Okay, we'll call this April 9th, 2026 Environmental Commission meeting to order. Um, roll call. Member Brandon >> here. >> Member Colton, member Godette >> here. Member Janetti,
member Lutz, member Mammy, alternate Baxi >> here, >> alternate toilia >> here. >> Le should I me keep going? Um, councilwoman's not here. Statement of compliance with open public meeting law.
The notice requirements of the open public meeting law for this meeting have been satisfied. A copy of the annual notice was sent to the Asbury Park Press and the Coaster, posted in town hall, and filed in the office of the township clerk on June 23rd, 2025. This meeting
will be recorded and available on Ocean Township's YouTube channel. Okay, welcome everyone. Um, this evening we have a presentation regarding our community energy plan. Uh, we have Ben on. Hi Ben.
You're muted now, but when you're ready to unmute and start the presentation, we're ready for you. >> Let's do this. Okay. >> Yes. >> Wonderful. Thank you for having me.
Community plan. We started working on this a while ago to energy planitation. to receive a grant under the energy grant sponsored by the
township applied received it and then it was received agreement with the public. >> We'll click that for you. How you doing, Ben? >> Um, >> yep. There we go.
Perfect. >> Where's it coming out? That's very >> Oh, that's good. >> Can you give me a five count, please? >> 5 4 3 2 1 blast off. >> Any better?
>> Yeah, I think so. >> Okay. Sorry about that. >> Hey, does that sound okay? Sounds good. >> Better. >> And we switched you to the presenter. So, let's see if you can share your screen. >> Okay. >> Okay.
Excellent. That should work. >> Here we go. Can you see my screen? >> Yes. >> And the welcome to Township of Ocean Community Energy Plan. >> Yes. Yes. We are doing really well so far. All right, everyone. We're ready to get
going. All right. Um, so anyway, the community energy plan again was through a grant by the board of public utilities and it's part of a multi-phase grant. The next phase in the grant is to uh
implement what you put in the community. the energy plan. Not necessarily everything that you put into it, but there is grant money uh 250,000 up to 500,000 for implementing some of the actions that you put in the project like
whether that be electric vehicle related, clean energy related or perhaps energy efficiency or community outreach. There are a number of different things that you can include in that. But in order to qualify for those funds, you have to first complete the community energy plan. So, the township received
$10,000 to draft its community energy plan and engage Blue Sky Power to assist in that process. So, uh, this is all emanating from New Jersey's energy master plan, which was an effort led
from through the governor's office for the last 20 years through various governors have implemented an energy master plan and then updated it through subsequent administrations. And the current energy master plan is
broken up into seven primary strategies. So they range from things like helping the town implement solar or becoming more EV friendly or energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. So these are the primary strategies that
Ocean Township is looking to deploy. Reduce energy consumption and emissions from the transportation sector. Accelerate deployment of renewable energy and distributed energy resources. Maximize energy efficiency and conservation as well as reducing peak
demand. That means energy demand during the the highest peak days in the summer when it's August and 100° and everyone has their air conditioner. How can you keep going? How how can you reduce demand on the energy grid during that time? Four is reduce energy consumption
and emissions from the building sector be commercial buildings. uh and how can they reduce their energy consumption? Now, strategy five and again these are the strategies under the New Jersey energy master plan. So, the reason there's no strategy five is because
strategy five is solely modernization of the electric grid which is just an initiative between utilities and the BPU and the state. So, it doesn't really involve municipalities. So it's not actually in the energy master plan
strategies. Now strategy six is encouraging and supporting participation by low to moderate income residents as well as environmental justice communities meaning those communities that are at greater risk for uh
environmental uh harm meaning areas where there are is housing near industrial areas or m manufacturing or concrete plants. those areas that are subject to uh greater environmental harm based on their location. Now, strategy
seven is uh innovation in the energy economy, things like battery storage or micro grids or district energy systems like the downtown steam loop in Trenton or Atlantic City. So, not necessarily as applicable to Ocean Township. So,
strategies 1, 2, 3, four, and six are the areas that Ocean Township chose to concentrate on from the state's energy master plan. So, now we're going to go through each one of those strategies and
highlight the initiatives under each strategy. Now, you don't necessarily have to implement all of the strategies or all the initiatives under each strategy. So you'll see when we get to some areas we may not hitting hit hit all of them. So uh strategies one and
two which are reducing energy consumption and emissions from the transportation sector as and strategy two being advancement of renewable energy. Those have the most number of initiatives in them. Strategies three, four and six are a little bit shorter.
