According the the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, there are about 100,000 closed landfills in the United States, which could potentially represent hundreds of thousands of acres of property that could be used for solar energy development.
A feature in Waste Age magazine reports that landfill operators are using closed facilities or closed sections of working landfills to capture energy from the sun to power their operations, nearby neighborhoods or entire towns. The article gives examples of four areas where this is happening: San Antonio, Atlanta, Fort Carson, Co., and Haywood County, N.C.
To share the details of one example, Phoenix-based Republic Services' Tessman Road landfill in San Antonio products about 185,000 kWh of electricity per year. The engineered cover system used by Republic features laminate-like, solar-energy collection strips that adhere to a synthetic, geomembrane cover.
Closed landfills cannot be used for anything else, according to the article, so they represent a sustainable way to address energy challenges.
http://intelligentenergyportal.com/article/landfills-produce-electricity-solar-energy
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