A 161-hectare brownfield site is being cleared in East St. Louis, Illinois, to make way for a planned US$65 million, 20MW solar farm. The facility, which will be built on the site of a former Alcoa plant that closed about 60 years ago, would generate enough electricity to power around 4000 homes.
Francisco Arcaute, US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spokesman, said that Alcoa, the city of East St. Louis and the Alton and Southern Railroad are responsible for the cleanup effort, which is expected to cost around US$19.5 million. The railroad is paying for the cleanup on the eastern portion of the site, which it owns. Alcoa, an aluminium manufacturer, is responsible for financing the rest of the operation.
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The project is being developed by Brightfields Development LLC, a Wellesley, Mass., company that specializes in developing polluted areas into sites that generate renewable energy. Construction on the farm began in March and is expected to continue through summer 2015.
Development on the farm is currently hinging on a state bill that would require utility company Ameren to purchase power from the facility for 20 years and distribute it to consumers by means of a rate increase of around 32 cents per customer per year.
The bill passed through the state senate two years ago, but has remained “sine die” – without a scheduled meeting for a resolution – since January 2013.
Michael Singer, principal of Brightfields Development, said: “Our hope, in a perfect world, if everything is perfect, we would put panels in by 2015. As soon as remediation is completed, we would start solar construction. There is still a lot of moving and remediation out there at this time.”
Singer added that the solar installation is expected to create around 600 jobs during cleanup and construction while also employing about 20 people once operational.