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Mars Candy Installs Largest Food Production Solar Power Installation
In Hackettstown, New Jersey, where a factory churns out one of America’s favorite candies – bite-sized, candy-coated chocolate drops – the predominate color today is green.
The color-coated candies, of course, still come in various shades, but the facility producing them is so “green” it almost hurts to look.
Candy-maker Mars just installed the largest single solar photovoltaic installation in the nation at a food-production plant, as well as the largest in the state.
A joint effort between Mars and Public Service Enterprise Group’s (PSEG’s) solar division, Solar Source, the 2.2-megawatt array, comprised of 28,680 Solar Panels on an 18-acre field adjacent to the factory, will provide 20 percent of the candy plant’s electricity during peak load, or enough to electrify about 1,800 homes. It will also reduce carbon emissions by 1,000 metric tons each year, or the equivalent of removing about 200 cars from the road.
The system, installed under a power purchase agreement which allows Mars to buy the entire electricity output while PSEG Solar Source operates and maintains it, was designed and installed by Boulder, Colorado-based juwi solar Inc., which will also oversee initial operations and provide some maintenance services.
The thin-film solar photovoltaic (PV) panels come courtesy of Tempe, Arizona-based First Solar, one of the premier Solar Panel manufacturers in the nation. These panels, which are not available through wholesalers or retailers, are part of First Solar’s commitment to deliver quality by only working through a select group of independent power project developers and system integrators. This allows First Solar to manage the life cycle of its modules from raw material sourcing through collection and recycling. In February, First Solar announced that it had broken the $1-per-watt barrier.
The solar project, being referred to as a “solar garden” is the 11th-largest of its kind in the U.S., and cost upwards of $10 million, adding to New Jersey’s renewable energy portfolio, which calls for 30 percent (from renewables) by 2020.
Mars, which also makes Snickers and Twix, has been renovating its Hackettstown site, a combined corporate headquarters and manufacturing facility, with an eye toward earning LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification for its solar array, water-conserving toilets, sinks and water fountains, a Building Energy Management System that operates as an industrial-sized Smart Grid monitor and modulator, and energy efficiency lighting, among other improvements.
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