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Why Develop Renewable Energy on Contaminated Land and Mining Sites?
There are several reasons why contaminated lands and mining sites make exceptional locations for clean and renewable energy development. Those reasons include:
- Many EPA tracked lands, such as large Superfund and RCRA sites, and mining sites offer thousands of acres of land, and may be situated in areas where the presence of wind and solar structures are less likely to be met with aesthetic opposition.
- These EPA tracked lands have existing electric transmission lines and capacity and other critical infrastructure, such as roads, and are adequately zoned for such development. The avoided new infrastructure capital and zoning costs is often significant.
- Whether it is a long-term lease or outright purchase, EPA tracked lands may have lower overall transaction costs than greenfields due to the relative ease of acquisition of large swaths of land from one or few owners, versus acquisition of greenfields from potentially numerous landowners.
- Redevelopment of brownfields for "green" energy production can help reduce the stress on greenfields for construction of new energy facilities, and can provide clean, emission-free energy.
- Many EPA tracked lands are in areas where traditional redevelopment may not be an option because the site may be remote, or may simply be saddled with environmental conditions that are not well suited for traditional redevelopment such as residential or commercial.
- Some EPA tracked sites such as industrial, manufacturing, and mining sites were once operations that provided jobs for the local communities. However, once these facilities ceased operations, these same communities were left with fewer jobs. The development, operation and maintenance of renewable energy facilities on these same sites may reintroduce job opportunities.
- There are approximately 480,000 sites and almost 15 million acres of potentially contaminated properties across the United States that are tracked by EPA. Cleanup goals have been achieved and controls put in place to ensure long-term protection for more than 850,000 acres. This leaves open many potential opportunities to develop renewable energy facilities on these sites, and coordination and partnerships among federal, state tribal and other government agencies, utilities, the private sector and communities, will only help advance renewable energy production.
For more information, please review the Clean and Renewable Energy Document (2pp, 1.6MB, About PDF).