The Salem City Council Tuesday night voted to pursue development of a portion of the old city landfill on the southeast side of town into a solar field.
The council selected AC Power from sealed bids presented to complete the project. If eventually completed, the project will provide $180,000 in lease payments to the city yearly or $5.5-million over the 25 year life of the contract.
The Senior Director of Business Development for AC Power Corey Hindin explains what work is included in the first phase of the development.
“That essentially authorizes us to begin due diligence on the solar project. What we will be doing is filing for interconnection with the utility and see if the grid can accommodate the solar project. There is still a lot of work to be done to see if the project is feasible and we will be spending our own money doing that due diligence for the city.”
Hindin expects the study phase to take about a year to complete. If the project is feasible, the city will be asked to enter a lease agreement that would allow actual construction of the solar field.
Hindin says AC Power only looks at old landfill sites and has developed several projects in the northeast. When incentives improved for clean energy in Illinois, Hindin said they discovered Salem as a potential site.
Salem Mayor Nic Farley says Governor JB Pritzker encouraged cities to develop such sites at closed landfills during remarks last week to the Southern Illinois Mayor’s Association.
“I think its a great opportunity for us to increase some revenue with land that is not useful in a way that is approved by the EPA. Not only will it bring some income in, it will put some use some land that is not useful for anything else. I think its a win-win for everybody.
The council has been told the solar panels would be constructed so they would not damage the landfill cover.
