The project is expected to produce between two and 15 megawatts of power once operational. The county executive announced the program at a Monday morning press conference in front of the landfill. “It makes sense to host a solar array at the Verona Landfill,” said County Executive Joe Parisi. “The site isn’t suitable for most activities but it has served us well—first as a landfill, then generating electricity from landfill gas, and now it will be a good location for additional solar.” The landfill was active from 1977 to 1986, and has been tapped for methane production since the mid 90s. The county burned the methane to produce a modest amount of electricity. Methane output has slowed in recent years.
VERONA, Wis. (WKOW) – In celebration of Earth Day, Dane County Executive Joe Parisi announced plans to put a solar array on the Verona landfill, becoming one of the first setups of its kind in the area.
The project is expected to produce between two and 15 megawatts of power once operational. The county executive announced the program at a Monday morning press conference in front of the landfill.
“It makes sense to host a solar array at the Verona Landfill,” said County Executive Joe Parisi. “The site isn’t suitable for most activities but it has served us well—first as a landfill, then generating electricity from landfill gas, and now it will be a good location for additional solar.”
The landfill was active from 1977 to 1986, and has been tapped for methane production since the mid 90s. The county burned the methane to produce a modest amount of electricity. Methane output has slowed in recent years.
Kathy Kuntz, director of the Dane County Office of Energy and Climate Change, told 27 News in an interview that restrictions on digging down into a capped landfill generally prevent much development on top of them. Traditionally the sites are turned into parks. The Verona landfill currently is a runway for remote control airplanes.
“It’s a relatively new thing to put solar on landfills,” Kuntz said. “This is going to become a bigger deal, I think nationally, we’ve got a lot of old landfills. It makes a ton of sense to think about those as solar sites.”
The county will soon release a request for proposal, asking other local organizations to partner on the solar project.
If the county goes it alone, Parisi said the project would likely be smaller and deliver power to the nearby Badger Prairie Campus, which houses the Badger Prairie Health Care Center, Badger Prairie Needs Network and Consolidated Food Project.
If another organization were to partner with the county, Parisi predicted a larger solar array.
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