So we'll spend some time on this and and number two and then it'll go a little bit faster as we get through strategies three, four, and six. So, the key initiatives that Ocean Township chose to pursue from the
recommended initiatives recommended by Sustainable Jersey and the Board of Public Utilities are adopting a supportive zoning ordinance and regulations for electric vehicle infrastructure, training first responders, meaning police and fire on EVs and EV
infrastructure. Next is training non-emergency staff, meaning DPW staff and code enforcement officials on EVs. Meaning, uh, you know, how you might train for public utilities to work or sorry, the Department of
Public Works how to operate and maintain any electric vehicles that you have or will have as well as code officials for inspecting uh, electric vehicle infrastructure for residents and commercial use. Next is purchase alternative fuel
vehicles, meaning for the municipal fleet, whether that be code enforcement or DPW trucks or police vehicles. So, uh, purchase alternative fuel vehicles. Next is improve municipal fleet efficiency. So, even if we're not talking about electrical electric
vehicles, we want to improve the fleet efficiency, meaning the the vehicles that the township uses, how can they be more fuel efficient? That's through tracking, uh the amount of gas used, the
miles driven, the routes taken, and making sure that they are more efficient in their operations. Next is installing public EV charging infrastructure, which the township already has been doing and will continue to do. Uh then encourage non-municipal fleets to improve
efficiency. So if there are commercial fleets uh within town, you might want to encourage them to improve their efficiency. Next is encouraging workplace EV charging infrastructure. This is just encouraging businesses to
make EV charging available to their employees. And after that is community EV outreach. So this is things like having the uh information available at township events. Something the environmental commission could be very involved in is
at, you know, earth fairs or other events that the township has to make in uh information available about electric vehicles. And the section 1.10 1.10 is antiidalling. So anti-idling
enforcement, having an ordinance on file that encourages people not to leave vehicles running when they run into a Wawa to get some coffee. uh you know just leave the car car warm but to to turn the car off. So it's having signage as well as enforcement.
Now I'll go on to strategy two but before I do that I was thinking and going through strategy one I want to make a point very clear in this and that is the this is a planning document. This
is strictly a plan for the township to use and for the township administration, the environmental commission and different departments throughout the town to collaborate on these different areas. These are not absolute requirements that once this is submitted
to the BPU that anyone is holding the township's feet to the fire saying, you know, you said you would do these things, you have to do it. While this is an action plan where we have listed out a time frame to accomplish it in, who
the primary stakeholders would be, potential funding sources, the amount of duration that it might take to accomplish some of these, and the initiative lead for each initiative. It is not an absolute requirement that you're going to get penalized if you
don't hit a certain initiative in a certain time frame. It is a planning document for the township to work on and start implementing it so that you have a clear path forward towards making the township more energy efficient and uh in
implementing alternative fuel vehicles as well as renewable energy. Any questions on that uh so far before I go on to strategy two? >> Seeing none. I think we already implemented 0.1.
>> We have a we have an ordinance for EV infrastructure already. >> Yeah. So those are those are noted. If that's already in place then then we've already noted that. So, uh, you know, just going to the
townships, I mean, go specifically to the plan, but we've noted that that's already in place, and it may have been that there was some mention in the plan, which I can pull up. Just give me a second to uh there may have been some mention in the
plan about updating the ordinance or uh providing other information. Uh let's see. We'll just go to that initiative. Yeah, we haven't noted that the the ordinance is already in place and just to review and update if necessary.
So in the full plan document I which I can share as well. And actually it's a good uh opportunity to show you even though we're reviewing these in summary format right now. It's
a good opportunity to show you what the plan actually looks like. And I think this will be available after getting feedback. If it's not already available, it will be available on the township's website. All right. Now, I'm going to share
the energy plan. All right. So, excuse me. This is the uh township's community energy plan. just reviews what the community energy plan and the grant is an outline of the
larger document introduction, some information about the township and then we have data on energy consumption, electricity and gas consumption, greenhouse gas emissions by sector as well as the priorities listed here.
