For decades, the site of an old municipal landfill in Fort Edward, New York, sat empty. Now it’s covered with solar panels.
Colston: “And it’s … now powering 300 homes and 100 small businesses.”
Annika Colston is the founder and CEO of AC Power, which specializes in converting former landfills into solar farms.
Decommissioned landfills need to be capped and then monitored for decades, to make sure the waste is not polluting the air or contaminating groundwater.
Colston: “And so … there is a lot of ongoing care that needs to go into them.”
… which is an expense for landowners. And it’s difficult to redevelop the sites for most commercial uses.
Colston: “Those landfills continue to be an economic burden to the owners for decades after those landfills are closed.”
But she says solar can provide a solution. The wide-open spaces can be ideal for installing solar panels, which can provide a revenue stream for landowners.
Colston says there are thousands of closed landfills in the U.S. suitable for solar.
So she sees great potential for using this low-value land to get more clean, renewable electricity on the grid – and provide landowners and communities with a financial boost.
Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media
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