Tuesday, April 30, 2013
Company says it plans to cut 'carbon intensity' in half by 2020.
Verizon announced on Tuesday that it will invest $100 million in a solar and fuel-cell energy project that will help power 19 of its facilities in seven states, including the Verizon Center facility off North Maple Avenue in Basking Ridge. When completed next year, the project will enable Verizon to annually generate more than 70 million kilowatt hours of its own green energy, which the company noted is enough to power more than 6,000 single-family homes a year, while eliminating more than 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, said an announcement from the company. That is enough to offset the annual CO2 emissions from more than one million gallons of gas. Verizon spokesman Lee Gierczynski on Wednesday said that plans are being finalized …
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Ribbon cutting for new solar installation after 20 years.
When the Somerset County Park Commission's Environmental Education Center was built in Basking Ridge in 1976, it was one of the first educational buildings in the nation to have solar panels as one of the primary features. On Thursday, Somerset County officials gathered outside the building at 190 Lord Stirling Road in the township for an official ribbon cutting on a new solar installation that will keep the wooded EEC building current for today's solar technology. "It's particularly fitting that we're unveiling solar panels here at the Environmental Education Center, which was one of the first educational facilities in the U.S. to feature solar panels back in the 1970s," said Freeholder Patricia Walsh, park commission liaison. "Now that…
40.694562
-74.520926
Environmental Education Center at Lord Stirling Park
190 Lord Stirling Rd, Basking Ridge, NJ
/articles/solar-panels-restored-on-eec-first-county-building-to-have-them
148540
/locations/9123179
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
With two solar installations already in place, new state regulations allow potential electricity buyback program from proposed solar field at landfill.
Somerset County's installation of solar panels on the roof of the township's Department of Public Works building was ready to go online Tuesday, Township Administrator Bruce McArthur told the Township Committee that night, but an even bigger solar project is on the horizon. The installation of a field of solar panels over a closed section of the Pill Hill landfill off Pill Hill Road, although approved by the committee more than a year ago, is held up waiting for changes in state regulations, McArthur told committee members at Tuesday's meeting. But the good news, he said, is the governor's retooling of solar regulations to encourage panels to be placed on industrial "brownfields" and on landfills also gives the township a chance to …
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
UPDATED: Rooftop panels at Ridge High School and William Annin Middle School will be online soon.
A project in which the Board of Education allowed Somerset County to install solar panels on the roofs of the William Annin Middle School and Ridge High School is complete, and awaiting final inspections before going online, school officials said this week. "Everything is done," School Board Member William Koch said at Monday's meeting. Schools Superintendent Nick Markarian reported later that the inspections could be done and the panels online by the end of February. The project, started late last summer, could eventually save the school district about $695,000 over the life of the panels, estimated at 15 years, according to figures from the Board of Education office. The greatest savings — based on estimated energy costs that can …
Monday, March 26, 2012
Board of Education set to vote on first budget that will not be placed on a public ballot.
Tonight, Monday, is the public's chance to comment on the proposed 2012-13 school budget before it is placed before the Board of Education for a vote for final approval. Another presentation on the proposed 2012-13 school budget, along with opportunities for the public and school board members to give input, is on the agenda for Monday night's scheduled board meeting at 7 p.m. in the cafeteria at the William Annin Middle School. Afterward, the $93.266 million school budget, which no longer needs voter approval, will be considered for final adoption by the school board. The $75,856,316 taxpayer contribution to next year's budget will not be placed on a public ballot this April, since the school board voted in February to take advantage of a…
40.68256
-74.563269
William Annin Middle School
70 Quincy Rd, Basking Ridge, NJ
/articles/2012-13-school-budget-solar-panels-on-school-roofs-on-monday-agenda
62485
/locations/6663214
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Assemblyman Robert Schroeder sponsors bill requiring emblem on buildings where solar panels are attached to the roof to protect firefighters from electrocution.
With an increasing number of buildings investing in alternative energy, emergency responders are often unable to immediately identify structures that have installed solar panels on their roofs — putting them at risk of electrocution in the event of a fire. In an effort to protect firefighters against the danger of electrocution posed by solar panels, Assemblyman Robert Schroeder (R-Woodcliff Lake), a volunteer firefighter in the Township of Washington since 1980 who has twice served as fire chief, has sponsored a bill that would require buildings to clearly label with an exterior emblem whether they have solar panels. The bipartisan bill was approved by the Assembly Homeland Security and State Preparedness Committee, on which Schroeder …
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Project under auspices of municipal sewerage authority awaiting final green light to go online and begin generating power.
The Bernards Township Sewerage Authority announced it has completed its installation of 4,700 solar panels at its sewerage treatment facility off Martinsville Road. The project is to begin generating power as soon as final approval comes from Jersey Central Power & Light Co., Township Engineer Tom Timko said on Wednesday. The Sewerage Authority's chairwoman, Carolyn Gaziano, said in an earlier press release that the $4.8 million project, construction of a 1.1 megawatt solar photovoltaic field, includes more than 4,700 solar panels on ground mounts, the drying bed roof, and two steel canopies that extend over the lagoons at the treatment plant. “We are very pleased that this project has been done on time and on budget," Gaziano said. "This …
40.6557
-74.57643
Martinsville Rd & Allen Rd, Basking Ridge, NJ
/articles/township-sewerage-authority-completes-installation-of-4700-plus-solar-panels
/locations/4610852
Pamela A Mackey
1:26 pm on Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Why does a company in NY own the system? Is it impractical for Bernards Twp. to own the solar generation as a municipal utility? How does Somerset County manage their system that provides the school panels? Do they own them? 100% solar energy sounds ideal. Our needs should be Independent of any national electric grid breakdown. If I understand it, this should/must be done to make our town energy … more ›