RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative: October 2014 Project Tracking Matrix The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recognizes the overall environmental Re-Powering America’s benefit of siting renewable energy projects on contaminated properties. Through Land Initiative the RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative, EPA is encouraging renewable energy development on current and formerly contaminated lands, landfills, and mine sites To provide information on renewable energy on when such development is aligned with the community’s vision for the site. contaminated land projects not currently appearing in this document, email [email protected]. Using publically available information, RE-Powering maintains a list of completed To receive updates, newsletters, and other renewable energy installations on contaminated sites and landfills. To date, the information about the RE-Powering program, RE-Powering Initiative has identified 135 renewable energy installations on 128 click the banner below. contaminated lands, landfills, and mine sites,1 with a cumulative installed capacity over 773 megawatts (MW) and consistent growth in total installations since the Subscribe inception of the RE-Powering Initiative. More than half of these installations are large- EPA’s RE-Powering Listserv scale systems with a project capacity of 1 MW or greater, either exporting energy onto the utility grid or offsetting onsite energy demands. This document provides summary statistics of known installations and discusses emerging trends. 130+ Renewable Energy Projects, Over 770 MW Installed Capacity Technologies Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Wind Multiple Hydro (Micro) Geothermal Biopower Capacity (MW) < 2 2 - 5 5 - 20 20 -35 > 35 Alaska Hawai'i Puerto Rico/Virgin Islands This map is for informational purposes only. The information was gathered from public announcements of renewable energy projects in the form of company press releases, news releases, and, in some cases, conversations with the parties involved. This map may not be a comprehensive representation of all completed renewable energy projects October 2014 on contaminated lands. To provide information on additional projects, please email [email protected]. 1 In this document, installation and project refer to a single renewable energy technology installation, while site and location refer to a single contaminated property. A site or location may have more than one installation or project. For example, the former Dave Johnston Mine has three separate wind installations. Multiple installation details can be seen in the tracking spreadsheet at the end of this document. Center for Program Analysis Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative: October 2014 Project Tracking Matrix National Deployment RE-Powering has identified installations of renewable energy on contaminated lands, landfills, and mine sites in 34 states and territories. The locations of these installations reflect evolving market trends generally linked to available renewable energy resource, Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS), net-metering laws, and other incentives. For example, the Massachusetts RPS requires regulated distribution utilities and competitive suppliers to obtain a percentage of electricity from qualifying renewable energy units for retail customers. The RPS includes a Solar Carve-Out for PV facilities in support of the state’s goal of 1.6 gigawatts of PV statewide by 2020. Massachusetts also has a robust Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) program, through which renewable energy generation “credits” can be sold in support of RPS goals. In addition, the state’s second SREC phase (SREC II), includes specific incentives for renewable energy on landfills and brownfields. INSTALLATIONS BY STATE2 State Renewable Distributed Installed Portfolio Solar Set-Aside Solar Multiplier Generation State # Installations Capacity (MW) Standard3 Policy4 Policy5 Requirement6 MA 49 104.6 NJ 11 41.7 CA 9 13.9 NY 7 67.2 CO 6 6.4 WY 5 295.8 PA 4 41.5 TN 4 10.1 OH 4 9.6 TX 3 11.6 7 8 WI 2 0.6 NC 2 0.6 IL 2 10.9 AZ 2 5.0 NM 2 3.0 OK 2 0.0 OR 1 100.00 RoUS9 20 50.6 TOTAL 135 773.1 Of identified projects, 82% are solar photovoltaics (PV) projects developed on contaminated lands, landfills, and mine sites, while 64% of installed capacity is provided by wind systems. These data are explained in part by a few very large wind projects, notably the Casselman Wind Power Project in Somerset County, Pennsylvania (35 MW), Steel Winds in Bethlehem, New York, (35 MW), the wind farm at Columbia Ridge Landfill, Oregon (100 MW), and the three wind farms at the former Dave Johnston Mine in Glenrock, Wyoming (276 MW). Although this trend continues in 2014, with 22 of the 23 completed projects to date being solar PV, the largest renewable energy project on contaminated property completed so far this year is the Pantex Wind Farm (11.5 MW). 