Largest Solar Power System at a N.J. Hospital Goes Live at Saint Peter’s Healthcare System

The greening of Saint Peter’s Healthcare System took a major step forward Friday when the first phase of a 2.1 megawatt-dc (MW-dc) solar system went live at exactly 11:20 a.m. on the roof of the Center for Ambulatory Resources, or CARES building, on Easton Avenue.

A flip of the switch kick-started the largest solar system to be built by a New Jersey hospital and follows other extensive energy efficiency upgrades at the hospital financed through the PSE&G Hospital Efficiency Program.

The next phase of the project is scheduled to be completed by midspring, when solar energy panels will go live atop the roof of the Family Health Center at How Lane in New Brunswick.

The remainder of the solar energy improvements will be completed by late June.

“We are eager to see the completion of this project, which will place Saint Peter’s at the forefront of all that solar energy has to offer,” said Ronald C. Rak, president and CEO of Saint Peter’s Healthcare System. “Those benefits include long-term energy and financial savings, as well as the reduction of pollutants that do so much harm to the environment.”

When finished, the New Brunswick-based healthcare provider will operate a combined 2.1 megawatt-dc (MW-dc) solar system at various sites around New Brunswick and in Somerset. The solar systems are being installed by Sun Farm Network and financed in part by the PSE&G Solar Loan Program.

The Saint Peter’s solar project is comprised of separate solar systems at four different healthcare system-owned locations. The main hospital on Easton Avenue will feature a 1 megawatt-dc (MW-dc) solar system comprised of two “carport” solar arrays on the top of a parking deck and covering an existing parking lot.  There will also be a 118 kilowatt-dc (kw-dc) rooftop system at the CARES facility on Easton Ave, a 714 kw-dc rooftop system at the Family Health Center on How Lane and a 290 kw-dc carport system at the McCarrick Care Center and Adult Medical Day Care Center in Somerset.

These applications demonstrate the potential for generating clean, renewable solar energy by putting to work already developed spaces – in this case roof tops and ground-level parking lots – as platforms for energy creation, according to hospital and PSE&G officials.

The combined solar system is expected to save Saint Peter’s approximately $10 million in electricity costs over the next 25 years.

The entire project will consist of nearly 10,000 solar panels capable of producing more than 2.1 million kilowatt hours of electrical energy every year, and it will displace more than 78 million pounds of carbon over 20 years.   The solar system will produce a stable-priced source of electricity, which will enable the healthcare system to reduce and control its energy costs in the face of unpredictable utility rates that continue to increase.

PSE&G is providing financing through its Solar Loan Program, which makes $247 million available in loans to help customers in the utility’s electric service territory install solar systems.  The PSE&G Solar Loan Program typically helps finance about 50 percent of a solar system’s total cost and accepts the Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SRECs) that the system generates as payment for the loan.

Courtesy of Philip Hartman, the director of publications relations at Saint Peter’s Healthcare System.