Six Flags Great Adventure goes solar
KDC Solar is building a 23.5 MW solar project to serve the theme park, which will be the largest net-metered solar plant in New Jersey.
When most people think of net-metered solar, they think of rooftop solar arrays on homes and small businesses; modest projects that feed the consumption of a family or maybe a store or an office.
And with good reason. Many states have capped their net metering programs so that only projects under a certain capacity can qualify for the program.
New Jersey is not among those states, and only requires that net-metered PV systems be no larger than is required to serve the annual electricity usage of a customer. This is how a 23.5 MW solar project that New Jersey’s KDC Solar is building will offset “virtually all” of the electricity usage at the Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey under net metering.
This is far from the only very large solar project to launch lately that qualifies for net metering. In August Xcel Energy and steel maker EVRAZ announced a deal under which a 240 MW solar plant will be built to supply the Rocky Mountain Steel Mill in Colorado.
A press release announced the KDC started construction on the Six Flags project earlier this week, but did not state when it will be completed. Unfortunately the project is already several years behind schedule, as it was previously slated to be completed in 2016.
Under the earlier plan the solar project was to comprise 90 acres, and it is unclear if this has changed. While substantial, this is dwarfed by the Six Flags complex, which after its 2012 merger with the Wild Animal Safari Park became the second-largest theme park globally at 510 acres.
Seminole Financial Services is providing debt financing for the project through a construction and permanent loan facility, and development capital and project equity was arranged by GoldenSet Capital Partners.