An 18-acre solar garden has been dedicated adjacent to Mars Chocolate’s North America headquarters in Hackettstown, NJ. The 2.15MW (DC) power plant–which is comprised of more than 28,000 ground-mounted First Solar thin-film PV modules–is said to be the largest solar energy facility installed in New Jersey by a food manufacturing plant and the first project completed by Public Service Enterprise Group’s PSEG Solar Source subsidiary.
Boulder, CO-based juwi solar handled the engineering, procurement, and construction duties and will also be providing the initial operation and maintenance services. PSEG Solar Source owns the system (which also features SMA inverters), and Mars has contracted for the entire output of the system, which will account for the equivalent of about 20% of the facility’s peak energy needs.
PSEG Solar Source owns utility-scale solar projects in Florida and Ohio. Those projects, also done in conjunction with juwi solar, will total 27 MW and should be completed by the end of 2010, the company said. The assets represent the first in a planned portfolio of solar facilities throughout the U.S. to be developed, owned, and operated by the PSEG unit.