So if you look here, adopt supportive zoning regulations. This is says currently implement. So you are correct that there is one in place. We've just noted that it is currently in place. And then here we get to initiative 1.1
and it it's ongoing. Um that ordinance was passed number 2389 on June 9th, 2022 is in place and we'll review to make any updates if necessary. So just want to review that with you that there it is in place and so there may be some things
that are already being undertaken but is being mentioned in some way. All right, let me go now back to the overview. And actually before we do move on to strategy two, any other questions now
that we're starting to get into it on strategy one or any other um questions generally about the BPU's community energy plan program or the process the township has gone through.
>> Questions? Seeing none. >> Okay, seeing none, we will continue. Press on. All right, so uh getting back into the strategy. Everyone see strategy two up here? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Mhm.
>> Okay. Strategy two is accelerate deployment of renewable energy and distributed energy resources. So again, I wanted to talk about how not every single initiative in strategy one you saw 1 through 10 being considered by the
township. In strategy two, you'll see not every strategy is uh being undertaken and you know some towns I will say Ocean Township did adopt most of the initiatives. um some towns may
even not pursue a whole strategy area because they may not feel it's applicable to them. So for you here, the initiatives that the township wanted to undertake are first adopt supportive zoning and permitting for private solar.
2.3 train first responders on solar. You'll see this is very similar to the flow of of the electric vehicle initiatives. 2.4 train non-emergency staff on solar. So, like we said before, you know, DPW and code enforcement
officials and 2.5 install on-site municipal uh renewable generation. This is wanting to pursue solar at municipal facilities and let me just go to
the document again. And I won't I won't necessarily take you back there and have to switch screens back and forth. I just want to confirm for you a little bit of the detail. So in section 2.4 4, for example, related to solar,
it has there, you know, there's no solar currently installed on municipal facilities, but there's potential to collaborate with school district facilities as well as look at solar for municipal facilities. So, uh there's more detail in the plan just like there
was more detail related to the ordinance. If there's anything you want me to go in greater detail on, we can refer back to the plan uh from the summary document. So, uh section 2.6 buy renewable energy for municipal facilities. This is referring to the
possibility of under your your supply contracts being able to where you buy electric supply making a portion of that renewable. Now, section 2.10 10 through 2.12 is a great opportunity to save
residents money on their electric bills through a bill credit that goes on their JCPNL bill for 20 to 30%. So we've helped a number of pounds implement this and it's absolutely amazing. So the state put it in effect, you know, some
of the big solar arrays that you see on landfills or in other areas, those are subscribed to the state's community solar program. Those owners of those systems can then sell the power from those systems to residents, but they're
required to do so at a substantial discount that they submit to the board of public utilities. So it may be 20 or 30% that residents can save by subscribing to community solar programs. And those initiatives 2.10 through 2.12
are municipalled initiatives to make these programs available to residents. So we have one town that you know their population is about 67,000. They had uh and actually the population
is 67,000 but there are 23,000 households and approximately uh 1,200 people signed up for this program and that's a savings of over $9 million to those residents over 20 years of that community solar
program. So huge huge savings incredibly one of the most beneficial programs the township has ever offered to residents. And you know it can either be completely voluntary where you know that was the incredible thing about it. You know it's completely voluntary. Residents can sign
up if they wish and it's just the township's making it available to them and and creating an education program around it. So great way to go. I'll move on to strategy three before I do that. Any questions on strategy two? >> Yes.
