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Renewable Energy Development on Former Landfills and Cleanup Sites

This is a resource page for owners and operators of contaminated lands, property owners, prospective renewable energy developers, local governments, and utilities.

U.S. EPA RE-Powering America's Land Initiative

  • U.S. EPA's RE-Powering America's Land: U.S. EPA's RE-Powering website contains multiple tools, including decision trees for screening sites for solar photovoltaic and wind potential; interactive mapping tools using Google Earth that include such details as grid connectivity; and opportunities for financial and technical assistance.
  • Potential Advantages of Reusing Potentially Contaminated Land for Renewable Energy: A brief introductory document to U.S. EPA's RE-Power land initiative and information for getting started with potential renewable energy developments. 
  • RE-Powering Benefits Matrix: U.S. EPA tracks the economic and environmental benefits associated with completed renewable energy projects on contaminated lands. The Benefits Matrix publication provides summary information for each completed project and discusses emerging trends.
  • RE-Powering Mapper: U.S. EPA pre-screened more than 130,000 sites nationally (and 7,000 in Illinois) for their renewable energy potential in 2018. As part of this effort, EPA collaborated with agencies from Illinois and several other states.
  • Best Practices for Siting Solar Photovoltaics (PV) on Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Landfills: A joint publication of U.S. EPA and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) to provide assistance in addressing common technical challenges for siting PV on MSW landfills. 

U.S. EPA's Office of Solid Waste & Emergency Response Reference Documents


State of Illinois Resources

 

Other State Programs & Resources
Other Federal Programs & Resources

For more information, please contact  Abby Brokaw.