A fresh kind of Jersey farm

By Robert Demos Jr.

The Gulf of Mexico oil spill has focused attention on the need to reduce American dependence on fossil fuels. While the political debate rages between those who want to expand offshore drilling and those who want to restrict it, there is another option: harvesting the power of the sun.

New Jersey has already demonstrated its commitment to solar energy. It's the nation's largest producer of solar power after California, and it has set a goal of garnering 3 percent of its electricity from solar by 2026.

In keeping with this goal, Atlantic Green Power has proposed a utility-scale solar energy farm on 512 acres in the Salem County community of Upper Pittsgrove Township. The 74.6-megawatt farm would be the largest in the state and one of the largest in the East.

Because such facilities are not included in the local zoning law, Atlantic Green Power is seeking a variance. During hearings before the Upper Pittsgrove Planning Board, which continue tomorrow, residents and officials have expressed concern about the farm's impact on their quality of life. While apprehensions about an unfamiliar technology are natural, experience has shown that the concerns are unfounded.

Solar energy farms have very little environmental impact. They don't use water; generate sewage or other waste; pollute the air, water, or land; or create noise or traffic. Their primary impact is visual, and we plan to mitigate that through extensive landscaping.

Although the information presented in the hearings has allayed many residents' concerns, some remain troubled by a perceived threat to the agrarian way of life that has characterized the township for generations. They are loath to see farmland diverted to any other use, even one with a benefit as great as a solar energy farm's.

To address this, the company has proposed a deed restriction that would ensure the land is eventually returned to agricultural use. Nevertheless, some residents still prefer that it remain farmland. What they have failed to consider, however, are the enormous development pressures in New Jersey, which are likely to lead to housing construction on the land.

New Jersey is the most densely populated state in the nation and, indeed, one of the most densely populated places on earth. As a result, its farmland and forests are being gobbled up by development at a rate of 15,000 acres a year. New Jersey Future predicts the state will become the first to be "built out" - meaning it will have no developable land left - in as little as 20 years.

So the question isn't whether this land will be developed, but when and how - especially given the relative lack of zoning restrictions on residential projects. If divided into three-acre lots, the property could hold 174 homes, generating an estimated 129 new public school students and 1,750 daily car trips.

And once a residential development goes up, it is there to stay. Under the proposed deed restriction, by contrast, the solar energy farm's life would be complete after 25 to 35 years. And solar panels would occupy only 11 percent of the land.

This solar energy farm is therefore the best way for Upper Pittsgrove to preserve its open land, country roads, wildlife habitat, and rural way of life. And it will serve as a source of added tax revenues, as well as of green and construction jobs.

But perhaps the most important reason to support this use reaches well beyond Upper Pittsgrove. By embracing the solar energy farm, the township would be bestowing its blessing on a technology that emits no greenhouse gases, supports no petro-dictators, and damages no fragile ecosystems, and which will help make the world a cleaner, safer place.