EPA recently released a draft plan that describes the actions the Agency will undertake to progress the 2008 initiative aimed at preserving green space. EPA's RE-Powering America's Land: Siting Renewable Energy on Potentially Contaminated Land and Mining Sites takes a multi-pronged approach to site cleanup and development of renewable energy production facilities on contaminated lands. The Agency launched this initiative to determine the feasibility of renewable energy production on Superfund, brownfields and former mining sites as opposed to green space.
The draft plan set forth three key goals and related action items and time line:
- Provide incentives and technical assistance for siting renewable energy on contaminated land;
- Develop principles for siting renewable energy on contaminated land, both while cleanup is ongoing and after cleanup is complete; and,
- Develop technical guidance on siting photovoltaic (PV) solar on closed landfills.
EPA's outreach efforts result from the growing need for electricity production estimated to increase by 30 percent by 2030. This step up equates to about 320 mid-sized, coal-fired power plants to be online on or before 2030 to meet energy demands. The Agency believes that contaminated properties may provide some of the best locations for such plants to be sited.
EPA is accepting comments on the draft management plan until November 30th. Comments should be submitted to Lura Matthews at Matthews.Lura@epamail.epa.gov.
More information about this initiative can be found at http://www.epa.gov/renewableenergyland/.