Hi. Um I have a question. So you were saying that um solar panels in the school district would they it does count through does count for implementation? Well, as far as like the implementation grant,
I mean, there there is possibility if the township is collaborating with them, but but yes, there's a there is the possibility of collaborating with the school district for solar energy projects. We've done that with lots of different towns where they have
collaborated with the township has collaborated with a school district or even we have one town that did uh township as well as the regional school district and the K through8 district for doing a very large solar project was almost $20 million worth of solar across
12 different facilities. So there is opportunity to collaborate if the township finds that desirable and the school district would like to collaborate. But if they already have the solar panels, is that does that help the municipality at all? Like in terms of
>> Well, no. I mean, if the if they if the district already has solar, that's of no real benefit to the district. I mean, and again, this is no there there there are no points necessarily
available related to this. However, in your sustainable jersey certification, you want to you want to note all, you know, renewable efforts to um you know, qualify for the certain levels of the s sustainable Jersey uh certification
program. >> I see. >> But yeah, I mean, if if the school district currently has solar, that's of no great benefit to the township. It certainly is to the district as well as to the residents who are saving taxpayer dollars by having solar in the school.
Sure. Thank you. >> We have another question. >> Yeah, right there. Um, it's pointed towards the speaker if you Yeah. Yeah. >> Hi, Ben. Uh, thanks for coming. My name is Patty Cronheim. I live in Ocean
Township and I'm the program director Rethink Energy New Jersey. And I have a question um because I don't see anything in this plan about the possibility of creating uh distributed energy uh resources for micro grids for the town for heating and cooling for resiliency
if there are hurricanes or anything like that. I'm very familiar with community solar. I actually advocated for that was the LCV. I you know I understand that the people who actually have benefit from community solar are the direct rateayers who are part of the program and they're the ones that benefit and
it's but I I'm wondering for the entire town uh if I I've been wanting to see a micro grid program so that we can actually have heating and cooling centers place where in emergencies people can plug in their phones and to
have that kind of you know uh distributed energy resource in town with on-site renewable generation, you know, in town, not as part of a community solar program, but as part of just the town being able to benefit everyone in town. Is that is something
that you're including in your plan? >> Yeah, happy to discuss that. I mean I think the town so that micro grid falls under strategy seven and in reviewing that with the township you know we
didn't necessarily list that meaning township didn't decide that that was a priority now given the location of the township resiliency is incredibly important I've been working on micro grids for
almost 20 years now and done them in different places around the country. And I'm a huge advocate of micro grids for resiliency, but you know, the economics of creating a
micro grid are incredibly challenging and without a huge centralized load, it's tough to pull off implementing a micro grid. So, it certainly can be part of the plan and that's the township's
prerogative to put it in or not put it in. You know, in the initial planning stage of folks working on it, it did not make its way in. But I think you'd have to consider what are the large primary loads that it would serve because, you
know, there's to create a ton of generation, you know, to make a micro grid available to residents, you have to consider, you know, what are those resources? what are the renewable energy resources you're going to put in place to do that? So,
you know, you have to have enough solar to make it worth it and there's not sort of a ton of land to put that, you know, a ton of solar in places in the township. And if you're to do a micro grid, do you want to combine it with, you know, natural gas fired, you know,
fossil fuel generation? Do you want to have battery storage? You know, where are you going to locate? It's certainly, you know, one of the strategies in strategy seven which can be incorporated but I think that's a determination we you know I want to make sure we say too
we didn't make any determination on any of this you know we provided the different initiatives to the township and then reviewed those with township officials who then said you know yes we'd like to pursue this initiative or that initiative
>> thank you so yeah I mean I can go much further in depth on different areas related to micro grids. I geek out on micro grids, but I think the town just has to decide if they would like to include micro grids in the plan or not. >> But Ben, if if I can just say, you know,
uh that you know, one of the issues with micro grids, I've been trying to work on them for 10 years and you know, the big pro one of the biggest problems is the actual crossing of the municipal rights where the company utilities do not want that to happen.
So, you know, you need campus micro grids. Yeah. Where you're not crossing any rights away, but as soon as there's one right of way, you know, it's just that that's what blows it out out of the water as far as expense and and they won't allow
>> I'm speaking of a centrally located somewhere where people can go. if it's really hot or the power goes out or if they need to plug their phone in or be able to plug in or something like that
has something. >> It's a great idea. Yeah, I mean having that level of resiliency is, you know, something the, you know, office of emergency management definitely should be incorporating into their plans and then, you know, how much
that is renewable or, you know, there for resiliency uh should definitely be included and actually in the plan related to distributed energy resources, you know, there's certainly on the on-site municipal renewable generation, I mean, if it's possible at the
municipality to do solar with battery storage with generator. That's a possibility. Um, and in the planning document, you know, we definitely can make reference to having resiliency available for residents in
case of long-term power outage. So, thank you for that, Patt. We'll make that known. >> All right. Any other questions on >> gas? Okay. >> What's that? >> An upper battery and solar, not gas.
