| EPA identifies wasteland for
energy
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified “thousands” of contaminated properties that could be returned to productive use by hosting solar, wind or biomass energy production facilities. EPA worked with the Department of Energy’s (DoE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to collect information on renewable energy availability across the country, and merged it with EPA’s data from several land cleanup programs. EPA also applied screening criteria such as distance from power lines, closeness to roads, and site acreage to identify sites that could be good candidates for hosting renewable energy production facilities. Contamination at some of these properties has already been addressed, while the level of contamination at others is still to be fully investigated. The appropriate steps to address the contamination at these properties will vary from site to site, depending on the nature of the contamination and intended reuse. |