, April 11. Several residents of South Post Road were at that meeting, held in Trenton, but they say there was no opportunity for their questions or concerns to be addressed by county officials.
John Church of 11 Princeton Place asked the mayor and Council why nobody from West Windsor government attended that county planning board meeting.
“It would have been very good if someone from here could have been at that meeting to testify. Somebody should have been there because that was where the action was. If they are going to do stuff like this, behind our backs, the township should be noticed and information on county meetings should be on our local website,” Church said.
Janet Mariano of 384 South Post Road said one of her main concerns was flooding, referencing the suffering that West Windsor residents on each end of the township went through after Hurricane Irene last August. At the council meeting she posed a related question to Council and officials from SunLight General.
“If the project goes through, who is responsible to the residents when they do experience excessive flooding and soil erosion? Who do residents call? Who will be responsible for the plan to remediate or provide restitution to residents? The county and the township have an obligation to keep their residents safe. MCCC needs to be accountable, with a plan for remediation in place for residents if problems arise,” Mariano said.
Jim Vizzoni, who lives at 392 South Post Road, has seen children grow up on his block for decades. He recalls the environment as a drawing point for West Windsor families that made their home there, and the farming tradition of the township that is still carried on today by Doug Tindall, whose family has been farming at the site since 1914.
“This is land that has been farmed successfully for as long as anyone can remember. The removal of 150 mature, healthy trees in our neighborhood will refute the green initiatives to cut carbon emissions down. The impact on fragile ecosystems seems to be omitted. For example, our septic systems and well water has not been considered in this plan,” Vizzoni said.
Vizzoni then brought up a factor that no other person had spoken about: the known historical value of that parcel of land and the area of Mercer County Park.
“In the West Windsor master plan, section nine, there are numerous references made to historical and archaeological sites in our vicinity. With so many references to our area — South Post Road and Old Trenton Road — why has there been no historical review prior to designating the area for an enormous solar project?” Vizzoni asked.
He added that children playing on the farmland and open space would find items such as pottery, arrowheads and musket handles tracing back over 150 years and usually use them for school projects and show-and-tell.
One of those kids who grew up on South Post Road was Rich Michal (pronounced Michael), a current resident of Robbinsville who stops in often to see his elderly mother and his brother who live at 364 South Post Road, which is directly in front of the proposed solar field site. At the April 30 council meeting Michal captivated the audience, administration and the Council with two unique aspects he had to offer: perspective on growing up in rural West Windsor in the 1960s and 1970s as well as the pitfalls of solar panel installation (as first reported in the WW-P News, April 27). Michal said he “got robbed” by installing 94 panels on his property due to a decline in the SREC market.
“There was $650 in SRECs and of course once the array was but in on my property, which was a $116,000 investment from my pocket with a three-year ROI, we’re now up to seven or eight years because SRECs are down to $123. So right now SRECs aren’t being sold and everyone, including the installer, has told me to wait for legislation to be passed to bring SRECS back up. Realistically, I don’t see that happening,” Michal said.
Michal, who had never attended a township meeting in his life, told council members that MCCC had the wrong idea for teaching solar through such a large-scale project.
“The irony of the whole thing is to a smaller scale, to be used as an educational tool, I think it would be fabulous. If you used a small array of panels such as PSE&G’s [on telephone poles] and teach kids the difference between harnessing solar, hydro, and wind energy, I think it’s a very good thing going into the future because it gets away from the use of fossil fuels,” Michal said.
Councilman George Borek gave residents his first take on the situation, seeing the problem as an unjust circumstance due to governmental constraint.
“The legislature thought this was a good idea and clearly they had no thoughts about the impact on local people. One of the phrases we hear about from time to time is home rule — they took home rule away from us. I can guarantee you that if this issue came up we would have wanted to have a discussion to address these issues brought to our attention,” Borek said. He maintained that home rule should be part of any future solar project legislation.
Even though it may be too late in this case, the town is now left trying to arrange one more discussion before shovels hit the ground behind homes on South Post Road. The agreement of both mayor and council on the issue was a rare show of solidarity — just two weeks after a budget showdown that divided Council down party lines.
