The Salem City Council has decided to seek requests for proposals to develop a portion of the old city landfill into a 7.3-megawatt solar field.
A presentation was made to the city council Monday night by Corey Hindin of AC Power, LLC. He indicated the city could earn millions of dollars for leasing the land over a 25 or 30-year period.
Hinden said the solar panels would not disturb the top of the landfill. He noted they had developed other projects on closed landfills and the EPA liked the reuse.
As a bonus, Hinden said Salem residents who elected to take their energy from the solar production, they would receive a 10-percent reduction on their Ameren electric bill.
Salem Mayor Nic Farley agreed it would be a positive for the city, but with interest from other solar companies, he felt they needed to seek proposals from other interested companies.
Hinden noted the program to reuse the landfill was competitive and to have a successful application they needed to get in their application early next year.
