The Hickory Ridge Landfill is a municipal solid waste landfill located in Conley, Georgia, United States and privately owned by Republic Services. The site was opened in 1993 and closed in 2006; it contains nearly 9,000,000 cubic yards of waste.
The Hickory Ridge Landfill was capped in October 2011 with a dual-purpose landfill closure system referred to as an Exposed Geomembrane Solar Cover (EGSC). Developed by Carlisle Energy Services, the closure system provides renewable electricity via (photovoltaic) solar panels,
The project is the second installation of an EGSC and is the world's largest installed system of its kind. At the time of commissioning it was the largest solar photovoltaic system in the state of Georgia. It also represents a $5,000,000 investment by Republic Services supported by a $2,000,000 grant from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA).
Video Hickory Ridge Landfill
System Details
The landfill closure system features a green, 60-mil scrim reinforced TPO (thermoplastic polyolefin) geomembrane cover 48 acres in total. A one-megawatt photovoltaic solar panel array is located on the southwest and southeast slopes of the landfill in an area approximately ten acres.
The one-megawatt solar array features over 7,000 flexible solar laminates, composed of 36 laminates bonded one at a time to 12' wide by 120' long panels. Each photovoltaic roll was rated at 5,184 Wp DC.
The closure system meets infiltration and erosion criteria as prescribed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, while also capturing the methane gas that is generated by the landfill, turning it into energy in a separate operation. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division approved the landfill closure system as a "Final" closure system.
The photovoltaic system is actually composed of four separate arrays located on the 3H:1V slopes on the southeast and southwest areas of the landfill. Each photovoltaic array is rated for approximately 250kWp DC each; each with a 260kWp DC inverter.
The photovoltaic array is expected to generate 1,300,000 kWh in its first year of production.
Real-time energy production can be viewed via the online remote monitoring system.
Maps Hickory Ridge Landfill
Key Project Partners
The following companies helped to develop, engineer and construct the system:
- Site owner and operator: Republic Services, Inc.
- State Permit Agency: Georgia Environmental Protection Department
- Grant Agency: Georgia Environmental Finance Authority
- Permit Engineer: HDR Inc
- Project Developer and Technology Supplier: Carlisle Energy Services
- Construction Manager: Geosyntec Consultants
- General and Earthwork Contractor: Cooper Barnette Page, Inc.
- Liner Installer: American Environmental Group, Ltd.
- Electrical Contractor: Southern SunPower
Awards
HDR Inc. received the following awards for their engineering work on this project:
- 2012 - Grand Award, Engineering Excellence Awards, American Council of Engineering Companies of Georgia
- 2012 - Honor Award, Engineering Excellence Awards, American Council of Engineering Companies
- 2012 - Honor Award, American Academy of Environmental Engineers
American Environmental Group (AEG) received the 2013 Award of Excellence from the International Association of Geosynthetic Installers (IAGI) for their work as the geomembrane installer for the project
Related
- See actual energy produced by the Spectro PowerCap at the Hickory Ridge Landfill via the Online Remote Monitoring System
- View an actual time-elapsed construction video of the Hickory Ridge project
- Read a recent article about solar and landfills titled "Fill of Energy" that was published in PV Magazine in July 2012
- Read an announcement for a Spectro PowerCap that was recently installed at the Madison County Landfill in New York
- Mas Energy secured the landfill gas rights for the Hickory Ridge Landfill from Republic Services, supplying fuel to their 6.5 Megawatt combined heat and power facility located at Coca-Cola's Cogen Plant in Atlanta, GA. Coca-Cola ranked third in the Top 20 Onsite Green Power Generators by the U.S. EPA Green Power Partnership as of July 5, 2012 mainly because of this system and the landfill gas from Hickory Ridge
- CNN: Solar landfill provides a shining example
- Scientific American: Solar energy covers turn maxed-out landfills into solar farms
- EastAtlantaPatch: From Landfill To Solar Energy Farm
- Waste360: Preview of the Solar Installation at Hickory Ridge
- Fox News: Trash Today, Electricity Tomorrow, Thanks to Landmark Solar Energy Farm
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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