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Renewing Brownfields

Kay Sommers, Broward CountyEnvironmental Protection & Growth

Managment Department

Brownfields

• A "Brownfield site" as stated in Florida Statutes (376.79, F.S.) is “real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by actual or perceived environmental contamination.”

• Cheap land in polluted, former industrial properties• The EPA has identified 11,000 ripe sites for renewable installations

• Brownfields• Abandoned mines• Federal Facilities• Superfund sites (properties deemed as most contaminated)

• EPA Program: RE‐Powering America’s Land

Source:https://www.broward.org/PollutionPrevention/Brownfields/Pages/Default.aspx

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303828304575180132815079418.html

Brownfields’ Law• On January 11, 2002, President Bush signed the Small Business Liability

Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act (Pub .L.No. 107‐118, 115 stat. 2356, "the Brownfields Law").

• The Brownfields Law amended the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA or Superfund) by providing funds to assess and clean up brownfields; clarified CERCLA liability protections; and provided funds to enhance state and tribal response programs.

• Other related laws and regulations impact brownfields cleanup and reuse through financial incentives and regulatory requirements.

Source:http://www.epa.gov/swerosps/bf/laws/index.htm

Brownfields’ Advantages• Land is cheap• Land is often abandoned• Land is adjacent to infrastructure

• Power lines• Roads• Water

• Land is often properly zoned• Often near labor centers• Less opposition for renewable development• Can be developed in place of greenfields

Source:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303828304575180132815079418.html

Solar Power• Land prices account for up to 50% of the cost of a

solar project

• Where disturbing the waste mass is not a concern, traditional ground‐anchored systems can be used

• Ballasted weight (arrays weighed down by ballast blocks) avoids the necessity to penetrate the groundand cuts costs for installation

• Combined EPA subsidies & discounted land pricesoffers value

Ballasted tracking PV system at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada Source: NREL PIX 15280

Aerial view of the 2-MW ground-anchored PV system at U.S. Army Fort Carson, financed through a PPASource: NREL PIX 17394

Superfund Sites

• Sites that are very contaminated with toxicchemicals and heavy metals the earthshouldn’t be disturbed

• Brownfield sites with a responsible party identified as source for contamination

• Workable solutions for renewableinstallations on the surface or outside the contaminated area

Source:http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/06/brownfields-bright-spot-solar-and-wind-energy

Brownfields’ US Inventory

• More than 4,000 brownfields in the United States, totaling 37,000 acres

• The equivalent of 28,500 football fields

• Add in Superfund sites and abandoned mine lands and there are more than 11,000 sites, totaling over 14 million acres

Source: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/06/brownfields-bright-spot-solar-and-wind-energy

NREL (National Renewable EnergyLaboratories) Screening Criteria

• What is the renewable energy resource potential?

• Is it close enough to transmission lines to feed the grid?• It costs nearly on average $1 million/mi to build

• Is it near enough to graded roads for renewable energy installation to be feasible?

• How large is the site and how sloped is the land?

Source:http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2010/06/brownfields-bright-spot-solar-and-wind-energy

EPA Brownfield Benefits

• Through fiscal year 2012, on average, $17.79 are leveraged for each EPA Brownfields dollar expended

• 7.30 jobs are leveraged per $100,000 of EPA Brownfields funding expended on Assessment, Cleanup and Revolving Loan Fund cooperative agreements

• Residential property values increased between 2 and 3 percent once a nearby brownfield was assessed or cleaned up

$17.79

7.3 Jobs

2-3%

EPA Brownfield Benefits Continued…• Cleaning up a brownfield can increase overall property values within a one

mile radius by $0.5 to $1.5 million

• Reduction in crime in recently revitalized brownfield areas

• Brownfield sites tend to have greater location efficiency than alternative development scenarios resulting in a 32 to 57 percent reduction in vehicle miles traveled, thus reducing pollution emissions including green house gasses

• Also, 47 to 62 percent reduction of storm water runoff.

