Tinton Falls Solar Farm, Largest in State, To Open Next Month

The largest solar farm in the state, located in Tinton Falls, will open next month.

A groundbreaking ceremony will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 31, at the site of solar farm, 99 Tormee Drive (Shafto Road).

The $80 million, 19.88 MW, 85,000 ground mounted panel solar farm sits on 100 acres of land and is not only the largest in the state, but one of the largest in the northeast.

Tinton Falls Solar Farm, LLC, a subsidiary of Zongyi Solar America Co. Ltd., purchased the property from Clean Jersey Solar for $5.55 million, or $57,000 per acre, according to the CoStar Group Web site.

The borough's zoning board approved the application in November 2010, with the site subdivided into the solar farm and a non-age restricted townhome development. One of the original proposals for the site was to develop 243 single family units and 61 affordable units with over 1,100 bedrooms. The scaled-down application had 248 two-bedroom units.

The energy generated from this site could power the equivalent of nearly 3,000 homes, which are about two-thirds of the total households in Tinton Falls.  It is estimated that this solar farm will offsets carbon emissions equivalent to nearly 4,000 acres of trees, according to a release from the borough.

Next month's cermemony will be attended by Tinton Falls Mayor Michael Skudera, Tinton Falls Solar Farm LLC CEO Eddie Zeng and local, county and state officials.