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Landfill of the Rising Sun

Waste Age Magazine

Best practices for landfill solar installations.

January 1, 2011

Back in 2009, solar electric generation systems installed on previously assumed-to-be unusable landfills were few and far between. Only a handful of projects had actually been completed, like at the Republic Services-owned Tessman Road Landfill in San Antonio. But by 2010, the idea had gained traction as more town managers and landfill directors were attracted by the idea of converting their brownfields into greenfields while producing clean, renewable energy capable of either eliminating energy needs on site or creating energy for neighboring communities and power grids. These projects essentially amount to more money in a municipality’s general fund, or operation budget, and also can be seen as an additional source of revenue from a property that was previously written off.

In 2010, Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, reported that the compound annual growth rate for grid-tied photovoltaics (PV) from 2000-2009 was 69 percent. In 2009 alone, grid-tied PV grew 38 percent in the wake of an economic recovery, alongside a 40 percent decline in PV module prices. Regardless of the evidence supporting solar electricity hitting its biggest strides in the past five years, a common concern the industry still faces is finding appropriate locations to capture the maximum amount of sun while causing minimal impact on the environment. In the Southwestern deserts of Arizona, California and Nevada, sunshine is plentiful, but the lack of proximity to a power grid (point of interconnection) can be an issue that makes these projects financially unattractive. This is in addition to potential adverse effects a solar farm could have on some of the local endangered flora and fauna.

Rooftop installations in the center of major metropolitan areas have their own drawbacks: shading from foliage, pollution, adjacent properties, limited space, building code compliances and weight/load issues on structures with roofs that weren’t originally built to take on the additional 7 to 10 pounds per square foot.

These issues are what make landfills so attractive for solar projects. In our experience, the average landfill has at least five acres and often up to 80 acres of land suitable for solar. This leads to a potential of 1-16 megawatts (MW) of power on each given landfill, of which there are approximately 100,000 sites (either decommissioned or operational) across the country. By installing solar power arrays on even a quarter of America’s landfills, we can produce approximately 212 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy, which was nearly 500 times the solar energy produced in the United States in 2009 (425 MW). The environmental benefits of offsetting a portion of a municipality’s energy needs with clean energy combined with the cost savings involved are a win-win for tax payers and also serve as a great tool for meeting a state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS), which requires that a certain amount of the state’s energy come from renewable sources by a specified period of time.

Despite these benefits, not every project is low hanging fruit. Site location, project timing and land specifications are the main considerations project developers analyze to determine which landfill projects are ripe for the picking and which need to be left on the vine. A good grasp of available financial incentives is important as well.

Site Location

Proximity to environmentally protected land parcels like wetlands, marshes, swamps, riverfront areas, flood plains or even land located within a buffer zone (usually within 100 feet of protected land) can handicap a project from day one. That’s why a good understanding of the properties adjacent to a prospective site can save you time and money.

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