CTCI Helps Minimize Global Warming
New Jersey, U.S.A. Photovoltaic Power Plant Development, Investment, Construction & Operation Project
- Market:Power
- Owner: Lumberton Solar W2-90 LLC
- Commercial Operation Date:2016
- Power Plant Location:New Jersey, USA
- Scope of Work: Development, Investment, Engineering, Procurement, Construction, Operation & Maintenance
- Capacity:9.5 MWp
Lumberton Photovoltaic Power Plant (PVPP) is located in the state of New Jersey, U.S.A., between the financial hub of Manhattan and the country’s capital, Washington D.C. After six years of effort in development, investment, engineering procurement and construction, and uploading of power to the PSE&G grid, the site, with an area of about 50 acres is being operated commercially since April 2016. Lumberton PVPP can produce about 12 million kWH green power annually, thus minimizing global greenhouse gas emissions, and contribute to effectively mitigate global warming.
Site View of the Lumberton Project.
Why CTCI ?
Completing the project with professionalism
GD Development Corporation (GDDC), a well-known Photovoltaic Power Plant developer in Taiwan, is a joint venture company between ECOVE Environment Corporation, belonging to CTCI, and Gintech Energy Corporation. Since its inception in 2011, GDDC will have been developing and building dozens of projects with Taiwan local companies and government, and exploring the US PVPP market at the same time. Lumberton is the first project in U.S.A. and the business scope includes development, investment, EPC, commissioning, operation and maintenance. Lumberton project is 100% owned by GDDC, it ranks the 3rd highest investment case of Taiwan in the East coast of U.S.A. over the past decades. This is the first time that the project team has developed a PV project in the United States. Numerous obstacles have been overcome during the project execution, even in the face of the great differences of environment, climate, humanities, legal regulations and culture between local and Taiwan. In addition, the lack of manpower was the main difficulty during the start-up stage of GDDC. The time difference between Taipei and New Jersey resulted in many challenges, the team members handled the PV projects in Taiwan during day time and kept on conducting the Lumberton project at night. Moreover, the team has encountered several kinds of difficulties and worked under great pressure, they still tried their best to solve problems and implement the extremely hard project. Finally, the team has completed the large solar photovoltaic power plant which located in the area near global economic and political center.
Reliable Realized
Turning crisis into opportunity
The local governments attach great importance to preserve the historical and cultural assets. While the team was preparing to begin the project in 2011, they received a court notice, said there might have dinosaur fossil under the southwestern corner of the site, thus, the construction has been prohibited in order to prevent any damage that may cause. After several public hearings and the Court tossing the complaint aside, the court realizes that the person who raised the issue lived in northern state of America which is far from the site, the person had never been to the site and do not have strong evidence for the presence of dinosaur. Another issue case was related to American Indian remains which also did not have sufficient proof and did not stand judicial scrutiny. These two cases were very time consuming, and the progress has been postponed. Lastly, the project was implemented successfully under the support and every effort from all the team members. Lumberton had been confronted with the century’s worst hurricanes and snowstorms of the East coast, it caused enormous damage in the New Jersey State and all the construction had been shut down. Furthermore, the site was restarted and the project progress were impacted seriously by the accumulated snow and icy pavement . Even then, all the team members kept on solving a variety of problems to meet the schedule. They also very appreciated the full support from PSE&G power grid professional teams to let the project enter into the final phase and integrate with the PSE&G grid. Lumberton started commercial operation date even prior to the deadline, turning the crisis into an opportunity.
Construction became even more difficult with the snowstorm on the US east coast disrupting the progress of work.
Technical Matters
Creating local Job opportunities
Since the early stages of development, the project team had participated in and led the operations, including development, investment, engineering activities, procurement, construction and operation management to control the overall process. The project team needed to conquer the environmental and climate challenges. Besides, they also had to conduct several legal issues and regulations in such an unfamiliar environment and market, including the local operation condition, equipment, and sharp swings in the price of raw materials. The project team had hired local lawyers, accountants and consultants to comply with federal treasury recovery act in order to obtain construction subsidy, and meet the qualifications for Solar Renewable Energy Certificate (SREC) for state governments, and other operations required by local governments. In order to carry out the development, construction and long-term operation, Lumberton has hired local professionals to communicate with federal, state, and local government for complex power-grid interconnection procedures. On the other hand, they also need to study out the "limit construction order" barrier. During the construction phase, the entire site work was completed by local union labor, meanwhile, this project also created job opportunities locally.
Smarter Engineering
Global Synchronization Smart Cloud Monitoring
The Lumberton project site is far away from Taiwan with a time difference of 12 hours, the day time is totally different from Taiwan. Most of the development, construction and operation process work relied on internet network and cloud technology to conduct conferences, communication, documentation transmission, site control, and these technical appliance provided borderless, real-time and climate constraint-free cloud management. Lumberton project has been commercially operated for more than one year now, the operation and maintenance of the power plant is worked through the Internet, cloud, computer programs, mobile phone. The operation has been running smoothly so far and the power generation is in line with our target.
PVPP uses cloud technology to manage power generation.
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony of Lumberton commercial operation.
The key to complete this critical project lies in the perseverance of its team members.
Through determination and perseverance, we can accomplish great things. As the famous saying goes,”Where there is a Will, there is a Way.”
Mr. James A. Calore PSE&G Capacity Acquisition and Interconnection Manager
New Jersey Assembly Resolution 249 Affirms CTCI’Achievement in Reducing Global Warming with Solar power plant
For Memorializing 28th anniversary of New Jersey-Taiwan sister state relationship, New Jersey Assembly passed Resolution No.249 on 29 June, which would support and aid Taiwan in attaining participation in the assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Crime Police Organization (INTERPOL). The Resolution mentions that G.D. Development Corporation from CTCI has invested in New Jersey and promoted economic development locally. It is worth mentioning that G.D. runs the "Lumberton Solar Power Plant," generating 12,000 MWh of green energy and cutting down 23,000 metric tons of carbon emission annually, and makes a great contribution to reduce global warming.
