Creating "brightfields" on Brownfields

["cpeo@cpeo.org" <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

(Excerpts)
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Wednesday August 4, 5:09 pm Eastern Time
US plans to convert factory sites to solar power

CHICAGO, Aug 4 (Reuters) - The federal government on Wednesday unveiled an
effort to install solar panels at polluted, unused factory sites to create
energy-producing islands in cities where the power is needed most.

The U.S. Energy Department and the city of Chicago said the first step in
the project would be a factory employing 100 people ... will be built on
the site of a facility that reprocessed demolition debris and was closed by
the city for violating environmental laws.

The Energy Department said it envisioned solar power collection points in
other locations around the country, where they could be placed directly on
abandoned dumps and other factory sites without disturbing the often
contaminated ground beneath.

It said it had begun to work with cities in California, Virginia,
Minnesota, New York and Connecticut to find other sites for creating
``brightfields'' on abandoned industrial sites, called ``brownfields.''

Solar panels covering Chicago's 17-acre (6.9-hectare) site could power a
neighborhood of 50 homes during peak solar activity in the summer, he said.
At night or during the Northern Hemisphere's winter -- when solar energy
output is about 40 percent less -- power would come from the utility.