Three Strategies to Develop Renewable Energy Projects on Potentially Contaminated Lands

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

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Using Superfund sites, brownfields, retired power plants, and landfills offers potential benefits to developers and community stakeholders:

• Preserve Open Space: Large-scale renewable energy facilities – often called “utility scale” projects – can require a lot of land that may displace or impact agricultural lands, open space, or other “greenspace.” Developing renewable energy on potentially contaminated properties can help to preserve the “greenspace” while returning blighted lands to sustainable and productive use.
• Lower Costs and Shorter Timeline: Developers can significantly lower costs and timelines because contaminated sites are usually already served by existing infrastructure, like substations, power lines, and roads, which would otherwise need to be constructed. Streamlined permitting and zoning can also reduce costs and timelines because potentially contaminated property is often already zoned for industrial or commercial use, which likely poses fewer obstacles to constructing renewable energy structures. Decreased land costs, programs for the procurement of renewable energy credits generated from developing renewable energy projects on brownfields or potentially contaminated properties, and federal and state brownfield tax incentives can drive costs down even further.
• Greater Community Support: Communities may be quicker to get behind renewable energy projects that are sited on potentially contaminated lands because, rather than taking agricultural land out of production, the projects can clean up the otherwise abandoned sites, boost surrounding property values, increase tax revenues, and provide low-cost clean power.

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