New Jersey utilities float solar panels on the reservoir and operate the water treatment plant

MILLBURN, NJ (AP) – New Jersey’s Canoe Brook Water Treatment plant produces 14 million gallons of potable water a day.

Each one of these gallons weighs about 8 pounds, so it’s quickly apparent that a large amount of energy is required to move water from a reservoir to the treatment plant and into the 84,000 homes and businesses that New Jersey American Water Company serves in the area .

So the water utility partnered with NJR Clean Energy Ventures, the renewable energy subsidiary of natural gas company New Jersey Resources, to find a solution.

NJR Clean Energy Ventures built a large array of solar panels, wired them together and placed them on the surface of the water at Canoe Brook Reservoir.

The companies say the 1[ads1]7-acre solar array, consisting of 16,510 solar panels, is the largest floating solar array in North America — about twice the size of the next largest facility, an array of floating panels on a body of water in Sayreville, New Jersey owned by the the municipality.

The Millburn facility, which began operating in January, produces 8.9 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 1,400 homes.

But the electricity does not go to private customers. Instead, it provides 95% of the water treatment plant’s significant energy needs.

“It takes a lot of energy to pump that water,” said Mark McDonough, president of New Jersey American Water. “Whenever we can use a cleaner, greener and more efficient energy source, we want to seize that opportunity.”

Floating solar panels have long been popular in Asia and are starting to catch on in the United States

A study published in the journal Nature Sustainability in March found that thousands of cities – more than 6,000 in 124 countries – could generate an amount equal to their entire electricity needs using liquid solar energy, making it a climate solution to be taken seriously.

Neither company would say how much it cost to build the solar plant in New Jersey, although Robert Pohlman, vice president of NJR Clean Energy Ventures, said, “It’s a project that makes a lot of sense for both organizations.”

The Sayreville solar array, which is about half the size of the one in Millburn, cost $7.2 million to build, according to RETTEW, the Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based company that built it.

Shawn LaTourette, New Jersey’s environmental protection commissioner, said the project allows the companies to “chisel off the pretty significant energy use of our water systems.”

Because salt water corrodes the equipment, floating solar panels are usually placed on man-made bodies of fresh water such as reservoirs or storage basins for water treatment plants.

Putting solar panels on top of plastic floats moored to the bottom of the reservoir helps reduce evaporation of water into the air, and the temperature of the water helps cool the solar panels so they can work more efficiently, officials said.

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This story has been updated to correct the weight of a liter of water. It’s around 8 pounds, not 7 pounds.

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