South Brunswick Freight Companies Discuss Converting To Electric Fleet

SOUTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — Hermann Services and Campbell Freightliner are discussing the prospect of converting their tractors to electric fleets, according to Mayor Charlie Carley.

The mayor attended a discussion with the companies over the weekend.

“Each of these companies — here in South Brunswick — will ultimately invest many millions of dollars toward this end. They are doing the work on building the infrastructure, training the workforce, and investing in the technology,” Carley said. “It takes fortitude to do such things. Particularly when it is your own skin in the game.”

Local, county and state governments have worked with the private sector in South Brunswick to push for a more clean energy efficient future.

More recently, the township partnered with Republic Services to install 40,000 solar panels on the old municipal landfill. That project now produces 14 megawatts of clean energy daily and reduces carbon emissions by the equivalent of 2,700 internal combustion motor vehicles every day.

“We’ve partnered with Dow Jones and very many distribution centers to install roof-top solar arrays that produce multiple dozens of megawatts of clean electricity every day without covering lawns and playing fields,” Carley said.

“The most recent project moved forward two weeks ago. We expect to foster more.”

These initiatives align with the township's goal to provide clean energy or access to clean energy options to residents by 2030. This is consistent with Governor Phil Murphy’s 2019 comprehensive clean energy bill that challenges the entire state to achieve 50 percent renewable electricity by 2030.

“We are well underway. It is well within our reach to meet these goals,” Carley said.

The efforts undertaken by Hermann Services and Campbell Freightliner is a different and exciting prospect, the Mayor said.

“We owe it to ourselves and future generations to be open-eyed about the seriousness of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions and make decisions based on facts,” Carley said.

“We will continue in this work, and we will achieve a world where the air is fresher and the world is better. And by doing what we know to be necessary, we will have fulfilled this part of our obligations to future generations.”

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