CEP Renewables, NJR Clean Energy Ventures and CS Energy announced that they have completed the 19 MW dc grid supply Foul Rift solar project located in White Township, Warren County, New Jersey. The project was built on a brownfield, a substantially environmentally impaired site, that had been the home to a composting facility for nearly thirty years. Prior to the facility ceasing its operations, it had an extensive history of violations received from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP). CEP’s development of this project resulted in the successful remediation of environmental damage at the site while also providing reliable, clean energy, pollinator habitats, and greater tax revenue for the local community.
“This project demonstrates both New Jersey’sstrong policy support for brownfield and landfill solar projects, as well as the power of developing a grid supply solar farm to remediate environmental damages that would not have otherwise been addressed,” said Chris Ichter, Executive Vice President at CEP Renewables. “We were able to draw upon our prior experience on similarly challenging brownfield and landfill solar projects to develop an effective public-private partnership with White Township that will positively impact generations to come.”
When CEP initially encountered this property, it had been contaminated due to the activities of the composting facility. An environmental investigation indicated that the soils were contaminated with metals, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and arsenic, that necessitated the use of an institutional control. The investigation uncovered a total of ninety-two distinct notices of environmental violations from NJDEP. To bring the site into compliance with regulations, CEP cleared the remaining compost berm and waste materials and negotiated a pre-purchase administrative consent order with NJDEP to effectively resolve the remaining violations and terminate the solid waste permit.
Similar to CEP’s award-winning Mount Olive and BEMS landfill solar projects, the Foul Rift project was also acquired through the redevelopment and tax lien foreclosure process, a method that was entirely unprecedented prior to the Mount Olive project. CEP addressed the site’s millions of dollars in tax liens accrued by forming a public-private partnership with the White Township that involved CEP acquiring the tax liens from the Township, paying back all past-due taxes, and foreclosing on the property. CEP is now the owner of the site, and the White Township has been able to recoup roughly three decades of interest and back taxes.
Not only has the Foul Rift project turned an environmentally hazardous site into a revenue generating asset, it has also contributed to New Jersey maintaining its ranking as the number one U.S. state for installed solar capacity per square mile. This project also further supports the state in achieving its goal of 100 percent clean energy by 2050.