CS Energy, LLC, a leading integrated energy firm that designs and builds optimized projects in the solar, storage, and emerging energy industries, has successfully completed the largest solar project in New Jersey. The project owner, Ben Moreell Solar Farm, LLC, and the Department of the Navy (DON) executed a lease for approximately 170 acres of underutilized land for the purpose of constructing a 28.5 MW ground-mount project located at Naval Weapons Station Earle (NWS Earle) in Tinton Falls.

Carroll Engineering (CEC) provided land surveying and civil engineering services on this successful project. While complying with strict military security requirements, surveying services included establishing property lines, locating wetlands flags and existing utility structures, and preparing a boundary and topographic base map for the development plans. With existing conditions and environmental constraints mapped, CEC’s civil engineering team began working with CS Energy to layout the large array to avoid environmentally sensitive areas and impact on existing military operations. Existing patrol roads were utilized where possible to provide maintenance access to the solar array. Drainage crossings at existing patrol roads were improved with conduit outlet protection in coordination with the local soil conservation district.

The Ben Morrell project contributes to New Jersey’s 2020 Energy Master Plan, which aims to garner 100 percent of its energy from renewable, carbon-neutral sources by 2050. The Energy Master Plan is the first of a series of monumental steps to ensure that the state generates and manages its energy supply in a way that is consistent with economic, climate, and societal demands.