Brownfield Benefits Quotes• “One of the real benefits of siting a solar farm on a brownfield site is that you may not

need to do cleanup or extensive cleanup, and the reason is that you can use these techniques where you contain the contamination within the property,” U.S. EPA Assistant Administrator for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response Mathy Stanislaus tells National Geographic

• "The big driver is using land that otherwise couldn't be used" said James Salasovich, an NREL engineer who has evaluated so‐called landfill "brownfields" in Puerto Rico and Wisconsin

• “A brownfield, or other contaminated site, can be a blight on a community, land that nothing else can be done with for a number of years. It's a constant reminder of what the former use was on that site. Rather than just let it sit there fallow, this presents an excellent opportunity for power generation. There are some 11,000 sites in the United States with some past or current environmental contamination problem that may hold potential for renewable energy, these are places where you wouldn't necessarily want to put a housing development, to pour a foundation or to have people plant backyard gardens but they present as excellent sites for renewable energy. In a lot of cases, the land is cheap, maybe even owned by the state, but they're just happy to have some positive re‐use and some sort of revenue‐generation on it."“ said Gail Mosey, senior energy analyst in NREL's Strategic Energy Analysis Center

Case Studies: 3 Different Potential Brownfield

Developments• Vincent Mullins Landfill ‐Tuscon, Arizona

• Koltoff Landfill ‐Cleveland, Ohio

• St. Marks Refinery‐St. Marks Florida

Issues to consider:• available area for an array or windmill• solar or wind resource • distance to transmission lines• distance to major roads • operating status• ground conditions• purchase price of the electricity produced• power purchase agreement (PPA) price• retail electric rates• federal, state, and utility incentives for PV

systems

Downtown Tucson

Vincent Mullins Landfill: Tucson, AZ

Issues considered:

Vincent Mullins Landfill; Tucson, Arizona

Source:http://www.epa.gov/oswercpa/docs/fs_tucson_az.pdf

• The Vincent Mullins Landfill is a retired 61‐acre site with a 36‐acre waste footprint and an engineered and constructed soil cap.

• From 1967 to 1987, the City of Tucson operated the landfill, accepting only municipal solid waste. The landfill is 40 feet deep and stores about 2.2 million cubic yards of waste.

• Based on available area, the five landfills have the potential to host solar arrays with up to a 25.6‐MW capacity cumulatively, with individual systems ranging from 1.6 to 9.1 MW.

Electrical tie-in point at the flare station for the PV system at the Vincent Mullins Landfill

Photo by Lars Lisell, NREL

Aerial view of the feasible area for PV at the Vincent Mullins Landfill site

Koltoff Landfill: Cleveland, OH

Lake Erie

Koltoff Landfill; Cleveland, OH

Source: http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy13osti/58760.pdf

• Out of the 30‐acre Kolthoff Landfill, 12.8 acres are feasible for installing ground‐mounted PV, and 5.0 acres out of the 18‐acre former wastewater treatment plant are feasible for installing ground‐mounted PV

• The closest electrical tie‐in point for a PV system at the Kolthoff Landfill site is located less than 200 feet to the north of the site at the IX Center Drive Substation. There are also transmission lines that bisect the site running north‐south and also transmission lines along the northern boundary of the site that run east‐west.

• Installing a PV system on the Kolthoff Landfill could potentially be a 2,557‐kW (or 2.6 MW) PV system generating nearly 3,617 MWh (or 3.6 Gigawatt‐hours) annually and represents a very large potential load on the site and is expected to have a payback of 13.3 years and a net present value of $162,619.

Aerial view of the current feasible area for PV at the Kolthoff Landfill and former wastewater plant

(ground-mounted PV shaded in)

Trees that would have to be removed on the Kolthoff Landfill prior to PV installation.

