Partnership Repurposes Landfills with Solar Energy

ISM Solar Solutions has partnered with WatershedGeo to develop utility scale solar arrays on closed landfills.

WatershedGeo provides permanent closures for landfills and brownfields using its products including ClosureTurf; the partnership will install solar energy systems on existing and new ClosureTurf installations. This allows landfill owners and operators to “turn a liability into an asset,” says WatershedGeo president Mike Ayers.

The companies say environmental benefits include:

• Creating permanent protection for aquifers and drinking water supplies from the hazardous materials and soil erosion associated with landfills and brownfields.
• Developing cost-effective, utility-scale solar power to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
• Repurposing landfills and brownfields to develop solar, while eliminating the need to cut down forests, place large arrays in neighborhoods or destroy family farms.

Manufacturing redevelopment and urban agriculture are among the projects that received supplemental EPA funding in August — the agency made available $11 million — to help clean up contaminated brownfields properties.