Hamilton should put solar panels on its closed landfills: councillor
In Georgia, solar panels cover four hectares of the 14-hectare Hickory Ridge landfill site
Hamilton council already turned down the idea of a solar farm on north Flamborough farmland. Now another councillor wants the city to try a different tactic – putting them on closed landfills.
Coun. Terry Whitehead of Ward 8 wants the city to research whether any of the closed landfills are suitable for solar panels. They're a way to generate green energy, he said, while using up land that can't be used for anything else. He'll introduce a motion at a city public works committee on Monday.
"It's a no brainer," said Whitehead.
Solar farms need a significant land mass, he said. And "when you have old, tired, abandoned waste sites, those sites are ideal."
It's not a new idea. In Dekalb County south of Atlanta, Ga., for example, solar panels cover four hectares (10 acres) of the 14-hectare Hickory Ridge landfill site.
Whitehead believes several companies will want to build solar farms on old Hamilton dumps. He'd also like to see it bring in money for the city.
Earlier this year, Samsung wanted to install 60,000 solar panels in Mountsberg, which would have been enough to power as many as 5,000 homes.
Samsung would have submitted the project to the province as part of a call-out for green energy projects. But council approval was an important factor, and councillors voted down the idea.
Here's a list of closed landfills in Hamilton:
- 87 Acre Park: Concession 5, Stoney Creek (which resulted in a 2003 fine from the province)
- Ancaster: Concession 3, closed December 1982
- Beverly: Concession 6, closed July 1980
- Binbrook: Concession 4, closed December 1980
- Brampton Street: Saltfleet, closed March 1974
- Dundas: Concession 1, closed January 1976
- Edgewood: Concession 6, West Flamborough, closed December 1978
- Glanford: Concession 6, Glanbrook, closed December 1980
- Rennie Street: Concession 1, Stoney Creek, closed December 1974
- Stoney Creek: Concession 5, closed December 1978
- Upper Ottawa: Concession 7, closed October 1980
- West Hamilton, Concession 1, closed December 1975