Jeff Walder, who owns the Randolph Indoor Sports Pavilion in Randolph, N.J., has long wanted to install solar panels on the facility.

Walder has led something of a double life. In addition to owning the sports pavilion, he has worked more than 20 years as an environmental attorney and even served as an environmental advisor to two New Jersey governors.

“I’ve come to appreciate the value and the importance of environmental initiatives,” Walder said.

Solar has always seemed like the frontrunner in the renewable energy world, and Walder has long contemplated installing it at the Randolph Indoor Sports Pavilion.

“I couldn’t really afford to do it earlier,” he said.

But this year, he took a good look at tax incentives and rebates. New Jersey has some excellent incentive programs for solar right now, and it finally made since not only from an ethical and environmental standpoint, but also from a financial one, he said.

“Everything just married together perfectly,” he said.

When he set out to install solar, however, he didn’t know how much of his energy use he would be able to offset.

“The upside of our building, as it turns out, is that the roof is perfect for this kind of project,” Walder said.

The roof is ideally situated so the new solar installation there will generate enough electricity to power the entire facility and will sometimes produce excess power that can be fed and sold back to the local utility grid, Walder said.

The system, installed by Vanguard Energy Partners, will consist of 1,556 roof-mounted solar panels and is expected to generate 373,282 kilowatt hours of energy in the first year. That will be enough to provide 94 percent of the 78,000-square-foot facility’s electricity needs.

Walder said he expects to realize utility savings in the six-figure range in the first year.

The Indoor Sports Pavilion has two full-size fields under its roof where teams can play soccer, baseball, softball, lacrosse, field hockey, football, rugby and much more. It’s been in operation since 2001.

"We applaud the Indoor Sports Pavilion for taking the lead in the community to reduce their carbon footprint by utilizing solar and focusing on energy efficiency," Vanguard Vice President of Operations, Tom Buono was quoted in a press release. "Achieving net zero is a challenging feat and it takes a strong commitment that will benefit the environment and people in the community."