The buffer area of Vermont’s only active landfill will become home to a 2.7 MW solar array that will sell power to Vermont Electric Power Producers (VEPP).
Borrego Solar Systems has partnered with Soltage Greenwood, a joint venture between Greenwood Energy and Soltage to develop a solar project, launched by Casella Waste Systems’ on its Coventry, Vt., landfill site, which would be the largest such project in Vermont.
The power will be sold to VEPP, which is a purchasing agent appointed by the Vermont Public Service Board, under Vermont’s Sustainably Priced Energy Development (SPEED) Standard Offer Program. This is one of the nation’s first feed-in-tariff programs. The energy produced by the 9,018 panel ground-mount system is expected to generate about 3,199 MWh annually.
The site currently hosts the only active landfill in the state, as well as an 8-MW gas-to-energy generating facility that utilizes the methane captured from both the active and capped sections of the landfill.
This is Borrego Solar’s sixth wholesale distributed generation project, and to date, the company has developed and installed a total of 17.3 MW of solar energy capacity on seven active and capped landfills in the US.
Borrego said landfills and their buffer lands make attractive sites for solar energy systems as they are close to interconnection systems and are built on already disrupted and cleared land.
Demand for financing landfill installations through power purchase agreements is also rising, which allows landfill owners to go solar without paying any upfront costs.