NEW JERSEY UTILITIES FLOAT SOLAR PANELS ON RESERVOIR, POWERING WATER TREATMENT PLANT

New Jersey's Canoe Brook Water Treatment plant produces 14 millions gallons of drinking water a day.

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Each one of those gallons weighs around 8 pounds, so it's quickly apparent that a large amount of energy is needed to move water from a reservoir to the treatment plant and into the 84,000 homes and businesses that the New Jersey American Water Company serves in the area.

So the water utility partnered with NJR Clean Energy Ventures, the renewable energy subsidiary of the natural gas firm New Jersey Resources, for a solution.

NJR Clean Energy Ventures built a vast array of solar panels, linked them together, and placed them on the surface of the water at Canoe Brook Reservoir.