The Fort Dix 16.5 Megawatt Solar Landfill Ballast Mount installation was recently named by Engineering News-Record (ENR) as the best energy or industrial project for the New York region. Dewberry provided civil, structural, and geotechnical task-based engineering design services for the site improvements to Kupper Engineering, Inc., and contractor Conti of New York, LLC.

The Fort Dix renewable energy project is the largest military solar installation in the Northeast. It includes approximately 50,000 solar panels spanning across a 98-acre solar farm. The renewable energy installation provides more than 21,000 megawatt hours of renewable energy per year. The power generated from the solar farm will be utilized by Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst located approximately 1.5 miles away and will also supply power back to the local grid.

The project involved major civil and electrical work, addressing challenges such as restrictions on on-site digging. The team took into account slopes, stormwater runoff, and land-load bearing. Construction and installation activities were performed without piercing the ground so that no construction would penetrate the landfill cap to prevent any unintended damage. A fixed-tilt system maximized the available space. The project was designed to allow for about 25 years of operation on a landfill and for the installation of potential future battery storage on site to preserve power for later use.

The firm's services enabled the contractor to build on an accelerated schedule. The team maintained the owner's budget and completed construction one week ahead of schedule.

"We are proud to have been part of this project and we are committed to aiding our solar energy clients through delivering turnkey design services," said Project Manager and Associate Evan Hill, PE, CME, who is based in the firm's Mount Laurel, New Jersey, office.