Environmental Protection Agency, there are an estimated 450,000 brownfields in the United States. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that landfills and other contaminated sites – sometimes characterized as “brownfields” - cover 15 million acres across America, and an estimated 80,000 of those acres have already been prescreened for renewable energy development. The use of these two preferred sites for solar energy generation, as defined by the State of Vermont, allow for additional land within the town to continue to be conserved or to be utilized for other higher and better uses including housing and agriculture. The Jericho gravel pit provided a source of gravel for town roads for decades as well.
The Jericho Landfill that served the community for decades was closed and capped in 1992. The project will also provide revenue for the Town of Jericho in the form of property taxes and annual lease payments for use of these otherwise undevelopable parcels. The two projects are expected to cumulatively produce approximately 5,200,000 kilowatt hours per year, enough to power approximately 780 average homes in VEC territory annually. These new arrays support VEC’s goals of achieving a 100% renewable power supply by 2030 and represent the fourth and fifth utility scale solar projects commissioned by VEC, four of which have been developed in collaboration with Encore Renewable Energy. The two new solar arrays include a 2.3MW project on the town’s former gravel pit (photo above left) and a 2.2MW project on the former municipal landfill (photo above right). Jericho, VT - Encore Renewable Energy and Vermont Electric Cooperative announced today the commissioning of two new community scale solar projects comprising 4.5 megawatts (MW) of new, clean energy generation in Jericho.
Incentive Forms for Electric Products and Programs.