When landfills have reached their capacity, their contents are capped in order to isolate the wastes and contaminants within. Hazardous waste landfills utilize specialized liners in order to prevent leakage and once they are capped off, they are monitored for decades for any gas or leached materials. Sometimes the sites can be reused for such things as parks or parking lots, but all too often they become no-mans-lands that serve no purpose.
Recently, construction has begun on a large-scale, 2.3 megawatt solar array to be built on 13 acres of a decommissioned, capped landfill in West Nyack, New York. This will be the first solar installation built on a landfill in the State. The system is expected to generate almost 3 million kilowatt-hours of clean energy per year and will improve the resiliency of the Orange and Rockland Utilities grid. Estimates are that taxpayers in the town of Clarkstown will save as much as $4 million over the 30-year expected life of the system.
The project is a public/private partnership but will require no expense from the town of Clarkstown. The installation was funded in part by an award under the NY-Sun initiative. The builder, OnForce Solar, will own the project in its entirety, install operate and maintain the system, and will generate income through a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement with the town.
There are hundreds of capped landfills and Superfund sites around the country. Some have become parks or other recreational facilities. And more recently, some are becoming solar energy farms.
**********
.
Web Links
New York State’s First Solar Landfill Breaks Ground
Photo, posted January 19, 2012, courtesy of Black Rock Solar via Flickr.
.
Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.