America's Landfills Going Solar!

All that junk that brought to the "dump" is now going to become the foundation for states to generate some of the renewable energy that's mandated by law. It's becoming all the rage to start to think of closed or capped landfills as a way to get green energy credits for state lawmakers. Landfills or "brownfields" that have been closed down or "capped" are prime targets for solar panel installations.

The great state of Massachusetts specifically Canton Mass. has come up with a plan to install 24,000 solar panels on top of their capped landfill. The capped landfill will now become a solar array producing clean electricity for the residents of Canton. The town will also start collecting property taxes on the improved landfill. Town officials hope a combination of property taxes and energy savings will result in revenues approaching $70 million dollars over a 25 year period.

Boston based Southern Sky Renewable Energy has been selected to install the thousands of panels needed to complete the array. By 2012 the array will be producing 5.6 Megawatts of green power. The town is hoping construction of the array will begin sometime in late spring.

NSTAR, the largest investor owned gas and electric utility in Massachusetts will be buying some of that green energy also. By 2020 Mass. utilities have to purchase 25% of their energy from renewable sources.

Landfills that have been turned into green energy producing solar arrays are already operational in several states across America. Axio Power Inc. is a solar company that has already started building a solar array on another capped landfill in Greenfield Massachusetts. They've developed one in Colorado and will create more green energy producing landfill arrays in California and Hawaii as well.

More at the Boston Globe online.