An Old Landfill Site Is Now a Community Solar Project in Fort Edward, New York

What was once a landfill in the town of Fort Edward, New York has now been transformed into a community solar project that will power hundreds of local households with clean energy.

The project, a collaboration between Kendall Sustainable Infrastructure, AC Power and GreenSpark Solar, turned the former landfill site into a 7 megawatt solar project spanning a 58-acre lot, Solar Industry reported.

According to a press release from AC Power, the new solar community site will provide power to more than 800 households.

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A landfill from 1969 to 1991, the site became what AC Power described as an “environmental burden” until it was capped and its hazardous waste was cleaned up. By 2019, the town began accepting proposals from developers over what to do with the empty site.

According to the project developers and owners, the project will provide more affordable, clean energy to Fort Edward while also contributing toward New York’s goals for a clean energy transition, including installing 3,000 megawatts of clean energy by 2030 and reaching zero-emissions electricity by 2040.

“The Town of Fort Edward’s unique vision to transform a former landfill into a community solar project years before the rest of the industry caught up is truly inspiring,” Annika Colston, founder and CEO of AC Power, said in a press release. “This project supports New York State’s ambitious clean energy goals and showcases how innovative approaches can turn environmental challenges into sustainable opportunities.”

As explained by the U.S. Department of Energy, community solar projects work by collecting solar energy at one site and sharing the energy to local residents and businesses, who pay a subscription fee. This makes solar energy more accessible to homes and businesses that may not be able to install their own solar panels and can help reduce energy bills and make the community more resilient against power outages.

There are additional benefits of redeveloping a brownfield site, which is a site that may be polluted from hazardous substances, fossil fuels or other contaminants, as described by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. These abandoned sites can undergo environmental remediation to clean up the contaminants and reduce risks to the local community. As with the case of the Fort Edwards solar project, these sites can be transformed to provide multiple environmental and economic benefits to a community.

The companies behind the Fort Edward solar project are also working on a similar brownfield redevelopment project in Queensbury, New York that will turn a former factory site into a 6 megawatt solar site.