Looking for the most effective way to meet the Bordentown Road Water Treatment Plant’s renewable energy and cost reduction goals, the Borough of Sayreville hired our team to design and build one of the largest floating solar arrays in the United States. The team includes RETTEW, a New York City-based investing firm, an international equipment manufacturer, and a New York State-based contractor. Together we designed this 4.4-MWdc floating solar array to help reduce the Borough’s annual electricity costs at the treatment plant.

The $7.2 million project will result in close to 6 million kWh of power generation at the plant annually. The floating array occupies 10 acres of the plant’s existing retention ponds. The benefits of a floating solar array include taking advantage of an underutilized area, reducing the environmental disturbance at the site, significantly reducing the number of trees that must be removed to accommodate the system, and enabling the plant to use nearby land for a plant expansion in the future. Our design allows for fishing and other recreational activities to continue from the shoreline because the system maintains a 25-foot buffer on all sides. In addition, a floating solar array stays cooler, which increases output efficiency and reduces evaporation from the water surface it covers by close to 10 percent.