2 Only state policy data provided. Table includes states with multiple installations and the state with the largest single installation. Policy information from DSIRE (www.dsireusa.org). Accessed October 21, 2014. 3 A renewable portfolio standard (RPS) requires a utility to use or procure a certain percentage of total generation from renewable sources. 4 A solar set-aside requires a certain percentage of the state’s electricity be generated from solar resources. 5 A solar multiplier gives additional credit for solar projects that contribute toward meeting RPS requirements. 6 A distributed generation requirement obliges a utility to procure a certain percentage of electricity from renewable, customer sited sources. 7 Texas has a non-wind set aside. It is not specific to solar. 8 Texas has a non-wind multiplier policy. It is not specific to solar. 9 For purposes of this report, RoUS (Rest of US) indicates other states with renewable energy on contaminated lands: Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawai’i, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, South Carolina, Virginia, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Vermont. Center for Program Analysis Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative: October 2014 Project Tracking Matrix Total Projects by Technology Total Capacity by Technology10 Solar Photovoltaic (PV) 110 Wind 497 MW Solar Photovoltaic (PV) 256 MW Wind 21 Geothermal Biomass 1 Geothermal Hydro 1 Biomass w/Solar PV 1 20 MW 1 Liabilities into Assets In September, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy visited the city of New “Generating renewable energy on formerly toxic sites is an innova- Bedford, Massachusetts, to commission a 1.8 MW solar installation at tive way to use space, and it’s an important part of EPA’s energy Sullivan’s Ledge. Originally a granite quarry, Sullivan’s Ledge operated initiative, RE-Powering America’s Land. The new solar field at Sul- as an industrial waste site from 1940-1970. In the early 1980s, EPA livan’s Ledge is a great example of the benefits of redevelopment. investigated the site and found high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls In one city after another, we’re heeding our moral obligation to act (PCBs), volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, on climate change in addition to saving cities and states money and chlorinated industrial solvents in the soil and groundwater. Sullivan’s by increasing renewable energy production and encouraging job Ledge was added to the Superfund National Priorities List in 1984. creation. We need this kind of leadership in cities and towns across EPA worked with 14 potentially responsible parties on a $15 million the country.” remediation of Sullivan’s Ledge. Steps included excavating and disposing —Gina McCarthy of sediments, placing an 11-acre impermeable cap over the quarry pits EPA Administrator and contaminated soils, and installing groundwater pumping systems. In 2013, EPA approved placement of the 5,000-panel solar installation on the cap. With the installation complete, the city of New Bedford now receives 50 percent of its electricity from solar and ranks second nationally for installed solar per capita. The installation is expected to save the city $2.7 million over its 20-year lifetime, and a solar design firm involved in the project, Beaumont Solar, employs graduates of the Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School. 10 Two identified geothermal projects and one hydro project do not represent a significant percentage of total installed capacity. Center for Program Analysis Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response RE-Powering America’s Land Initiative: October 2014 Project Tracking Matrix Inside the Numbers Based on current trends, the majority of the RE-Powering energy systems sell power back to the grid as wholesale electricity, while a subset provides energy for onsite use. Systems range from utility-scale systems, like the newly installed 6 MW solar PV system at Shaffer Landfill, to small-scale green remediation systems, like the 300-kilowatt solar installation that supports soil clean-up and groundwater extraction at Fridley Plant in Minnesota. RE-Powering capitalizes on the opportunity to address contamination and support renewable energy implementation to achieve the associated economic and environmental benefits. Installations to date demonstrate the viability of projects across all EPA and state remediation programs, from powering industrial facilities at sites subject to RCRA corrective action to offsetting the energy demands at Federal Facilities with ongoing