CEP completes Mount Olive landfill-to-solar project

CEP Renewables and its partners—CS Energy; Fort Myers, Florida-based Terrasmart, Canal Fulton, Ohio-based Lindsay Precast and NJR Clean Energy Ventures—have announced that they have completed what CEP says in a news release is the largest landfill solar project in North America.

This 25.6-megawatt (MW) direct current solar project is located in Mount Olive, New Jersey, and has enabled the township to recoup nearly $2.3 million in past taxes while transitioning the former Combe Fill North Landfill Superfund site into a revenue-generating, clean energy asset.

CEP Renewables, Red Bank, New Jersey, leveraged its expertise in redeveloping landfill, brownfield, mining and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund sites into renewable energy plants on the 25.6-MW Mount Olive solar landfill project.

“We’re pleased to have been able to work closely with our reliable, long-time partners to convert yet another previously unusable landfill site into a renewable energy generating power plant,” CEP Executive Vice President Chris Ichter says. “There are over 10,000 closed landfills in the United States, yet only a small fraction of these parcels have been redeveloped. Transitioning more of these landfill sites into solar projects will create more local tax revenue, jobs, cleaner air and affordable energy for residents throughout the country.”

According to the EPA, the number of landfill solar projects in the U.S. has increased by 80 percent during the last five years. As these landfills have existed for several decades, the key driver of this recent trend is the landfill expertise that has been developed by companies such as CEP Renewables. CEP has experience in the redevelopment of environmentally impaired sites, such as landfills and brownfield sites.

CS Energy, Edison, New Jersey, has completed 216 megawatts of landfill solar projects since 2011, making the company an experienced choice to design and construct the Mount Olive project.

“We’re proud to have been selected by CEP Renewables to provide our expertise for this impactful landfill solar project due to our track record of completing these challenging projects safely, on time and on budget,” CS Energy Director of Operations Mike Dillon says. “This is our eighth project with CEP Renewables, our seventh project with Lindsay Precast and our 14th landfill solar project with Terrasmart. Our strong partnerships with each of these industry leaders also enabled us to efficiently deliver this high-quality landfill solar project, which will provide significant financial and environmental benefits to this community long-term.”

In addition to the substantial benefits provided to the town, the large size and the challenging nature of this capped landfill solar project, the Mount Olive project also is notable because it involved the purchase of the landfill through the redevelopment and tax lien foreclosure process. Partially because of this approach, the project won the 2021 Award for Innovation in Governance from the New Jersey League of Municipalities. The Mount Olive project now serves as a model for myriad other closed landfill sites throughout the U.S.—in terms of the redevelopment process as well as the design and construction execution—while also providing greater tax revenue and more affordable clean energy for local communities.

NJR Clean Energy Ventures, Wall Township, New Jersey, will own and operate the Mount Olive solar facility. CEP Renewables owns the land for this project, which is being leased to NJR Clean Energy Ventures.