By Doug Carman, Staff Writer
EAST WINDSOR McGraw-Hill plans to build a massive 10-megawatt solar panel field that will be “among the largest net-metered sites in private industry… certainly in New Jersey and likely beyond,” Mayor Janice Mironov said.
She said according to proposals that the New York-based publishing company submitted for approval at Monday’s Planning Board meeting, the 45-acre field will provide 20 to 25 percent of the facility’s entire energy needs. Primarily, it’s intended to power its energy-hungry data center, which opened in January 2008.
”It’s certainly a positive signal by a major corporation that they have invested significantly in our community,” Mayor Mironov said.
McGraw-Hill spokeswoman Patti Rockenwagner from the company’s New York headquarters said Tuesday that the person who was gathering the information together for a news release on the project fell ill and they were not able to comment this week.
Mayor Mironov said she was told that the company’s data center, as far as energy consumption was concerned, was not currently operating at its full capacity.
Mayor Mironov said according to the company’s proposals, the field will be located on the south side of Princeton-Hightstown Road. The panels will be installed at a low level, no more than 20 inches off the ground. Those panels, Mayor Mironov added, are designed to be readily interchangeable when they become outdated.
The solar panel field will not add any power to the town’s grid. Its power will be used only by McGraw-Hill and will not be resold, according to the proposals, Mayor Mironov said.
If the Planning Board approves McGraw-Hill’s proposals Monday, the company will have to get another approval from the town’s development board, and then will need a permit from the town’s construction department before it can begin installing the panels, Mayor Mironov said. This doesn’t take into account the processes from the company’s end.

