Hickory Ridge Landfill

Hickory Ridge Landfill

Photo of completed project taken on 9/23/2011. Atlanta can be seen in the background.
Location of Hickory Ridge Landfill in Georgia (U.S. state)
Country United States
Location Conley, Georgia
Coordinates 33°39′54″N 84°20′06″W / 33.66500°N 84.33500°W / 33.66500; -84.33500Coordinates: 33°39′54″N 84°20′06″W / 33.66500°N 84.33500°W / 33.66500; -84.33500
Status Operational
Construction began 6/1/2011
Commission date 10/4/2011
Construction cost $5,000,000
Owner(s) Republic Services, Inc.
Solar field
Type Ground Mount, Flexible PV
Site area 48 acres
Power generation
Units operational 7,008 UNI-SOLAR PVL-144 photovoltaic laminates
Nameplate capacity 1,009 KW
Average generation 1.3 GWh
Website
http://carlisle.kiosk-view.com/hickory-ridge

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.

Photo taken on 8/25/2010 prior to construction
Hickory Ridge Landfill taken from airplane during landing into Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport on 6/21/2011 - during construction
Photo of Hickory Ridge Landfill taken on 6/21/2011 while driving north on I-675

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.[1] 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).[2]

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.[3]

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.[4]

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.[5]

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.[6] The electricity generated from the system is equivalent to powering 224 homes while reducing over 1,102 tons of CO2 annually.[7]

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:[8]

Awards

HDR Inc. received the following awards for their engineering work on this project:[9]

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

References

  1. ↑ "Georgia's Largest Solar Project Is a Landfill-Covering System". Electrical Contractor. Retrieved 5/1/2011. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  2. ↑ "From Landfill To Solar Energy Farm". 10/5/2011. EastAtlantaPatch.
  3. ↑ "Solar Powered Landfills". Energy Now News. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
  4. ↑ "Hickory Ridge Landfill Solar Energy Cover". HDR Inc.
  5. ↑ "Hickory Ridge Landfill Solar Energy Cover". HDR Inc.
  6. ↑ "Republic Services Caps Atlanta Landfill with Flexible Solar Cover". PR Newswire. Retrieved 10/4/2011. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  7. ↑ "Green Power Equivalency Calculator". United States Environmental Protection Agency. Retrieved May 2011. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  8. ↑ "Case Study: Republic Hickory Ridge Landfill". Carlisle Energy Services, Inc. Retrieved 11/1/2012. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  9. ↑ "Hickory Ridge Landfill Solar Energy Cover". HDR Inc. Retrieved 2012. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  10. ↑ "Coca-Cola Cogen Plant". Mas Energy. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
  11. ↑ Signet, Anna. "Landfill gas ranks Coca-Cola third in EPA green power users". Biomass Magazine. Retrieved 8/9/2012. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
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