Photo by James Salasovich, NREL

St. Marks Refinery: St. Marks, FL

Downtown Tallahassee

St. Marks Refinery

St. Marks Refinery; St. Marks, FL

Source: http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy10osti/48853.pdf

• The former St. Marks Refinery is the city’s largest eyesore and a significant impediment to economic development. Built in 1954, the refinery processed crude oil for jet fuel and asphalt, and manufactured specialty chemicals until it closed in 2001 after 47 years of operation.

• Both locations at the St. Marks Refinery were found suitable to host PV systems ranging in size from 1 to 3 megawatts (MW).

Submerged east portion of the site Credit: Lars Lisell, NREL

St. Marks Refinery recommended PV system placement; *Proposed system location is shaded in gold in the figure.

Large storage tanks Credit: Lars Lisell, NREL

Other Brownfield ProjectsAcross the Nation

Source:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303828304575180132815079418.html

425 kilowat solar array on a former industrial Site in Brockton, MA (reverse angle)

Installation: Brockton BrightfieldsLocation: Brockton, Massachusetts, Size: 425 kW

Source: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/images/brownfields‐bright‐spot‐solar‐and‐wind‐energy/53178


NREL engineers check measurements from the SunEye, a device that is useful in assessing solar energy potential above contaminated sites.

Source:http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/images/brownfields‐bright‐spot‐solar‐and‐wind‐energy/53178

NREL engineers have convinced officials there to erect wind turbines on this holding pond at the shuttered Leviathan Mine in California to reduce the

need to truck in diesel fuel each day to power clean-up efforts.


Installation: Aerial photographs of the Exelon City Solar Project


pre-construction post- constructionInstallation: Exelon City SolarLocation: Chicago, Illinois, Size: 10 MW on 41 acres, completed in 2010Tracking systems that tilt the panels toward the sun as it moves across the sky, increasing energy production by up to 25%.

Installation: Steel WindsLocation: Lackawanna, New York, Size: 20 MW on 30 acres former site of Bethlehem Steel Plant. Fourteen 2.5 MW wind turbines which harvest wind from Lake Erie. Generates up to 50 million kilowatt hours of electricity each year – enough to power approx.9,000 homes


A Brief Look at the Steel Winds Wind Farm

Installation: Fort Carson Solar ArrayLocation: Fort Carson, Colorado,Size: 2 MW

Side View

Installation: Silver Lake SolarLocation: Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Size: 1.8 MW

Silver Lake Solar Construction Time Lapse


Installation: Summitville Mine Hydroelectric ProjectLocation: Rio Grande County, Colorado, Size: 35 kW


Installation: Hickory Ridge Landfill Solar Energy CoverLocation: Conley, Georgia, Size: 1 MW


Installation: Tessman Road Landfill Solar Energy Cover SystemLocation: San Antonio, Texas Size: 135 kW

OtherBrownfield

Projects Acrossthe Nation

Installation: Exelon-Epuron Solar Center, $20 million cost, on time and on budgetLocation: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Size: 3 MW, 16,000 panelsCan power 300-400 homes


Installation: Chevron Casper Wind Farm, 11 wind turbinesLocation: Natrona County, Wyoming, Size: 16.5 MW

Installation of a 1.5 MW wind turbine

Harnessing the Power of Wind


• The opportunity of developing on Brownfields affords utilizing unused land and creating value by generating power and creating jobs

• Combining brownfields with superfund sites, throughout the country, there are over 11,000 sites with more than 14 million acres

• Developing renewable energy on brownfields reduces crime rates, vehicle miles traveled, storm water runoff, and greenhouse gas emissions while increasing adjacent land values

Conclusion

• June 6 & 7, 2014• Broward County Convention Center• Admission is free• Exhibitor space is $200• Looking for:

– Sponsors– Speakers– Exhibitors

For more informationhttp://www.broward.org/GoGreenAnd click on Go SOLAR Fest

• Kay Sommers, Go SOLAR Fest Event Manager [email protected], 954‐519‐1257

• Email: [email protected]• Website: www.broward.org/gogreen/gosolar • Facebook & YouTube @ Broward Environment• Twitter @ BrowardEnv

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