A Superfund site is any land that is registered under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act 1980 (CERCLA). The US law was passed in order to clean up sites contaminated by hazardous substances while also giving authority to federal natural resource agencies and other organisations to recover natural resource damages caused by release of hazardous substances.
The 10.86MW Maywood Solar Farm project is located on 43 acres of the Reilly Tar & Chemical Superfund site in Indianapolis. It was completed with the assistance of various project partners under the 2012 Indianapolis Power & Light (IPL) Rate-REP programme and was fully developed using conventional solar project financing without any assistance from federal, state, local or corporate incentives.
Construction of the solar farm began in July 2013 and was finally completed in March 2014. The utility-scale plant incorporates high efficiency Q CELLS Q.PRO L polycrystalline modules, engineered by Hanwha Q CELLS in Germany. It will operate for up to 30 years reducing carbon dioxide emissions by more than 13,000 metric tons per year, equal to the CO2 emissions of more than 2,700 cars or 1,800 Indiana homes.
“The completion of the Maywood Superfund project is a significant milestone for Hanwha Q CELLS, but also for the solar industry as a whole in overcoming the legal, financial, regulatory and construction hurdles to create a virtuous cycle, and develop a higher use for brownfield, idle land” said Hanwha Q CELLS CEO Charles Kim. “In completing a non-subsidized Superfund project, Hanwha Q CELLS has broken a barrier that has frustrated solar project developers for more than 20 years. We are looking forward to future, similar projects.”
The company completed the project at, or below, market costs while managing additional site and environmental requirements. It also employed an internally-developed and adaptive construction methodology in concert with US EPA to meet existing site environmental covenants. This resulted in a volume reduction of site soil movement of more than 93 percent over conventional construction approaches while minimising potential hazards.
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