Through its RE-Powering America's Land initiative, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is encouraging renewable energy development on current and formerly contaminated land and mining sites. EPA has identified thousands of acres of Brownfield, Superfund, mining, and other potentially contaminated sites with potential for utility scale solar facilities. Siting renewable energy facilities on brownfields offers significant benefits to communities.

Many brownfields have infrastructure in place such as transmission and water lines, thereby reducing the need for local government investments. Renewable energy can provide a reuse option for brownfields that don't have other viable uses, or are located in sensitive communities. It also avoids development of greenfields that might otherwise be used to site these facilities. In addition, these facilities may generate tax, land use, and royalty revenues and provide construction and maintenance jobs.

During this session, Lura Matthews will provide an overview of how siting renewable energy on brownfields benefits communities and how local governments can strategically plan for renewable energy siting on contaminated sites. Additional speakers will discuss their experiences on siting renewable energy project on contaminated sites, including challenges and advantages associated with using contaminated land.

Upcoming Events  No upcoming events. Archives of past CLU-IN internet seminars are available in the CLU-IN Studio at http://clu-in.org/studio/. You will be able to view the slide and hear an audio stream of the presentation as it occurred.

Previous Events (click to view/hide)

Live Online Class, Internet Based View details on CLU-IN   October 21, 2010 - October 21, 2010