The Greening of Brownfields

The Greening of Brownfields

March 12, 2010

Ken Silverstein
EnergyBiz Insider
Editor-in-Chief

Getting power generation projects permitted is a headache. That includes wind and solar. But a clever idea is now making headway -- to place such green facilities on land that is now contaminated.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory are now evaluating just how feasible it is to build renewable generation on dirtied lands. The thinking is that these disturbed properties are abundant and located in all 50 states -- typically with the infrastructure already in place and near the population centers that must be served by the electricity. And obviously, the opposition to building in these places would be far less than in unspoiled areas.

Questions arise, however, as to just how economically viable the idea is and just how polluted the potential sites may be. To that end, the federal agencies are analyzing the potential at 12 places around the country for wind, solar and small hydro development.

"As a lands protection organization, we are seeking to deploy renewable energy as quickly as possible while at the same time protecting undisturbed 'green spaces,' says Jessica Goad, policy fellow for energy and climate change at the Wilderness Society in Washington. "EPA has the right idea -- siting renewable energy on brownfields is a win-win for lands, clean energy, and affected communities."

Brownfields, which are often abandoned or barely used industrial and agricultural sites, total about 450,000 acres throughout the country, the wilderness group says. And while such properties make up most of the areas that need to be cleaned, other places also exists and include Superfund sites and abandoned mines -- adding another 30,000 acres. EPA is estimating that roughly 10,000 acres of all those sites that comprise 15 million acres are suitable for renewable energy development.

Consider a 30-acre site once occupied by Bethlehem Steel in Lackawanna, New York: It sits on lakefront property six miles south of Buffalo. The mill closed in the 1970s but at the height of production it employed more than 20,000 people. Now the area is contaminated with steel slag and industrial waste. After receiving a grant from the EPA, the city completed an assessment and determined that wind generation could be placed there without having to disturb the soil. Today, eight turbines are operating.

The 12 sites that the EPA and the renewable energy lab are looking into are located in California, Florida, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, West Virginia and Wisconsin. "Some of the sites under consideration for renewable energy projects have completed cleanup activities, while others may be in various stages of assessment or cleanup," says the EPA. "Renewable energy projects on these sites will be designed to accommodate the site conditions."

Alleviating Blight

Even with financial incentives, the costs to bring these properties up to snuff may exceed the total land value. Developers are furthermore concerned that they would run into such issues as finding buried hazardous waste that increases the price of cleanup even more. To top it off, the fear over lawsuits that may emanate from how the previous owner maintained the land always exists.

As part of the $787 billion stimulus program, Congress set out to address some of the issues, notably those surrounding funding: At least $100 million of that will go to remediate these spoiled areas. The states, meanwhile, have been active. New Jersey, for instance, provides matching grants with limits to cities that take on these projects while also providing loans up to $1 million to investigate and clean up brownfields.

It's all to set the stage for what is termed the New Energy Economy. Right now, green energy makes up about 2 percent of the nation's electric generation mix. But the U.S. Energy Information Administration is expecting much more development and especially if Congress enacts carbon limits. Policymakers and developers alike must then work together to identify the best places to put these kinds of facilities.

Researchers at Michigan State University's Land Policy Institute, for example, have determined that the state has about 44,000 acres of brownfields. About 10 percent of that soiled property could be used to generate roughly 1,500 megawatts of wind capacity. That, in turn, would create thousands of new jobs and billions in new investment.

Fort Carson, a U.S. Army installation located near Colorado Springs, Colo., is a working example. In 2007, solar modules were built on 12 acres of the landfill site so as to generate 3,200 megawatt-hours of power annually -- about 2 percent of the energy consumed there.

"The U.S. Conference of Mayors has made the redevelopment of brownfields a top priority," writes Tom Cochran, executive director. "The reason is simple: Brownfields are abandoned or underutilized properties that have become virtual 'dead zones' because of fears over real or perceived environmental contamination. Brownfields present a major challenge for both small and large cities -- primarily due to the lack of funding necessary to redevelop and/or recycle these lands. To locally elected officials, these sites represent missed opportunities to alleviate blight and create additional jobs."

Largely abandoned, brownfields and other distressed lands often have the transmission lines, highways and water installations nearby. Using those polluted lands will furthermore ease the pressures to develop power generation in pristine areas that will certainly draw opposition. The federal agencies' pursuit should therefore increase renewable energy's stake while also improving the conditions of surrounding areas.