Clean Energy Ventures' plans show the location of solar panels on the property. The panels to be added to the project are the "banana-shaped" group at the lower right of the drawing.
An expansion of a planned solar energy panel array in Evesham on a capped landfill at the old Aero Haven Airport was unanimously approved Thursday night by the Planning Board.
The 8-0 decision adds 1½ acres to the original electricity generation project, which was first approved in 2019 by the board. Solar panels now will cover 17 acres on and around a remediated asbestos landfill and push farther into a wetlands buffer on the site. The potential output will go from 3.38 megawatts to 5.46 megawatts for the updated project.
Representatives of NJR Clean Energy Ventures III Corp., part of New Jersey Resources, said the first phase of the project at 450 Kettle Run road is scheduled to be completed by April. That part of the solar-panel installation will provide energy to the power grid.
The second phase of the project, approved Thursday, would sell energy to local customers under the state's Community Solar program, if it gets state approval, company representatives said.
"We are attempting to fully utilize the site,"Â David Frank, a Bordentown lawyer representing the company, told the board.Â
The 47-acre property owned by Owens Corning Sales LLC of Toledo, Ohio, borders the rest of the former airport, where Evesham Township owns more than 200 acres of open space. The Township has no immediate plans for the site.
» READ MORE: Solar project wants to revise its plans.
Public testimony at the meeting focused on the increased incursion into the wetlands buffer as well as concerns that the panels would be able to be seen from homes on Yorkshire Court and Deerfield Avenue.
In 2019, the project received Planning Board permission to reduce the required wetlands buffer to about 205 feet from the required 300 feet. The latest decision allows the arrays to be within 107.75 feet of the freshwater wetlands. Several endangered species have been identified as living around the site.
Because of the reduced buffer, Andrew Gold, legal director of the Pinelands Preservation Alliance environmental advocacy nonprofit, urged the board to require NJR Clean Energy to conduct a new environmental-impact study, rather than rely on the one done three years ago for the original project.
Frank, representing the applicant, said the original assessment should be adequate and the board did not require a new one.
Resident Steffi Pharo, who lives on Deerfield Avenue, said she never received notification of the original project. She said she was concerned about seeing the panels from her backyard, disruption of the capped landfill and the impact on endangered species.
"Being an environmental scientist, I'm all about developing clean, renewable energy resources," the former Township Environmental Commission member told the board. "I just never literally thought it would be winding up in my backyard and in such proximity to the Pinelands, which I love."
The new part of the project brings the solar panels closer to her neighborhood than the original project.
"At the same time, I have to think about my family's health, our property values and wildlife and the environment in general," Pharo said.
The connection to the grid will be on Hopewell Road. Underground wiring from the site would use an easement on Township land to the southeast of the site, go along Deerfield Avenue and onto Hopewell, explained engineer A. Maxwell Peters, of T&M Associates of Mount Laurel, representing the developer.
Peters said the asbestos landfill cap consists of 18 inches of fill and six inches of topsoil. Rather than being mounted on poles that would pierce the cap, the arrays will be on concrete blocks. The pressure per square inch of the blocks will be less than someone standing on the landfill, he said.
Owens Corning bought the site in 1986 to conduct an environmental clean-up of 50,000 cubic yards of Kaylo pipe insulation, which contains asbestos, according to press reports at the time. The Kaylo, dumped at the Aero Haven Airport as fill, now is buried in the property's landfill.
New Jersey Resources, based in Wall, Monmouth County, had $2.16 billion in revenue in its latest fiscal year and is the largest solar owner-operator in New Jersey, according to its 2021 annual report.
New Jersey Resources' Clean Energy Ventures unit has $1 billion invested in 53 commercial solar ventures, 9,700 residential solar customers and produces 367.8 megawatts annually — enough to power more than 56,000 homes, according to the annual report. The regulated side of the business is New Jersey Natural Gas, which serves more than a half-million customers in Burlington, Monmouth, Ocean, Morris and Middlesex counties.
The yellow border shows the area for the solar installation. The area will almost be covered by solar panels, according to the proposal. The neighboring property (Block 57, Lot 1), to the north, also was part of the airport and now is owned by Evesham Township for recreational space. To the north of that, but not on this map, is the Black Run Preserve.
