[CPEO-BIF] Solar landfills

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Bright idea - solar power over landfills


by Mike Breslin
American Recycler
June, 2011
Last year the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and  
the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory  
announced that they are evaluating the feasibility of developing  
renewable energy production on superfund, brownfield, and former  
landfill or mining sites. They identified more than 11,000 sites that  
are good for renewable energy.

While the federal government evaluates, private investors, private  
and public landfill owners are on the prowl to generate more income  
or reduce expenses on their vast expanses of denuded real estate.  
Putting photovoltaic cells (PV) on closed landfills, whether in the  
form of flexible solar-geomembrane technology or conventional panel  
arrays, is beginning to emerge as a practical solution.

...
Nevertheless, with leadership provided by MassDEP, Borrego Solar, a  
private developer of commercial solar projects, has signed a contract  
with the City of Easthampton to build a 2.3 megawatt DC solar plant  
on the city’s closed 12 acre landfill. Under a 10 year Utility Credit  
Purchase Agreement (UCPA) with East Hampton, Borrego will design,  
build and maintain the system that will produce approximately  
2,774,823 kilowatt hours of electricity per year. The in-house  
financing arm of Borrego, Green Lake Capital, is handling the UCPA  
with the city.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.americanrecycler.com/0611/971bright.shtml

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street, Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650-961-8918 or 650-969-1545
Fax: 650-961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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