How can a city use a hill that nobody can safely build on? Just outside New Haven a grassy mound that spent decades receiving the city\u2019s trash can be the answer. First the local was sealed, then grass seeds were planted and to end the process the place was left alone until one morning a crew climbed the slope and had a brilliant idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hill is now a power plant composed of 1,900 solar panels<\/a> that produce about 1.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year. Enough to power up around 200 homes. The project is the perfect example that even if a plot of land can\u2019t support ordinary construction it can still deliver clean power<\/a> and local revenue without the need for clearing forests or farmland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The panels cover the slope of the former transfer station on Middletown Avenue. The local utility buys the electricity and distributes it to the customers nearby. Even though the size of the project has the scale of a neighborhood it gives a long-idle property a useful second life. We all know how expensive land is these days and why such projects should happen more often in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The scenario looks even better when we realise New Haven did not pay to build the installation. A private developer leases the site, finances the project and pays the city about $72,000 a year for 20 years. The city estimates compare the project\u2019s carbon savings over those two decades to an equivalent of what 32,000 trees could absorb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The closed landfill is not simply an empty lot though. It was sealed with a protective cap<\/a> that keeps rain from entering in it and leachate from escaping. If anything happened to puncture that cover it could compromise the site, which in turn rules out any conventional construction from happening there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Solar is one of the few technologies that can fit those restrictions. The panels rest on ballasted supports<\/a> instead of on foundations that could pierce the cap. In case the equipment needs any kind of repair and can just be removed and added back. No digs need to happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\nA sealed hill begins producing electricity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Read More: New Haven turned an old trash hill into a solar plant, and 1,900 panels now power homes without clearing farmland or forest<\/a><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
Why solar can work on a closed landfill<\/h2>\n\n\n\n