RE-Powering America's Land

Siting Renewable Energy on
Potentially Contaminated Land and Mine Sites

EPA is encouraging renewable energy development on current and formerly contaminated land and mine sites when it is aligned with the community’s vision for the site. This initiative identifies the renewable energy potential of these sites and provides other useful resources for communities, developers, industry, state and local governments or anyone interested in reusing these sites for renewable energy development.

"Because of federal investments, renewable energy use has nearly doubled, and thousands of Americans have jobs because of it."
- President Barack Obama
State of the Union address, 2012

RE-Powering Resources Highlights:

• DRAFT Best Practices for Siting Solar Photovoltaics on Municipal Solid Waste Landfills (PDF) (77 pp, 4.6MB)
  EPA and the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) developed a document to address common technical challenges for siting solar photovoltaics (PV) on landfills. More information about this document and how to submit comments is available on the Reports and Fact Sheets web page. EPA has extended the comment period through October 15.

• Potential Advantages of Reusing Potentially Contaminated Land for Renewable Energy Fact Sheet (PDF) (4 pp, 8.5MB)
  EPA developed this fact sheet to promote the significant advantages of redeveloping potentially contaminated lands, landfills, and mining sites for renewable energy development, relative to other sites.

• Listen to EPA staff interview the OSWER Assistant Administrator Mathy Stanislaus to discuss renewable energy on contaminated lands in this podcast. This discussion introduces the benefits of RE-Powering and EPA’s new Wind and Solar Decision Trees.

  • Listen to Renewable Energy on Contaminated Lands podcast (6:50 minutes, 6.4MB, MP3) (Download Windows Media Player)
  • Read the Renewable Energy on Contaminated Lands transcript (PDF) (3 pp, 33KB)

• Handbook on Siting Renewable Energy Projects While Addressing Environmental Issues (PDF) (41 pp, 2MB)
  EPA developed a handbook to increase the awareness of the opportunities for siting renewable energy projects while addressing environmental site issues during all phases of cleanup. More information about this handbook is available on the Reports and Fact Sheets web page.

• Solar Decision Tree (PDF) (18 pp, 815K) and Wind Decision Tree (PDF) (18 pp, 864K)
  EPA Headquarters, EPA’s Region 9 Office, and the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) have developed decision trees to screen potentially contaminated and underutilized sites for solar and wind potential. More information about the tool is available on the Reports and Fact Sheets web page.

For further information regarding RE-Powering America's Land: Renewable Energy on Potentially Contaminated Land and Mine Sites, please contact: cleanenergy@epa.gov