U.S. funds Cherry Hill solar panels

Cherry Hill has cobbled together the state and federal money needed to install rooftop solar panels at the town hall, the centerpiece of the township's long-term environmental plan.

U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D., N.J.) stopped at the Cherry Hill Municipal Building yesterday to announce $285,000 in federal funding that he said he had secured through the Omnibus Appropriations Act signed by President Obama in February.

"Installing solar panels will help Cherry Hill save thousands of dollars, increase energy efficiency, and combat global warming," Lautenberg said in a statement. "These funds are part of the forward-looking energy policy we need to reduce energy costs."

Lautenberg was joined by U.S. Rep. John Adler (D., N.J.), the freshman congressman whose wife, Shelley, was until recently on the Cherry Hill Township Council.

"Solar-energy projects like the one we celebrate today will lower energy costs for hardworking families and create much-needed jobs in this tough economic climate," Adler said in a statement.

The panels, which are to be installed by year's end, are expected to reduce the municipal building's monthly electric bill to $5,000 from $8,000, township spokesman Dan Keashen said.

The total cost to purchase and install the panels on the 19,400-square-foot roof is about $1 million. The balance of the money will come from a $720,000 Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant, a federal Department of Energy program created by U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez (D., N.J.) and funded through the economic-stimulus package.

Cherry Hill expects to get a $280,000 rebate from the state on the solar panel installation costs.

As part of the project, the township's 30-year-old heating and cooling system also will be replaced. Any remaining funds, Keashen said, would go toward fulfilling recommendations from an audit the township is undertaking to find more environmentally efficient ways to operate.