Deptford to host solar farm at former Kinsley Landfill

DEPTFORD — The township will soon be home to one of New Jersey’s largest solar farms. Officials from the state and PSE&G have approved the former Kinsley Landfill to hold enough solar panels to generate energy for 2,000 homes annually.

Deptford’s planning board finalized plans on Wednesday, and the proposition had already been cleared with the state Board of Public Utilities.

“It’s been a long road,” said Mayor Paul Medany. “The landfill is still under post-closure and there’s really no use for it. This is a use for unusable land.”

PSE&G has already turned four Brownfield sites, as well as a former landfill in Kearney, into solar farms. Kinsley landfill, which closed in 1987, was selected from a list of more than 1,000 potential sites for the project. The consultant that selected Kinsley did so using a list of 45 criteria. Those criteria included the size and location of each site, as well as the ease with which it could support a solar farm.

The Kinsley farm will be twice the size of the largest farm in the first phase of PSE&G’s Solar 4 All project. It will occupy 32 of the landfill’s 134 acres, with about 37,000 solar panels for an 11-megawatt output. Todd Hranicka, director of solar energy for PSE&G, said the first phase of the project resulted in a total 80-megawatt output of power from solar farms, and PSE&G hopes to have 53 more megawatts from solar farms by 2016.

“We’re making great progress,” said Hranicka. “It’s been well-received, and the mayor’s very supportive. We’re taking this landfill and putting it to productive use.”

The landfill will need resurfacing in order to properly anchor the solar panels. The site plans call for 1.2 million cubic yards of fill materials to maintain the necessary grade.

Dan Edwards, president of Transtech Industries, the company overseeing the closure and ongoing maintenance of the landfill, could not be reached for comment, but said in September that he was pleased with the idea.

PSE&G expects to break ground on the site later this spring or early in summer. The campus of Gloucester County College already hosts a 12-acre solar farm.

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Contact staff writer Andy Polhamus at 856-686-3729 or apolhamus@southjerseymedia.com

Deptford to host solar farm at former Kinsley Landfill