What comes to mind when you think of New Jersey? Snooki? The Situation? The Boss? Fughedabouddit, try solar. New Jersey is the second largest installer of solar energy in the United States behind only California. National Geographic’s Great Energy Challenge has a piece looking at the revolution in solar that’s taking place in the “Garden State.”
Among the most densely populated states in the union, New Jersey has taken a different tact to developing solar. Instead of rooftop installations or clearing valuable land, solar installations are looking to reclaim degraded land that is too expensive to remediate and clean up for commercial and residential uses. While some places have spent millions to clean up landfills so that they can be habitable (think parks not homes) New Jersey is putting massive solar farms on these so-called brownfields and rebranding them as brightfields.
Land is a community’s most valuable asset and space, especially contaminated land, must be used wisely. It needs to improve the quality of life amongst its residents.
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