For decades, an old municipal landfill in Fort Edward, New York, sat vacant. It is now covered with solar panels.
Colston: “It… now powers 300 homes and 100 small businesses.”
Annika Colston is the founder and CEO of AC Power, a company that converts former landfills into solar farms.
Abandoned landfills need to be capped and then monitored for decades to ensure waste does not contaminate the air or groundwater.
Colston: “So…there's a lot of ongoing care that goes into them.”
…It’s an expense to the landowner. And it's difficult to redevelop a website for most commercial uses.
Colston: “Decades after these landfills close, these landfills remain a financial burden to their owners.”
But she said solar energy could provide a solution. Open spaces are ideal for installing solar panels, which can provide a source of income to landowners.
Colston said thousands America’s closed landfills are ripe for solar power.
As a result, she sees huge potential in using this low-value land to get more clean, renewable electricity on the grid and provide financial support to landowners and communities.
Report source: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media
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