By Wayne Parry, Associated Press
MILLBURN, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s Canoe Brook Water Treatment plant produces 14 millions gallons of drinking water a day.
Each one of those gallons weighs around 8 pounds , so it’s quickly apparent that a large amount of energy is needed to move water from a reservoir to the treatment plant and into the 84,000 homes and businesses that the New Jersey American Water Company serves in the area.
So the water utility partnered with NJR Clean Energy Ventures, the renewable energy subsidiary of the natural gas firm New Jersey Resources, for a solution.
NJR Clean Energy Ventures built a vast array of solar panels, linked them together, and placed them on the surface of the water at Canoe Brook Reservoir.
The companies say the 17-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 that municipality.
The Millburn facility, which began operating in January, produces 8.9 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 1,400 homes.
But the power doesn’t go to residential customers. Instead, it provides 95% of the water treatment plant’s substantial energy requirements.
“It takes a lot of energy to pump that water,” said Mark McDonough, president of New Jersey American Water. “When we can use a cleaner, greener, more efficient energy source, we want to seize that opportunity.”
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