By Doug Carman, Special Writer
EAST WINDSOR The Township Council gave the green light to McGraw-Hill’s developer plan to build a 47-acre, 14.1-megawatt solar panel array Tuesday evening, clearing one more hurdle for the construction project.
The 5-0 vote approving the developer’s plan didn’t translate to a starting date for the construction, but Mayor Janice Mironov said after the meeting that she anticipated the construction to begin “soon.”
”I think they’re very close to starting,” Mayor Mironov said of the project. “They’re beginning to mobilize off of (County Road) 571.”
She also said that McGraw-Hill still needed a few other agencies to sign off on the project, from the township’s standpoint, before the construction can begin.
A spokeswoman at McGraw-Hill could not be reached for comment.
Council members Marc Lippman and Hector Duke were absent from the meeting.
Plans for the field were first publicized during Mayor Mironov’s state of the township address earlier this year. Representatives of McGraw-Hill and Advanced Solar Products, the company that will install the solar panels, said the field will be constructed along the south side of Princeton-Hightstown Road. The energy from the field will be used to power McGraw-Hill’s data center, which was built in 2008.
Though initially greeted with fanfare from residents and the business community, the reaction was mixed from people living near the site of the field. There was praise for the intent of the project but questions abouyt the impact the solar panels would have on their property values. Residents, who brought their complaints to the East Windsor Planning Board in May, also raised several questions on the dirt that would be kicked up during the construction and about the environmental impact of removing 47 acres of grass and shrubs for the solar panel field.