Yeah, I mean, you know, the the issue the issue there is that, >> you know, the battery lasts a certain amount of time. I mean, it's sort of one of those problems, you know, that that we have to solve is, you know, one alternative is to include
solar with battery storage and a fuel cell and that that, you know, hydrogen fuel cell and that is a more It's a cleaner option where you know there's little to no emissions
but I mean you're talking about a lot of expense. Uh so I mean the the scope of the project really has to be defined. All right. Any other questions on strategy two? >> Strategy two. >> Seeing that.
>> All right. Okay. Moving on to strategy three. All right. So strategy three relates to energy efficiency and this is a pretty cut and dry one. It's maximizing energy efficiency uh
conservation and reducing peak demand like I mentioned earlier. The first one is just about upgrading energy efficiency for municipal facilities. So in that we were talking about
that this is one of those initiatives that's already being implemented. Um so the library, recreation services and other buildings um you know are not part of a current construction but the
uh township would like to do a new energy audit to be able to see what other energy efficiency measures can be done. So there's currently a whole whole lot of energy efficiency that has been done in the township, but there's opportunities to continue to do more and
that starts with the BPU's local government energy audit. So the recommendation under initiative 3.1 is to undertake that uh local government energy audit for those facilities that are not currently energy efficient. And a lot of the township's buildings are
already energy efficient. Now, the next three all kind of go together because it's about energy efficiency outreach and these items are broken down into three separate initiatives. Residential energy efficiency outreach, commercial
energy efficiency outreach and energy efficiency outreach to large energy users. So that is providing education to uh if we saw in electric vehicles as well as in solar or distributed energy
generation it was to have a outreach campaign to residents about electric vehicles in solar but also energy efficiency and this is providing information to residents about BPU programs, utility programs and how to
make their homes more efficient. Also the same thing goes for commercial facilities and uh you know one thing that the township can do related to large energy users is check with JCPNL which this is in the plan on the top
three energy users and you know you want to identify you know industrial and commercial facilities and reach out to the JCPNL rep and then you know look for opportunities to try to assist those entities to reduce their demand. and uh become more energy efficient. So
that's strategy three related solely to energy efficiency. Strategy four is about uh new construction development and the current uh building sector. So it starts with
implementing a green building policy and having a policy that encourages or even requires it doesn't have to require but encourages consideration of green building practices for new municipal
construction. So uh for any new buildings you might want to have a policy that green building measures should be considered for new municipal facilities. This is just about municipal facilities. And then
section uh 4.2 is about constructing uh new municipal buildings as model green buildings. And this is if you want to construct a new municipal building I think and
remind me I may be wrong in this. think there's possibility of new municipal construction. I'll have to go back and and look in the plan and in that it was that that might be a a green building feature or there would be green building features in new municipal construction.
