Georgia Landfill Gets PV Facelift With Solar Stimulus Funds

Georgia’s solar-powered landfills will soon be solar-powered trash cans’, which are being deployed around the United States and throughout the world, newest friend.

There has always been debates about what to do with landfills when they are at full-capacity.  In Georgia, a project by BFI Waste Systems of North America is scheduled to install a 1-megawatt solar covering atop a closed section of landfill.  This has been made possible because it has been awarded a $2 million grant obtained through the federal stimulus program.

About 10 miles southeast of downtown Atlanta, the Hickory Ridge Landfill in Conley, Ga., opened in 1993 and is now undergoing conversion into an energy-producing asset, using both solar photovoltaics and methane gas collection.

In the past, closed landfills have commonly been capped with clay to prevent rainwater from seeping in and to reduce or eliminate dust and odor. In 2009, the waste management company Republic Services combined a solar covering with a biogas system to create what it calls a “sustainable energy park” at a landfill in San Antonio, Texas.

The company used flexible solar PV laminates made by Michigan-based United Solar Ovonic,  adhering the solar strips to a synthetic “geo-membrane” atop a south-facing portion of the landfill.

The company used flexible solar PV laminates made by Michigan-based United Solar Ovonic,  adhering the solar strips to a synthetic “geo-membrane” atop a south-facing portion of the landfill.

Research by Republic Services, which has about 200 operating landfills in 40 states, and has operated the one near Atlanta, suggests that up to 2,350 acres could receive solar energy covers, if approved by regulators. Enough electricity could be produced to supply as many as 47,000 homes annually, the company says.

Republic also has been installing technology to collect and use methane gas from landfills to create electricity. At the Hickory Ridge site, a company called Global Energy Systems acquired the rights to the landfill’s gas from Republic in 2009.

The $2 million grant for the Hickory Ridge landfill’s solar project was announced by the Georgia Environmental Facilities Authority. It is one of 16 energy-related proposals to be funded in the state through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Four other solar proposals were awarded grants. The recipients and amounts are as follows:

Electric Cities of Georgia: $460,933 to build solar photovoltaic arrays, solar water-heating systems and a wind turbine at municipal facilities around the state.

Hannah Solar: $250,000 to install a solar PV system, a solar water-heating system and a wind turbine at the Clark’s Grove Earthcraft community in Covington.

Lanier Technical College: $503,000 to install four different types of solar PV systems and a solar water-heating system at each of four campuses.

Reliance Energies: $786,067 to install solar PV systems for seven nonprofit organizations across the state.

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