by Danny Teigman/The Star-Ledger
Thursday August 27, 2009, 7:00 AM
The gym at Camp Riverbend has two sources of energy: the summertime bustle of children playing basketball and the year-round energy that comes from the sun.
It’s the latter that for the last two months has been powering the Warren Township day camp, one of the few New Jersey camps to run on solar power.
Installed in June, the system will reduce the camp’s electric bill from thousands of dollars a year to zero.
The camp will likely use more energy than it produces in summer, but throttle back in winter when only the camp office remains in use.
“It’s the trend of our society,” said Paul Breene, 51, the camp’s director and owner. “We’re trying to have a smaller environmental footprint. No business does this unless they do the math and it works out.”
But the way New Jersey businesses do that math is changing.
The camp covered part of the system’s installation costs with funding through a state program that paid one-third of the unit’s $420,000 price tag.
Solar projects continue to be built with assistance from newer government programs, and the state remains the second-biggest producer of solar power in the nation after California.
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