B&L Designs First Municipal Landfill Solar Cap in the Country

Winner of the 2011 APWA Central New York Branch Environmental Project of the Year Award

Landfill capping projects are a necessary and costly component of municipal solid waste management facilities. Areas of Madison County’s municipal landfill were in need of temporary and permanent closure in order to meet New York State Department of Environmental Conservation regulations. The County sought out ideas for alternative capping systems that would meet their capping needs, while providing additional environmental and/or operational benefits. With much of the closure area located on a southern facing slope, B&L responded to the County’s request by designing an innovative exposed flexible membrane photovoltaic system as an integral part of the landfill closure project. This photovoltaic system is comprised of approximately 1/3 acre of composite of flexible solar panels, 1/2 acre of thermoplastic polyolefin geomembrane, and associated wiring capable of generating approximately 40 kW of electrical energy primarily for use on the site.

The project has been sized to mirror the generation of this photovoltaic system with the power consumption required to operate the County's Materials Recycling Facility (MRF) located adjacent to the landfill. This effectively allows the County to provide environmentally secure closure to the waste within their landfill and supplement their on-site renewable energy generation, with the additional value of a significant reduction in the operating cost of their County-wide recycling facility. A net metering agreement allows them to feed excess electricity to the local electrical grid.

Construction of the project began in June 2011, with installation substantially complete in August 2011. The system is currently offline, pending third party inspection for electrical connection to the MRF facility and the electrical grid.

As part of this project, B&L prepared a grant application on behalf of the County utilizing the technical merits and specifications of the project along with the cost estimates generated during the design process. This application resulted in the County receiving more than 65% of the project's required funding via the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Implementation Funding for Small Municipalities administered by NYSERDA. The County was able to make the project even more cost effective by performing much of the earth work associated with the project using County forces and equipment.