NJ says no to two 10-acre solar panel islands on Wanaque Reservoir

State officials this week rebuffed a North Jersey District Water Supply Commission plan to build a pair of solar panel islands on the Wanaque Reservoir.

Officials at the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities said the plan's benefits were outweighed by a failure to address site-specific concerns raised by the board, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the Highlands Council.

The system as proposed would consist of two floating platforms topped with solar panels, according to commission records. Each "island" would be about 10 acres in size and positioned on the reservoir's surface near the commission's water treatment plant on F.A. Orechio Drive in Wanaque., records show.

According to Highlands Council records, the project in 2021 received an exemption from regional development restrictions through its classification as a public utility upgrade. However, officials at the Board of Public Utilities have cited concerns that the solar arrays would end up at least partially on prohibited land in the environmentally sensitive Highlands Preservation Area, board records show.

On Jan. 10, board officials denied an eligibility waiver for the project's participation in the second round of the state's Competitive Solar Incentive Program. More specific information was needed to address land use concerns and gain Department of Environmental Protection support, they said. In official correspondence, board officials cited a need for further waivers, permits and restoration plans.

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During the board's Jan. 10 meeting, Commissioner Zenon Christodoulou said it was a difficult decision to make and encouraged developers to "be a little bit more precise with their filings."

"Part of what we're trying to do is get as much renewable energy out there as we can," he said.

The North Jersey District Water Supply Commission in late 2023 was one of several applicants hoping to join the incentive-based program established by the state's Solar Act of 2021 and overseen by the Board of Public Utilities. Designed to encourage the development of 3,750 megawatts of solar production by 2026, the program offers renewable energy credits for hitting solar production milestones.

In full operation, the 10 megawatt direct current system proposed for the Wanaque Reservoir could produce enough electricity to power about 6,000 to 7,000 homes. Officials of the commission, who in 2019 set a goal of powering its operations entirely through renewable energy by 2024, plan to use it to generate roughly 90% of the annual energy requirements.

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Popular in Asia, floating solar panel systems are relatively new in the Garden State. One solar system operator, New Jersey Resources Clean Energy Ventures, opened the state's first in 2020. It now runs that 4.4 megawatt facility in Sayreville and a 8.9 megawatt array at the Canoe Brook Reservoir in Millburn that went online in 2023. In a statement, company Vice President Robert Pohlman said the systems create "new opportunities for underutilized bodies of water, allowing space that would otherwise sit vacant to enable large-scale renewable energy generation."

The systems are simple in concept. Solar panels are attached to rafts that are interconnected and anchored to prevent drifting. The water helps keep the panels cool. The panels work to limit evaporation.

There are drawbacks, however. The costs are higher, and there are risks of disrupting a water body's ecosystem with large light-blocking arrays, experts have said.

For the proposed project on the Wanaque Reservoir, the arrays would cover less than 1% of the 3.6-square-mile reservoir's surface area. Land disturbance would be limited to land already used by the facility and along existing roads, commission records show.

Commission officials could not be reached for comment after the board decision but have argued against land use concerns by saying the project will not occupy any open space within the sensitive Highlands Preservation Area environment. The reservoir was built in the 1920s, after a municipal coalition formed with the goal of developing water supplies throughout North Jersey.

A town had to be razed. More than 70 buildings, including a 19th-century paper mill, were destroyed to make room for the water. Four cemeteries were moved.

The reservoir opened in 1930. Today, it serves about 3.5 million people and includes a 21-mile aqueduct that feeds Newark's Belleville Reservoir. Another 18-mile aqueduct, constructed in the early 1980s, can supply about 80 million gallons of water per day to the Oradell Reservoir. A third, which covers about 11 miles, can move up to 250 million gallons a day from the Passaic and Pompton rivers north to replenish the reservoir, according to commission records.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NJ says no to solar panel islands on Wanaque Reservoir