Branchburg Solar Farm to Provide Energy for Eli Lilly Subsidiary ImClone
KDC Solar (Bedminster) has begun commercial operations of a 9.95-megawatt solar panel system. The system, located in Branchburg, will provide electricity to Eli Lilly and its subsidiary ImClone Systems’ (Branchburg) biopharmaceutical operations. Lilly acquired ImClone in 2008.
According to KDC, the project represents the largest photovoltaic (PV) solar system supplying solar energy to any pharmaceutical company in New Jersey. Moreover, the firm says the project is one of the largest of its kind for an East Coast nonutility company.
Jim Schworn, Mayor, Branchburg Twp.; Jerry Kinzel, President and Managing Director, ImClone Systems; Assemblywoman Donna Simon; Somerset County Freeholder Bob Zaborowski; Senator Kip Bateman; Hal Karmine, CEO, KDC Solar; Congressman Leonard Lance;Freeholder Mark Caliguire; Alan Epstein, President and COO, KDC Solar | Jack Turkel for Lilly
The solar farm will generate some 12.9 kilowatt hours of solar electricity per year and should provide Lilly’s Branchburg manufacturing facility 45 percent of its annual electricity needs. That is the rough equivalent of 12,000 homes being supplied with all their electricity for a year, said KDC, which owns the solar panels and will operate and maintain them.
The solar panel system uses some 40,180 PV panels and 16 Advanced Energy Industries 500-kilowatt inverters. It is ground-mounted on 43 acres of land owned by a subsidiary of KDC, a press release stated.