So that's certainly an opportunity as well. Uh 4.3 is about encouraging benchmarking and commissioning for existing buildings that it's referring to existing commercial buildings and meaning non-municipal but outreach to
encourage commercial building operators to benchmark and commission or retrocommission uh old equipment to make it more efficient. Section 4.4 is uh about a green development checklist. This is a
great way to when uh permits are submitted to uh have, you know, new construction or even renovations where the municipality provides a green building checklist or
green development checklist and provide this to residents or to provide this sorry to contractors and developers. So before they get their permits, they get a green development checklist. They review what some of the programs are and uh some of the energy efficiency
programs through New Jersey's clean energy program because there are generally new construction as well as retrofit uh efficiency incentives through the BPU and after that is conduct outreach targeting new construction in the
community. So if there are going to be new developments or you know there are new plans submitted to the township, you want to encourage those new developments to be more energy efficient and to reduce emissions and to undertake sustainable building practices. So
that's strategy four. Any questions on strategy four? >> Yes, we do have one from the public. Just one just >> um >> my question is just it's more of a quest statement actually. I I would love to
see added in this uh uh it's the same way that you talk about uh emergency services and non-emergency services learning more about EVs. I would like our building inspectors and our building department to have more training on building electrification because they're the ones out in the communities looking
at these uh these projects and having being someone who built one of the a full building electrification home. I know that there could there's room for more education there. >> Yeah. And I'm sorry, you said more education to
>> for inspectors related to what >> to building electrification projects so that when they come and they look at for instance your EV uh ports and your your your electric lines that went in and your your battery storage and the things that you're doing just so they're more
familiar with it because a lot of it's new to them and they haven't had a lot of exposure seeing these kinds of things. So I just think it makes sense that they would have some kind of level of you know more just avail be available to them to have more information
on certainly I mean even there a lot of new lots of new equipment that is submitted for you know permit that's different than traditionally has been traditionally used when we're deal with a >> lot for them to keep up with so I'm just
saying should the town provide education. Absolutely. >> And there is opportunity to to include that as well. Thank you. >> All right. If there's nothing else on strategy four, we will move on. So, uh moving on
to strategy six. Strategy six is about encouraging and supporting participation by low and moderate income residents and environmental justice communities. So, Uh section 6.1 is make community energy
planning inclusive. So we want to make sure that the energy plan is posted and made available to your low to moderate income residents as well as you know seniors, folks on fixed income and that they're able to provide
any feedback on the energy plan. So after we update the draft of the plan, we want to make sure the township makes this available and provides a mechanism that people can provide a feedback on the energy plan. Next is conduct energy efficiency outreach to low to moderate
income residents. And this is coordinated with the other energy efficiency outreach. But we want to make sure we are hitting uh some of those, you know, affordable housing and senior housing that they are informed of energy
efficiency options because some of the BPU's energy efficiency incentives are targeted directly to help support low to moderate income residents. Uh next is section 6.3.2 2, which is supporting uh e-mobility transit
options. And in that section 6.3.2, it's uh specifically referring to the uh allowing electric powered transit like uh you know, electric buses and
shuttles. And this is a a good route to go for entertaining using those you know alternatives for a shuttle bus or for a uh electric vehicle even even electric mobility like making scooters available
having electric vehicle options like EV shuttle bus or carpool service available and that's section 6.3.2 too. So, um you know, shuttle bus are like senior transportation. Great opportunity to
explore using electric vehicle instead of strictly a gas powered shuttle. Section 6.3.2. Um section 6.4 is the community solar type subscription program we were
talking about in sections 2.10 through 2.12. It's also making those available to low to moderate income residents. And actually the board of public utilities when the state require when the state approves community solar projects a
certain percentage of those projects are actually required to be uh low to moderate income resident subscribers. So the community solar projects approved in the state of New Jersey are required to have almost 50% be low to moderate
income resident subscribers. So we want to make sure that that that information is provided to your low to moderate income residents. Lastly is uh conduct energy efficiency outreach to community serving institutions. So we want to make
sure that uh information is available to your faith-based organizations and uh that those organizations are advised faith-based organizations, you know, community organizations, local
business associations. We want to make sure information is available. I also mentioned earlier uh affordable housing owners and managers, both public and private. So we want to make sure that that information is out there and available. Um that takes us through the
end of section six or strategy six rather. Any questions or comments on strategy six? >> We have one from the public. >> It's fine. >> I'm just I'm just curious. >> Yeah. I'm just curious. So, is this
proposing building new community a new community solar project uh that would incorporate ocean township or using existing community solar projects in the area like solar landscape and some of the projects that are already here? Um so I'm just because we have I
believe 5% overburdened communities in Ocean Township. It's just 5% of our population I think. um when we did our I think 5% when we did the shade tree and the overburden maps uh community maps I think it was like 5% of our residents uh
qualify as uh overburden you know overburden community um which is what this is targeted for. So I'm just curious like what I'm just wonder it's I know how hard it is to get subscribers especially in those commun moderate income communities
now in this particular climate people aren't coming forward and it was always hard to get people to come forward to trust solar and all of that but so are you proposing is this does this propose new development of community solar and
who how you're going to get that 50% is is because that just seems Is it beyond Ocean Township? Is it multi- town? Because that just seems like unlikely here. >> I can answer.
