Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G) along with Rider University has inaugurated a 74 MW solar system at the school in Lawrenceville, NJ. PSE&G has completed the project under its Solar 4 All program, which the company has initiated to assist the state of New Jersey to achieve its renewable energy goals while allowing economic development and creating job opportunities in the state. The solar system will be owned by PSE&G and it will pay rental for the portion of the land occupied by it.
A roof top solar installation. Credit: PSE&G
The university has opened its new academic building, North Hall, the first ever new building after 1988 during the fall. The building was constructed with suggested LEED standard requirements to achieve LEED green building Silver certification rating being awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). Earlier, the University achieved LEED Silver certification for its West Village Residence Halls, which it opened during the fall of 2009.
The new installed solar system at Rider University is placed over area of 3.2 acre in the campus’s northwest corner. The system incorporates 2,640 ground-located crystalline solar modules, which are linked to the power grid of PSE&G to facilitate transferring of power generated by the solar modules to the grid. The power generation linked to PSE&G grid is adequate to meet the power requirements of around 125 average homes connected to the grid of the utility.
The Solar 4 All program of PSE&G was approved by the State regulators in July 2009, which requires the utility to invest and install 80 MW worth of solar project. The Rider University Project is one among the 24 solar projects being constructed by PSE&G over its facilities, educational institutions and warehouses. The other installations include four bigger sized ground-located solar farms, out of which three of them were constructed over unused and remedied land properties.