Monroe Township — The Monroe Township Planning Board reviewed a proposed solar energy project for the Monroe Township School District on May 22, 2025, covering rooftop, ground-mounted and parking-canopy arrays at seven district properties; the board took no formal action because the presentation was offered as a courtesy review.

The project team said the largest element would be a canopy installation at Monroe Township High School that, as shown in the submitted plans, would be roughly 3.5 megawatts on the campus; other work includes a 0.7-megawatt ground array at Applegarth Elementary, a ground array under 0.2 megawatts at Oaktree Elementary, and rooftop systems at Monroe Township Middle School, Barclay Brook Elementary, Woodland Elementary and the district administration and transportation building.

The presentation was given by Rob Simon of Harold Law on behalf of the district and HESP Solar, with civil engineering testimony from Robert Moschello and operations testimony from Susan Brodie of HESP Solar. Moschello described the high-school canopy as “a little larger than your typical solar canopies” and said the parking canopies will vary between 22 and 28 feet in height to provide a 14-foot clear span beneath the panels for emergency access. “We're looking at basically, on this layout here, it's almost a 3 and a half megawatt system, for the, for the school,” Moschello said.

The team said the design aims for a net-zero electrical profile for the district — sized to generate nearly as much electricity as the schools use over a year — and that rooftop and ground arrays will feed power back to each building’s meter. “We look to get someplace, you know, in the 90% range. I think on these schools, we actually were able to achieve about 98 to 99%,” Susan Brodie said, and she summarized the projected fiscal benefit: “the savings to the school will be almost $400,000 a year and about over $6,000,000 for the 15 year contract life.”

Project details presented to the board included: canopy arrays spanning multiple parking rows with conduit runs back to buildings; removal of existing pole-mounted parking lights under canopy areas with replacement lighting mounted beneath the canopies to meet ordinance levels; removal of a small number of trees where shading would impair array performance; fenced ground-mounted arrays supported on driven piles that have negligible impervious footprint (Moschello estimated approximately “30, 40 square foot of impervious coverage for the pile itself”); and 7-foot-high fencing around ground equipment, which the team said is dictated by electrical code.

Board professionals and members pressed on operational and safety topics. Questions included emergency-access clearances for buses and fire apparatus, coordination with the municipal fire department, whether the police department and school security will assess sight lines and camera coverage, how roof access and maintenance will be handled, and whether lighting design will maintain or improve current illumination levels around walkways and sidewalks. Moschello and Brodie said HESP would coordinate final designs with the fire department, the school district’s buildings-and-grounds staff and, if requested, with the police department and school security to ensure access and sight-line coverage; Brodie noted roof access is typically internal where schools allow it and that construction crews use lifts during installation but are removed after work is complete.

The applicant described programmatic and contractual limits: the district’s agreement with HESP Solar is structured under New Jersey’s Energy Savings Improvement Program (ESIP) framework; the installation contract term shown in testimony is 15 years (the maximum service contract length for New Jersey boards of education), with options the district could use after that term — for example, a removal by the vendor, extensions, or a buyout at fair market value. Brodie described warranties and expected life: the systems are warrantied for 25 years (panels commonly carry 25-year warranties) and the panel life expectancy was described in testimony as about 40 years; Moschello and Brodie also discussed expected year-over-year performance degradation, with Moschello saying degradation is typically about “half of a percent per year.”

Because the board received the package as a courtesy review, no vote was taken. Board professionals requested written lighting plans, final canopy clearance details for emergency vehicles, and documentation showing coordination with the fire department; several members also asked that the design team meet with school security and the police department before final permits are sought to confirm camera placement or additional cameras under canopies if existing roof-mounted cameras would be obscured. The applicant agreed to those follow-ups and to further refine foundation and structural drawings in the building-permit process.

Next steps described by the team include final structural and electrical engineering, municipal permitting and building permits, and coordination with municipal safety departments as part of the final design and permit review. Because this was a courtesy review, the board offered guidance and questions but made no formal recommendations or conditions at the meeting.