Contaminated Brownfield Sites and Solar Energy: A Bright Idea
12-09-2009
Renewable energy, and solar in particular, are real solutions in solving the energy issues faced by the United States. However these resources take space, and lots of it. As the result, the problem of where to place all of these solar power plants has arisen. One solution is through the redevelopment of contaminated industrial sites. Brownfield land sites- abandoned industrial or commercial areas with ground contamination that has been determined to be non-hazardous, number over 400,000 sites in the US and cover approximately 15 million acres. Much of this land goes undeveloped for decades, because the clean-up costs are prohibitively expensive so projects are done elsewhere. This results in slow economic growth in surrounding areas and increasing regional sprawl as new land is developed for commercial and industrial use.
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