First of all, the project doesn't have to be in the township. It it doesn't even have to be in in Monmouth County. It's just anywhere in JCPNL territory. So, it just has to be in the electric service territory. So any project uh
that's in community solar uh you know that's a a grid tie community solar system approved by the BPU can allow subscribers anywhere in JCPNL territory. So um as far as hitting those goals yeah
I mean I agree with you it's tough getting low moderate income subscribers. It's a state initiative. It doesn't mean that you need to get 50% of Ocean Township subscribers to be low to moderate income. It's just of the systems that are out there, they have to
have a a certain percentage that are low to moderate income. Not required for Ocean Township, but just for the pro project that is, you know, called 10 megawatts. You know, there may be a number of subscribers from Ocean Township as well as subscribers from
other towns as well. Did that answer your question? Well, I can go in. >> Except for the question of of is this new is the township supporting the building of new community solar or using existing community solar in the region which
there is some that exists in the region. So >> yeah. So it it can be it can be both. So you could you can support new community solar, but the initiative I was just talking about related to section 6.4 as
well as section 2.10 relate to making community solar subscriptions available and supported by the township. >> Not necessarily for developing new community solar projects. Although in the plan is certainly you know the
township supports new community solar projects in the township. >> So is there is there a bullet point here or something about you know exploring existing community solar doing a full
survey of community solar in the region to determine whether or not we build or whether we you know we're building or utilizing existing community solar. >> Yeah. So it's broken up into like two separate initiatives in section two. One
of them relates to using existing community solar and making a community solar program available to residents. The other initiative is supporting community solar development within the
town. It's not as proactive as going out and looking for new opportunities, but rather supporting community solar that people propose within the township or even doing it as an ambassador saying, "Hey, you know, there's a parcel of
property that say was a brownfield that you know hasn't been used. That's an opportunity." And then matching them up with a community solar developer. You're welcome. So, with the end of strategy six, that takes us to the end of the overview.
Now, the entire energy master plan, which uh you know, I will pull back up here. Give me one second. Let's see. Chrome. Here we go. Sorry. Okay. So this goes
through this is showing you sort of in greater detail you know how each initiative went through you know setting you know it its prioritization the length of time it'll take if there are funding sources departments involved potential stakeholders measures of
success and next steps so that goes through each initiative so we did those in summary format but each initiative has greater detail so I'll just show you we're talking about community solar there your questions here are those
questions where um you know we go through each individual area in greater detail relating to community solar as a community solar ambassador as a solar community solar outreach coordinator
and hosting a community solar project on municipal property. So that's where it's broken down into separate sections as well as you know next steps in each area. So then you know I don't need to go through each initiative again but I
just want to give you a little overview of how the plan is organized and this will be made available for any further comment and then adoption by the township. So
I will stop share there. Any other questions on the plan or the planning process? >> Seeing none. Anyone at home? >> All right. >> None. >> If not, I also, you know, I I am
remissed for not doing so earlier. Um we do have myena from Sustainable Jersey here who you know was your project coordinator for sustainable Jersey. Um you know Sustainable Jersey has helped shepherd this entire program. So if you
have you know any questions related to the planning process or you know about sustainable Jersey or the board of public utilities I think my can answer some of those questions but um you know thank her certainly for being here. Um any any other questions or comments on
the plan or the planning process? >> Seeing none. >> Okay. Uh so from here you know we'll incorporate any comments provide you know another draft and then you know that the council can adopt the plan and
then it'll be submitted to the BPU. And I gotta say this was a very collaborative process with uh with David his office as well as Tracy coordinating a lot of different departments getting their input and uh you know it it took
us you know a couple months getting through that work and then you know a couple months drafting the plan and getting to this point. So excuse me. It's been a very collaborative process and I just want to thank uh David and Tracy and everyone from the township for
their, you know, input, feedback, and collaboration. >> Great. Thank you so much, Ben. >> All right. Thank you. Have a great evening. >> Good night. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Just cue it. Um,
do I have a motion to close our meeting? >> So moved. >> Second. >> First, Fodet. Second. Brandon. All in favor? >> I >> I >> Good night, everyone.
the point of it.