Despite the likelihood of litigation being filed on behalf of residents of South Post Road (as mentioned by resident Teresa Lourenco at the Monday, August 6 Council meeting) Mercer County Community College plans to move ahead with construction of a 45-acre solar field on its grounds adjacent to Mercer County Park. In an E-mail to the WW-P News, MCCC President Patricia Donohue said the concerns of residents have been adequately addressed and follow-up has been provided on a timely basis. She also outlined the benefits the solar project would have for MCCC.
“Our solar project partners have been working diligently to address the concerns of the public. The college and the county look forward to the completion of this beneficial solar project, which will save energy for many years to come, improve air quality, contribute to a more sustainable future, relieve pressure on the power grid and educate students for green jobs now and in the future,” Donohue said.
She also reported that SunLight General Capital — the company leasing land from MCCC and planning to sell solar energy to the college — and the Mercer County Improvement Authority have continued to provide information to West Windsor residents and the general public. Updates on the project, including responses to some concerns raised by residents such as berms and stormwater runoff, have been posted its website — MCIA-NJ.com.
On Wednesday, July 25, the MCIA website posted its latest update, “Factsheet No. 3” pertaining to the solar field project at MCCC. A revised map was included with the information, and one of its most noticeable changes was the distances from residences along South Post Road.
Carol Wake, who has lived on the residential street with her mother for over 50 years, stated in a letter to the editor (WW-P News, July 6) that the project engineer from SunLight General Capital, Steven Goodbody, told her the solar field and the chain-link fence that will surround it would be no less than 300 feet from her property. But the July 25 factsheet specified a distance of 233 feet from the nearest residential property on South Post Road.
At the May 31 public meeting, Marek Dziekonski, who lives in Pennsylvania but owns the home along Old Trenton Road closest in proximity to the project, was told by Goodbody that the solar field would be 125 feet away from his property line. That distance has also been changed to just 75 feet. The MCIA’s update online vaguely explains the changes.
“The 233 feet is to the extreme southeast corner of the closest property. The final location of the solar project was impacted by a variety of issues, including permitting and regulatory issues. In all cases, in consultation with the West Windsor Landscape Architect (Dan Dobromilsky), the project will be screened at the fence line by appropriate plantings as depicted in site line drawings that were reviewed with residents and posted on the MCIA website.”
The MCIA update said Dobromilsky supported the use of an eight-foot high hedge rather than berms.
Residents of the area contend that underlying issues such as DEP regulations for protecting wetlands and the potential for stormwater runoff or flooding caused a change to the site plans. For screening and berms, the fact sheet stated that the project location contains a 300 foot riparian buffer surrounding “certain drainage features located within the site.” The MCIA says the state Department of Environmental Protection would not allow berms to be constructed in environmentally sensitive areas.
On its website, the MCIA also has quelled the notion that any form of a planning board review in West Windsor, even a courtesy review, was an obligation that MCCC and the MCIA sidestepped. The MCIA acknowledges that a non-binding courtesy review was talked about, but the plan was changed due to a county-level review.
“The approach was altered when it was learned that the Mercer County Planning Board would be conducting a formal review of the solar project. In addition, in the last 25 years MCCC has never submitted any of its projects to West Windsor for courtesy reviews. This information led the project team to conclude that a courtesy review by West Windsor would not be a proper forum for the discussion of the project,” the MCIA website states.
Another key component to the projected future of the project and its financial viability is the value of SRECs — solar renewable energy certificates. As West Windsor Councilman George Borek noted in early July, the market for SRECs depended on Governor Chris Christie’s approval of legislation to bolster the SREC market. On Monday, July 23, Christie signed into law legislation that significantly improved solar incentive programs in the state, deemed a “law to save the solar market.”
SunLight General Capital faced scrutiny about the falling value of SRECs, barely $120 at the time, from residents at the final public meeting on the project on Thursday, May 31. SunLight General responded to a number of questions about the project’s financial projections — which residents argued would ultimately fall on the shoulders of Mercer County taxpayers — by stating that their requirement for returns was an SREC value of $129 for the first five years and an average of $165 for the 15 year period ending in 2028. SunLight said that would ensure “timely lease payments to the Mercer County Improvement Authority.”
But the new law included a cap for the SREC values at $300, down from $670, to avoid dramatic fluctuations in the SREC market. As of July, SREC values were at $150 — a 75 percent drop from their high of over $600 in late 2011.
