Success Stories

RE-Powering Success Stories highlight the site redevelopment processes and accomplishments of completed renewable energy projects on current and formerly contaminated lands, landfills, and mine sites. Through these example projects, you can learn how developers, site owners, local governments, and other community members met challenges to convert underutilized lands back into productive use as solar, wind, or other renewable projects. The success stories also describe economic development and environmental benefits achieved by the projects and are organized by site type below.

Landfills 

The most common RE-Powering projects are solar installations on landfills, with more than 300 projects completed across the country. Reasons for that success include typical landfill site sizes; municipal ownership; lack of shading; and access for existing electric grid infrastructure. Landfills are often an ideal size for community solar or remote net metered projects. The following are examples of renewable energy success stories at landfills:

Superfund Sites

Superfund sites are often attractive options for renewable energy projects because of the multiple ways that renewable energy can be utilized on-site or exported to the grid. Renewables can power a relatively small green remediation project to offset on-site cleanup energy demands and/or produce large amounts of power for wholesale use by electric utilities. The following are examples of renewable energy success stories at Superfund sites:

Brownfields

Some Brownfield sites require little or no cleanup after undergoing an environmental assessment, allowing for rapid redevelopment into renewable projects. Other Brownfield sites require modest to more substantial cleanup before the sites can be returned to productive reuse and are worthwhile for renewable projects due to their unique characteristics such as locations near energy-consuming businesses, grid infrastructure, and communities seeking local redevelopment. The following success stories are drawn from the more than 100 completed Brownfields renewable energy projects in the U.S.:

Abandoned Mine Lands

As mining companies cease operations, communities are often left with vacant parcels of scarred lands. Many mine lands offer large parcels of open lands clear of obstructions to solar or wind development and can support renewable energy installations to return the lands back to productive use for the surrounding communities. The following are examples of renewable energy reuse at abandoned mine lands. The examples include Abandoned Mine Lands and Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act sites:

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Sites

Cleaned-up RCRA Corrective Action facilities can support redevelopment and community revitalization. By using the appropriate tools and remediation, RCRA facilities can achieve several purposes – contamination clean up, enhancing communities, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The following are examples of renewable energy reuse at RCRA facilities:

Waste Water Treatment Plants 

Waste Water Treatment Plants often have both land that is suitable for renewable energy installations and can use the renewable power to reduce on-site energy bills. An example of a waste water treatment plant project reuse on a formerly contaminated pond is:

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Last updated on August 29, 2024