Country United States Status Operational Site area 48 acres Owner Republic Services Construction cost 5 million USD | Location Conley, Georgia Commission date 10/4/2011 Phone +1 404-510-2362 Construction began 1 June 2011 | |
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Type Ground Mount, Flexible PV Address 3330 Moreland Ave, Conley, GA 30288, USA Hours Open today ยท Open 24 hoursFridayOpen 24 hoursSaturdayClosedSundayClosedMondayOpen 24 hoursTuesdayOpen 24 hoursWednesdayOpen 24 hoursThursdayOpen 24 hours Similar Dekalb County Landfill, Republic Services, Advanced Disposal Services, City of Atlanta Sanitation, Bolton Road Landfill | ||
Carlisle s spectro powercap at republic service s hickory ridge landfill
The Hickory Ridge Landfill is a municipal solid waste landfill located in Conley, Georgia, United States and privately owned by Republic Services. The site was opened in 1993 and closed in 2006; it contains nearly 9,000,000 cubic yards of waste.
Contents
- Carlisle s spectro powercap at republic service s hickory ridge landfill
- System Details
- Media Coverage
- Key Project Partners
- Awards
- Related
- References
The Hickory Ridge Landfill was formerly capped in October 2011 with an innovative patent-pending, dual-purpose landfill closure system referred to as an Exposed Geomembrane Solar Cover (EGSC). Developed by Carlisle Energy Services, a division of Carlisle Construction Materials, the closure system, branded the Spectro PowerCap(R), provides both long-term environmental benefits with integrated solar cells (photovoltaics) that generate clean, renewable electricity.
The project is the second installation of an EGSC and is the world's largest installed system of its kind. At the time of commissioning it was the largest solar photovoltaic system in the state of Georgia. It also represents a $5,000,000 investment by Republic Services supported by a $2,000,000 grant from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority (GEFA).
System Details
The innovative landfill closure system features a Dark Ivy green, 60-mil scrim reinforced TPO (thermoplastic polyolefin) geomembrane cover over 48 acres in total. Within this area, an integrated one-megawatt (MWp) photovoltaic array is located on the southwest and southeast slopes of the landfill in an area approximately ten acres.
The one-megawatt solar array features over 7,000 flexible solar laminates manufactured by UNI-SOLAR(R), a division of Energy Conversion Devices. UNI-SOLAR's photovoltaic laminates were shipped to Carlisle's manufacturing facility in Senatobia, MS where 36 laminates were factory bonded at a time to 12' wide by 120' long TPO geomembrane panels and finished with wire harnesses and a patent-pending low profile rain flap. The panels were subsequently packaged in rolls and shipped to the site prior to construction. Each photovoltaic/geomembrane roll was rated at 5,184 Wp DC.
During construction the photovoltaic/geomembrane rolls were unrolled and heat-welded to like panels of TPO geomembrane to create a monolithic cover over the entire landfill. The geomembrane is placed directly over a 16 ounce Geotextile that is placed directly over the final grade. The cover system is secured via horizontal and vertical anchor trenches designed by HDR Inc.
The closure system meets infiltration and erosion criteria as prescribed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Title 40, Part 258, Subpart F for municipal solid waste landfill closure systems while also capturing the methane gas that is generated by the landfill, turning it into energy in a separate operation. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division approved the landfill closure system as a "Final" closure system.
The photovoltaic system is actually composed of four separate arrays located on the 3H:1V slopes on the southeast and southwest areas of the landfill. Each photovoltaic array is rated for approximately 250kWp DC each; each with a 260kWp DC inverter. The system also features a patent-pending low-profile wire trace used for carrying the conductors from the photovoltaic laminates to the combiner boxes prior to connecting the inverters.
The site is approximately seven miles southeast of downtown Atlanta, Georgia and can be seen during landing approach (west to east direction) into Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport.
The system is wholesale interconnected with electricity being sold directly to Georgia Power. The photovoltaic array is expected to generate 1,300,000 kWh in its first year of production. The electricity generated from the system is equivalent to powering 224 homes while reducing over 1,102 tons of CO2 annually.
Real-time energy production can be viewed via the online remote monitoring system.
Media Coverage
Key Project Partners
The following companies helped to develop, engineer and construct the system:
Awards
HDR Inc. received the following awards for their engineering work on this project:
American Environmental Group (AEG) received the 2013 Award of Excellence from the International Association of Geosynthetic Installers (IAGI) for their work as the geomembrane installer for the project